Module 2 - Background
The Customer Service Perspective
Please note:
Whenever you have a link to an article in ProQuest, such as the Gumbos & Lustier article in the Required Readings below, you must already be inside the ProQuest Site for the link to work properly. To do this, you need to open a new window or tab in your browser (leaving your course window or tab open), go to the TUIU Library (http://library.tuiu.edu) and click on the ProQuest tab. You may need more than one click to bring up the main Proquest site. Once you have the Proquest site in this window, you can leave it open and return to your original window or tab where you had the course page open. At that point, you can click on the Proquest link and it should open for you properly. Anytime you see a Proquest link (they are usually a couple of lines long) you will need to follow this procedure. It's a bit cumbersome, but it's the only way that we can provide you with exact links to Proquest documents.
Required Readings
Gumbus, A. and Lussier, RN. (2006) Entrepreneurs use a balanced scorecard to translate strategy into performance measures. Journal of Small Business Management. 44(3):407-426. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?sid=1&vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&clientid=29440&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1074432261&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1226877391&clientId=29440
Kaplan, RS (2005) A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability. Working Knowledge. Harvard Business School. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4938.html
Niven, P. (N.D.) Customer perspective.EPM Review. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Customer-Perspective.html
Optional Readings
Niven, PR (2008). Adapting the Balanced Scorecard to fit the public and nonprofit sectors. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://www.fovea.com/Demofiles/White%20Papers/CPM/BalancedScorecardForPublicAndNonprofitSectors.pdf
BUS499 - BSBA Integrative Project
Module 2 - Case
The Customer Service Perspective
The customer perspective of the balanced scorecard begins to trace the achievement of financial goals one step back - that is, to the customers and/or recipients of the services provided by the organization whose resources support it. Here is a useful brief summary of the approach:
Niven, P. (N.D.) Customer perspective.EPM Review. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Customer-Perspective.html
Analysis of customers sounds like a no - brainer - so obvious that it should be taken for granted. However, in practice, it- actually particularly complicated - and therefore often done superficially or neglected altogether in favor of memories, convenient abstractions, unshakeable prejudices, or other non-data-based strategic assumptions. Doing it right involves acknowledging the diversity of customers, their widely varying needs and resources, and the entire economic climate within which they function. Kaplan, one of the gurus of the balanced scorecard, has an interesting discussion setting forth both why this perspective is necessary and how complicated it can become:
Kaplan, RS (2005) A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability. Working Knowledge. Harvard Business School. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4938.html
Our example in this case is an assessment of this aspect of the balanced scorecard in three small to medium sized companies. Here- how this process has been described:
Although 50 percent of Fortune 1000 companies currently use a balanced scorecard (BSC), few small businesses are using a BSC. A review of the literature finds no BSC papers in leading small business/entrepreneurship journals. This article begins with a discussion of the BSC and why a small business should use it. Three small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) case studies are presented, with a copy of their BSC, to illustrate how Hyde Park Electronics, Future Industries, and Southern Gardens Citrus use a BSC to set strategy and align operations to achieve breakthrough results. Implications are, that like large businesses, SMEs can also benefit from using a BSC. Entrepreneurs of SMEs can use the case studies to develop their own BSC to improve performance. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
The article from which this summary is taken can be found here:
Gumbos, A. and Lustier, RN. (2006) Entrepreneurs use a balanced scorecard to translate strategy into performance measures. Journal of Small Business Management. 44(3):407-426. Retrieved May 17, 2010, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?sid=1&vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&clientid=29440&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1074432261&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1226877391&clientId=29440
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 these companies implemented the balanced scorecard and its apparent effects.
Assignment Expectations:
Your analysis should be structured along the lines you’ve been using this far in these cases:
Introduction: On what specific customer perspectives did each company focus, and what measures did each company use to ascertain how well it was meeting the goals implied by those specific perspectives?
Analysis: In your opinion, are these measures truly "customer-centric" as described in the background reading by Niven? Why or why not? Defend your position. Use your readings to help you decide whether the improved performance was due to viewing the company from the perspective of their potential, prospective, and/or present customers.
Conclusion: From the companies' point of view, do you think their effort to evaluate the business from the customer's perspective was the KEY contributor to improved performance? If so, defend your position. Or was another perspective more important? If so, which one was the KEY contributor? Defend your position.
Evaluation: Identify at least one measure you would have included that they omitted. In other words, how could you have improved on their approach?
BUS499 - BSBA Integrative Project
Module 2 - SLP
The Customer Service Perspective
For Module 2, consider your organization's mission and strategy from the perspective of its potential, prospective, and present customers. In this section of the assignment you’ll begin to identify objectives and measures relevant to that perspective. Refer back to this presentation on objectives if you need to.
Assignment Expectations:
Once you’re reasonably clear on what- involved, think about your organization and its customers/clients/users/service recipients/whatever-you-wish-to-call-them, and then:
• Identify at least three objectives for the organization's customer service perspective 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).
• Comment briefly on the relationships of the customer service objectives that you've identified here to the financial objectives that you identified in the Module 1 SLP assignment. How do they help to fulfill those objectives? If they don't (and they don't have to), what makes them more important than objectives that would relate to finances?
• Finally, do you wish to make any changes to your Module 1 objective write-up in light of your Module 2 experience?
Here- a table that you may wish to copy and fill in (the boxes are expandable - take all the space you need to be complete in your descriptions. No more than 2-3 pages should be necessary.)
Objective Measure Target Action
Relationships to other objectives
Revisions (if any) to Module 1 Objectives
Objective/Module Measure Target Action
When your assignment is ready, send it in to Course Net
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