David P. Norton (born 1941) is an American business theorist, business executive and management consultant man, known as co-creator, together with Robert S. Kaplan, of the balanced scorecard.
Norton obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering in the early 1960s from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He continued his studies at the Florida Institute of Technology, where he obtained his MS in Operations Research and his MBA from the Florida State University. For his graduate studies he moved to the Harvard University, where he obtained his Doctor of Business Administration.
Norton started his career in industry. With Richard L. Nolan, he co-founded the consulting firm Nolan, Norton & Co in 1975, and served as its president. When the firm was acquired by KPMG Peat Marwick in 1987, Nolan became Partner in the firm until 1992. In 1992 Norton became founding President of Renaissance Solutions, Inc., and became its Chief Executive Officer in 1993. He also co-founded, with Robert S. Kaplan, ESM Software Group, formerly known as the Palladium Group, Inc. with the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (BSCol) as a subsidiary, and was its Chief Executive Officer until 2007.
Norton and Robert S. Kaplan created the balanced scorecard, a means of linking a company's current actions to its long-term goals. Kaplan and Norton introduced the balanced scorecard method in their 1992 Harvard Business Review article, The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance.
Articles, a selection: