Module 1 - Background
The Financial Perspective
Required Readings
Greenhalgh, C. (2004) Building a Strategic Balanced Scorecard: Saatchi & Saatchi Complementary Case Study. Business Intelligence Company. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.business-intelligence.co.uk/PDFdownloads/strat_bsc/Saatchisr.pdf
Measurements for Success. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.mystrategicplan.com/strategic-planning-topics/balanced-scorecard.shtml
Niven, P. (N.D.) Financial perspective.EPM Review. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Delivering-shareholder-value-growing-revenue-and-enhancing-productivity.html
Robin, D. (ND) Vision, Mission and Values: Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace. Daniel Robin & Associates. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.abetterworkplace.com/027.html
Optional Readings
American University of Beirut (N.D.Balanced Scorecard Initiative: Guidelines for Building a BSC. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.aub.edu.lb/osm/scorecards/Documents/guidelines_for_building_a_bsc.pdf
Averson, P. (1998). What is the Balanced Scorecard? Balanced Scorecard Institute, a Strategy Management Group company. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.balancedscorecard.org/basics/bsc1.html
QuickMBA (N.D.) The Business Vision and Company Mission Statements. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/vision/
Sharma, P. (N.D.) Measuring Business strategy through balanced scorecard. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/5032771/Balanced-Scorecardfinancial-perspective
Optional Supplemental Materials
Click here for optional supplemental enrichment materials.
BUS499 - BSBA Integrative Project
Module 1 - Case
The Financial Perspective
In Module 1, we begin our application of the Balanced Scorecard with a close look at the financial perspective. Actually, we need to start a bit further back, with the fundamental ideas of corporate vision and mission that underlie all effective business strategy. Here is a good brief introduction to this topic:
Robin, D. (ND) Vision, Mission and Values: Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace. Daniel Robin & Associates. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.abetterworkplace.com/027.html
So the balanced scorecard rests ultimately on corporate vision and mission - and ultimately, all organizations, whether they are designed to make a formal “profit†or not, hope to accrue more resources than they expend. So the financial (or “effectivenessâ€Â) perspective is the logical place to start our consideration. But as we observed in the Course Overview and the Introduction to this module, all the perspectives or components are integrally related. So let- take a good look at the relationship of financial perspectives to the rest of the balanced scorecard before we dive into it specifically:
MyStrategicPlan (N.D.) Balanced Scorecard: Performance Measurements for Success. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.mystrategicplan.com/strategic-planning-topics/balanced-scorecard.shtml
As we noted, the financial perspective of the balanced scorecard defines the “bottom line†of the system. So here is a useful brief summary of the approach:
Niven, P. (N.D.) Financial perspective.EPM Review. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Delivering-shareholder-value-growing-revenue-and-enhancing-productivity.html
There are any number of possible cases where we could begin. But let- start in this case with an assessment of the use of the balanced scorecard in Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the premier advertising and “creative service†organizations (although they have certainly had their ups and downs over the last ten years or so. Here- how this process has been described:
"Faced with a set of brutally tough choices in the Nineties, Saatchi & Saatchi- leadership team defined a new vision and global strategy and set stretching three-year financial goals. In this case study, Paul Melter, Worldwide Director, CompaSS, explains how the balanced scorecard was used to turn ambitious strategic aspirations into operational reality."
The article from which this summary is taken can be found here:
Greenhalgh, C. (2004) Building a Strategic Balanced Scorecard: Saatchi & Saatchi Complementary Case Study. Business Intelligence Company. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.business-intelligence.co.uk/PDFdownloads/strat_bsc/Saatchisr.pdf
As your case assignment for this module, you are to carefully review this article, and then (in 3-4 pages) prepare your analysis of how Saatchi & Saatchi implemented the balanced scorecard and its apparent effects.
Assignment Expectations:
Your analysis should be structured in terms of the following four issues (you will be using essentially this same comparative evaluation framework for the first four modules of this course):
Introduction: What was the situation for Saatchi & Saatchi in the mid 1990s? The management team adopted an approach that was primarily two-pronged: the financial perspective and the customer perspective. In terms of the financial perspective, what goals did the new leadership set for the company?
Analysis: How did the company categorize its different business units (agencies)? What strategies were chosen for each unit? Saatch& Saatchi also adopted several strategies that related best to a customer perspective. What were they?
Conclusion: Did the financial strategies make sense for each given unit? Why or why not? Did the acquisition by PublicisGroupe SA change the results of the BSC? Now that you have analyzed both "prongs", did the two approaches worked in synthesis or in conflict?
Evaluation: Assuming that it would be best if the customer perspective strategies meshed with the financial strategies, do you think the customer perspective reinforces or conflicts with their financial strategies? In your opinion (supported, of course, by your readings), was the implementation done well or poorly?
BUS499 - BSBA Integrative Project
Module 1 - SLP
The Financial Perspective
The purpose of the Session Long Project in TUI University courses is to give you the opportunity to explore the applicability of the Module to your own life, work, and place in space and time, and to experiment with the Module to see how the otherwise academically rigorous presentation of a topic may, with more or less work and/or trauma, become "up close and personal". This is done in a number of different ways -- sometimes cumulative papers, sometimes practical hands-on experimentation with a tool of some sort, sometimes reflections on a place of work or life. The common thread is personal application, aimed at demonstrating a cumulative knowledge and understanding of the course's material.
For this course, the Project will take the form of putting together background from each of the perspectives for a balanced scorecard approach to an organization or organizational unit with which you are familiar. You’re not building a complete balanced scorecard -- that would be far beyond our current scope - but you’ll have a chance to see what goes into it and how it gets put together into a coordinated whole. As in the cases, you’ll be drawing on your previous course work to help.
The Module 1 assignment has two parts. First, you need to identify an organization to which you have access to at least some information concerning financial data; staffing and human resource systems; marketing and customer relations; information systems; and operations. While most material on the Balanced Scorecard is written from the private, for-profit point of view, it- perfectly possible to use this approach with public or non-profit organizations as well; click here for some guidance on how this can be done.
For the second part of this assignment, consider the organization's mission and strategy from the perspective of its financial operations (from your work on the case, your previous course work, and your background reading, you should be reasonably clear what such operations are). In this section of the assignment you’ll begin to identify objectives and measures relevant to that perspective. If you’re unclear on just what objectives and measures are, here is a presentation that describes what they are and how to write them.
Assignment Expectations:
When you have thought about it and made your selection, please specify:
• The name of your organization
• What this organization does - its mission, vision and overall strategy
• The access you have to information about this organization -- remember, you’ll need information about its financial performance, marketing, internal operations, strategy, and management systems.
Once you’re reasonably clear on what- involved, think about your organization and its finances, and then:
• Identify at least three objectives for improving the organization's financial position, and show how they relate to the mission, vision and strategy of the organization.
• For each objective, develop at least one meaningful performance measure (metric).
• For each objective, identify at least one expected level of performance (target).
• For each objective, identify at least one new action or program that needs to be developed to ensure successful implementation of the organization's strategy (initiative).
Here- a table that you may wish to copy and fill in:
Objective Measure Target Action
When your assignment is ready, send it in to CourseNet
2 TO 3 PAGES FOR CASE AND APPROX 1 PAGE FOR SLP
USA 
India