Intellectual Capital Management in Crisis - the Case of a Hungarian Knowledge-Intensive SME

In autumn 2007, one of the leading Hungarian fund management companies decided to introduce a new performance management system, namely a Balanced Scorecard. The recently nominated CEO wanted to gain more insight into how his organization works moreover he was also not satisfied with strategy orientation and employees' willingness to co-operate within the organization. However the implementation progress was subsequently initiated along to a 'hard' thread with strategy formalization and performance management focus and a 'soft' manner with an informal cultural change program, integration level of BSC to the everyday operation has not been perfect till now. What could be the reason of it? We have been proceeding in our paper from these question and embracing a combined both 'soft' and 'hard' approach of performance management system (PMS) implementation in a small-and-medium sized organization: our current longitudinal case study paper analyzes the launch of a Balanced Scorecard from 'hard' formal point of view meanwhile it also identifies and lays more emphasis on the main 'soft' behavioural prerequisites for using it successfully and actively as a strategic performance management mechanism in a knowledge-intensive company - before and under worse global financial situation. Our two years research is based on document analysis and in-depth interviews with the CEO and other executives of the company.