BU 481 Exam Portfolio Questions Part A - BU 481 Exam...

BU 481 Exam Portfolio Questions Part A
1) Define and describe the balance score card tool and elements. How does the
concept of leading and lagging indicators apply to this tool and its relevance to
strategy management analysis?
The BSC is a subset from the “GOALS” section of the Strategy Triangle. The BSC is a strategic
planning system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization. It aims at
improving internal and external communications and monitors organization performance against strategic
goals.
The balanced scorecard includes 4 measures:
•
Financial – data must be timely and accurate and provided regularly
o Revenue Growth
o Cost Management
o Asset Management
•
Customer – stresses importance of customer focus and satisfaction so that you don’t loose them to
competitors
o Market Share
o Customer Retention
o Customer Acquisition
o Customer Satisfaction
o Customer Profitability
•
Internal Business Processes – based on the mission, do the products conform to customer
requirements
o Quality
o Productivity
o Delivery
o After Sales Service
•
Innovation & Learning – based on employee training & corporate cultural attitudes
o Employee Capabilities
o Information Technology
o Motivation
o Alignment
The financial measure tells the results of actions already taken while the remaining three are operational
measures that drive future financial performance. Each indicator is measured against the org’s goal in that
particular area – if every indicator aligns to their goal, the scorecard is balanced.
The BSC helps managers look at their businesses from these four perspectives and answers questions like:
a) How do customers see us?
b) What must we excel at?
c) Can we continue to improve and create value?
d) How do we appear to shareholders?
Leading Indicator: signal future events (ex: yellow light is a leading indicator for a red light)
Lagging Indicator: signal that follows an event, usually has the ability to confirm a specific pattern of
events is appearing (ex: unemployment is a lagging indicator, if it increases it means the economy is doing
poorly)

2) Discuss and describe in details the measures that make up the two axes of the
Performance Matrix and how the tool is used to assess organizational
performance. Describe how the outputs of this tool can influence strategy
formulation and implementation.
The performance matrix is composed of operating performance and organizational health . Operating
performance includes the “hard” or more quantitative measures of financial and market performance.
Typical measures of operating performance include profitability (profit margins, key expense ratios, return
on equity, economic value added), financial position (leverage ratios, liquidity ratios, activity ratios), and
market performance (absolute level of growth rate in sales, market share, new products as % of sales).