Barcelona—steeped in history, capital of the Catalan, architectural showcase, gateway to the Mediterranean—ranks as the best European city in quality of life. Not content with resting on its laurels, Barcelona is on the move with a major transformation to remake itself into a model of good governance, and an even stronger economic growth engine for Spain. It is rethinking public management models in a world where leading cities compete across every dimension of life. The Balanced Scorecard is fundamental to that transformation, to creating a culture of performance across all levels of government, and to creating agency alignment. In two years the number of new businesses increased 55%, occupational training, 76%; subsidized housing construction, 88%; elderly care, 15%; tourism, 21%; and online citizen service delivery increased 34%. The number of municipal employees trained in the discipline of strategy management and reporting is up 62%. “Implementing a robust, comprehensive performance management system to support our new management framework—from objectives to alignment to decision-making—sharpens our strategic focus,” observes Andreu Puig Sarbanes, Barcelona City Manager. “We are the pioneers of strategic management in government in Spain, starting with making Barcelona a better city.” From Olympic glory to management by objective, Barcelona is achieving an execution premium.