Creating Balanced Scorecards that Support Different Strategies
The Midwest Consulting Group (MCG) helps companies build balanced scorecards. As part of its marketing efforts, MCG conducts an annual balanced scorecard workshop for prospective clients. As MCG’s newest employee, your boss has asked you to participate in this year's workshop by explaining to attendees how a company's strategy determines the measures that are appropriate for its balanced scorecard. Your boss has provided you with the excerpts below from the annual reports of two current MCG clients. She has asked you to use these excerpts in your portion of the workshop.
Excerpt from Applied Pharmaceuticals7 annual report:
Toe keys to our business are consistent and timely new product introductions and manufacturing process integrity. The new product introduction side of the equation is a function of research and development (R&D) yield (e.g.. the number of marketable drug compounds created relative to the total number of potential compounds pursued). We seek to optimize our R&D yield and first-to-market capability by investing in state-of-me-art technology hiring the highest possible percentage of the "'best and the brightest" engineers that we pursue, and providing world-class training to those engineers. Manufacturing process integrity is all about establishing world-class quality specifications and then relentlessly engaging in prevention and appraisal activities to minimize defect rates. Our customers must have an awareness of and respect for our brand image of being "first to market and first in quality." If we deliver on this pledge to our customers, then our financial goal of increasing our return on stockholders7 equity should take care of itself.
Excerpt from Destination Resorts International’s annual report:
Our business succeeds or fails based on the quality of the service that our front-line employees provide to customers. Therefore, it is imperative mat we strive to maintain high employee morale and minimize employee turnover In addition, it is critical that we train our employees to use technology to create one seamless worldwide experience for our repeat customers. Once an employee enters a customer preference (e.g.. provide two extra pillows in the room. deliver fresh brewed coffee to the room at 8:00 A.M.. etc.) into our database, our worldwide workforce strives to ensure that a customer will never need to repeat it at any of our destination resorts. If we properly train and retain a motivated workforce, we should see continuous improvement in our percentage of error-free repeat customer check-ins. me time taken to resolve customer complaints, and our independently assessed room cleanliness. This in turn should drive improvement in our customer retention, which is the key to meeting our revenue growth goals.
Required:
1. Based on the excerpts above, compare and contrast the strategies of Applied Pharmaceuticals and Destination Resorts International.
2. Select balanced scorecard measures for each company and link the scorecard measures using the framework from Exhibit 10-5. Use arrows to show the causal links between the performance measures and show whether the performance measure should increase or decrease over time. Feel free to create measures that may not be specifically mentioned in the chapter, but nonetheless make sense given the strategic goals of each company.
3. What hypotheses are built into each balanced scorecard? Why do the hypotheses differ between the two companies?
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Introduction To Managerial Accounting
- Coral Creations has strategic plans that call for rapid growth, a limited number of units for each design to enhance exclusivity, designs for the perfect fit, on-time delivery to customers, retention of highly trained employees with innovative skills, and excellent inventory control. A. Suggest one performance measure for each dimension of the balanced scorecard for Coral Creations. B. Take one of your measures and discuss the linkage it has to multiple strategies in Corals plan.arrow_forwardHyperflash Inc. has a balanced scorecard that includes the following relationships: Actual results for this month and last month are as follows: Instructions 1.Analyze these data to verify whether they support the expected relationship between the strategic objectives and performance metrics. 2.Identify three possible reasons for any unsupported relationship you identified in part (1). 3.Which of the three possibilities you identified in part (2) is the most likely reason for the unsupported relationship you identified in part (1)?arrow_forwardCarson Wellington, president of Mallory Plastics, was considering a report sent to him by Emily Sorensen, vice president of operations. The report was a summary of the progress made by an activity-based management system that was implemented three years ago. Significant progress had indeed been realized. At the conclusion of the report, Emily urged Carson to consider the adoption of the Balanced Scorecard as a logical next step in the companys efforts to establish itself as a leader in its industry. Emily clearly was impressed by the Balanced Scorecard and intrigued by the possibility that the change would enhance the overall competitiveness of Mallory. She requested a meeting of the executive committee to explain the similarities and differences between the two approaches. Carson agreed to schedule the meeting but asked Emily to prepare a memo in advance, listing the most important similarities and differences between the two approaches to responsibility accounting. Required: Prepare the memo requested by Carson.arrow_forward
- Instructions 1.Based on the balanced scorecard and the following descriptions of the predicted relationships between strategic objectives, draw the scorecards strategy map. a.Training employees effectively and reducing employee turnover can both be expected to improve returns processing and reduce shipping errors. b.Both improving returns processing and reducing shipping errors can be expected to delight the customer. c.Delighting the customer can be expected to increase market share. 2.Based on the balanced scorecard and the following descriptions of the predicted relationships between performance metrics, draw the scorecards measure map. a.Median training hours per employee and average employee tenure will both influence hours from returned to refunded and number of erroneous shipments. b.Both hours from returned to refunded and number of erroneous shipments will affect percentage of customers who shop again and online customer satisfaction rating. c.Both percentage of customers who shop again and online customer satisfaction rating will influence the companys market share. 