BUS 499 CASE,SLP and TD
lilkittingurlModule 2 - Home
BSC Flexibility & the Customer Perspective
Modular Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to satisfy the following outcomes:
Case
Evaluate the application of the Balanced Scorecard approach in an organizational situation.
SLP
Write objectives, identify measures, and propose initiatives to improve performance from the financial perspective.
Discussion
Discuss the application of an integrative approach to organizational improvement using a financial perspective.
Module Overview
In Module 2, first you will take a look at the four quadrants of the standard format for the Balanced Scorecard, and then you will compare this with an actual application of a present day scorecard. The hope is that you will learn that this is not a rigid, unbending tool but rather, the tool itself is quite flexible and can be applied to many applications in the private and public sectors.
Secondly, you will have an opportunity to apply the BSC in your organization to provide a hands-on opportunity to consider the customer perspective and how organizations consider the customer in planning and evaluating their efforts. More specifically, you are going to see how organizations try to examine themselves from a customer's perspective, relative to how those organizations would like to be seen by them. And you will see that the relationship between how these organizations are seen and how they would like to be seen can improve the allocation of resources so that these organizations can move away from how they are seen toward how they would like to be seen. The graphic highlights where these questions fit into the whole model.
The customer perspective is especially relevant to government, military and not-for profit organizations. Service organizations in general are extremely dependent on their “customers” – recipients of services – and in particular on their largely qualitative assessment of those services.
But everybody needs to consider their customers. For example, to satisfy potential, prospective, or potential customers:
Retailers might focus on how they allocate shelf space to the products they sell.
Manufacturers might focus on how they develop new products, the assortment of products they produce, or how they produce those products.
Wholesalers might focus on their methods of shipping and storage.
Hospitals might focus on how they schedule patients.
Not for profit organizations might focus on how they attract and retain donors.
Banks might focus on how they handle loan requests.
Restaurants might focus on how they seat their diners (accept or not accept reservations).
And (maybe the most important of all, at least to some of us), schools and universities need to understand the critical skills that their students need to acquire and to work with students in improving how those skills are explained and cultivated.
In this module, you’ll look at the flexibility of the BSC approach and how assessing customer perspectives and needs make up an important step in implementing a balanced scorecard. You’ll have a chance to draw on courses you’ve taken like MGT 301 (Principles of Management) and MGT 499 (Strategic Management). Material learned in MKT 301 (Principles of Marketing) should be particularly helpful. You’ll also pick up some key new vocabulary for looking at these issues.