preview

Non Financial Performance Indicators

Better Essays

‘In today 's worldwide competitive environment companies are competing in terms of product quality, delivery, reliability, after-sales services and customer satisfaction. '
(Chairman, FTSE 100 Company, 2003)

Discuss the validity of the continuing emphasis by companies and analysts on traditional financial ratio analysis.
Does this analysis have any part to play in the modern commercial world, or should companies and analysts focus solely on non-financial performance indicators?

Traditional financial ratio analysis is useful as it summarises quite complex accounting information into a relatively small number of key indicators, relating particular figures to one another, and covering profit, liquidity, growth and risk of a company. …show more content…

E.g. % of sales from new products, new product introduction versus competition, cycle time, efficiency, unit cost.
• Learning and growth perspective: How can we sustain our improvements in order to change? E.g. employee satisfaction, employee productivity, time to market.
The balanced scorecard aims to encourage a balanced approach by ensuring that no one measure is accomplished to the damage of the business as a whole, by stimulating continued focus on key factors which are critical for the future success of the business.
It also contributes to moving away from the short term emphasis of management accounts and encourages administrators to concentrate on a relatively small number of critical measures.

An example of a company who introduced NPFI 's is COLT-telecom (www.colt-telecom.co.uk), which is the leading provider of high bandwidth voice, data and advanced telecommunications solutions to businesses, governments and customers all over Europe. The company operates advanced metropolitan area networks in all major business centres in Europe, linked by their fully owned and managed IP network, the COLTEuroLAN.
COLT has one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, and to assure themselves a secure place for the future, they have invested enormous resources in customer perspective and learning and growth perspective. A spokesman said: "As well as running the communication provider, in terms of financial

Get Access