3.Label each element of the balanced scorecard.arrow_forwardYoung Manufacturing Company is a startup manufacturing firm looking to build and develop its balanced scorecard. Gunner Young, the company owner, has told you the following: Our company was built on the shoulders of our hard-working, diligent employees. I believe that the heart and soul of any company is its employees. If our company is going to succeed, we need to continue to hire and train hard-working, passionate, and ethical employees. I also believe in being efficient. Ive noticed that the companies that always find ways to cut production costs and produce their goods faster are the ones that win in this industry. Gunner has also told you that he is mainly focused on maintaining the customers he has rather than seeking out a lot of new ones. At the end of the day, he admits that his companys ultimate objective is increasing the bottom line. a. Working together in a team, list one strategic objective for each performance perspective of the balanced scorecard based on the information Gunner provided. b. For each strategic objective you came up with in part (a), list at least one performance metric. c. Describe the relationships that would be illustrated by a strategy map of Youngs balanced scorecard. d. Describe the relationships that would be illustrated by a measure map of Youngs balanced scorecard.arrow_forwardConsider the following quality improvement strategy as expressed by a series of if-then statements: If real-time feedback information capabilities improve, then post-sales service time will improve. If post-sales service time improves, then post-sales service quality will increase. If post-sales service quality increases, then customer satisfaction will increase. If customer satisfaction increases, then market share will increase. If market share increases, then sales will increase. If sales increase, then profits will increase. Required: 1. Prepare a strategy map that shows the cause-and-effect relationships of the quality improvement strategy (see Exhibit 13.10 for an illustrative example). 2. Explain how the quality improvement strategy can be tested.arrow_forward
- The following if-then statements were taken from a Balanced Scorecard: a. If employee capabilities increase, then process time decreases. b. If process time decreases, then customer retention will increase. c. If customer retention increases, then market share will increase. d. If market share increases, then revenues will increase. Required: 1. Identify the lead and lag variables, and explain your reasoning. 2. Discuss the implications of Requirement 1 for the financial and learning and growth perspectives. 3. Using the first if-then statement, explain the concept of double-loop feedback.arrow_forwardCoulson and Company is a large retail business that has a firm-wide balanced scorecard. Recently, management has discussed the need for the balanced scorecard to be more relevant to each individual department of the company. Specifically, management wants to come up with unique scorecards for its Public Relations and Inventory Management departments. For both departments, management recognizes that properly and efficiently training employees is important. For these purposes, management gathers data on the median training hours per employee and new employee performance review ratings. For the Inventory Management Department, management is focused on reducing stockouts (running out of certain inventory items) and keeping accurate inventory counts. For these purposes, the company tracks the number of back orders and discrepancies between the physical and record counts of inventory, respectively. For the Public Relations Department, management is focused on improving the publics CSR image of the company and attracting new customers. Management measures these objectives using Forbes CSR Rating of Coulson and Company and the number of new customers, respectively. a. Identify the term for Coulson and Companys plan to create unique balanced scorecards for its individual departments. b. Draw the unique balanced scorecards of each department. Identify the departments common and unique measures, and include all the elements of the balanced scorecard that you can in your drawings, given the information provided.arrow_forwardPrepare a balanced scorecard for Delhi Dairies, without numbers, which will help them to achieve their strategy and to maximize long-term shareholder value. (Give at least two performance measures for each category.)arrow_forward
- Midwest Mfg. uses a balanced scorecard as part of its performance evaluation. The company wants toinclude information on its sustainability efforts in its balanced scorecard. For each of the sustainabilityitems below, indicate the most likely balanced scorecard perspective it relates to. Label your answers usingC (customer), P (internal process), I (innovation and learning), or F (financial). Patents for green products applied forarrow_forwardThe balanced scorecard for a service company American Express Company is a major financial services company noted for its American Express® card. Some of the performance measures used by the company on its balanced scorecard are listed below. For each measure, identify whether the measure best fits the learning and growth, internal processes, customer, or financial performance perspective of the balanced scorecard. Performance Metric Performance Perspective Average card member spending Number of Internet features Cards in force Number of merchant signings Earnings growth Number of new card launches Hours of credit consultant training Return on equity Investment in information technology Revenue growth Number of card choicesarrow_forwardDescribing the balanced scorecard and identifying key performance indicators for each perspective Consider the following key performance indicators, and classify each indicator according to the balanced scorecard perspective it addresses. Choose from the financial perspective, customer perspective, internal business perspective, and the learning and growth perspective. a. Number of customer complaints b. Number of information system upgrades completed c. Residual income d. New product development time e. Employee turnover rate f. Percentage of products with online help manuals g. Customer retention h. Percentage of compensation based on performance i. Percentage of orders filled each week j. Gross margin growth k. Number of new patents l. Employee satisfaction ratings m. Manufacturing cycle time (average length of production process) n. Earnings growth o. Average machine setup time p. Number of new customers q. Employee promotion rate r. Cash flow from operations s. Customer…arrow_forward
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