Strategic Management and Customer Service
Sentra Simulation Exercise The balanced scorecard is a business simulation with the sole objective of help you make decisions based on understanding the systematic linkages between operations in an organization as they pertain to the four components of the balanced scorecar Case: Sentra a)What were the key points that were critical to survival in the exercise? Forecast target for each measures which provides specific targets for assessing progress along the business unit’s strategic trajectory.
Formulation of a basic business plan and the structuring of a performance measurement system to fit such plan. Allocate resources among firms, between departments or divisions of individual firms, (ii) rewarding and monitoring the performance of managers, and (iii) executing strategy through the development of key performance measures. Operationally develop a business strategy and define and describe its linkage to management control systems in the form of a strategy map.
Understand how systems thinking provide the foundation for developing a balanced scorecard.
Understand the problems/issues associated with the successful implementation of strategic performance measurement systems, including the development of a strategy map and causal business model that formulizes business strategy? make decisions based on understanding the systematic linkages between operations in an organization as they pertain to the four components of the balanced scorecard. b)What were the key measures that were most useful and why were such measures useful? oCustomer service lead time (customer perspective) oCustomer service productivity (Learning ; Growth perspective)
Technical customers require efficient and excellent service delivery. Increasing technical support and improving customer satisfaction are very important for Sentra to maintain their growth of business and achieve their financial goals. Therefore the Company will have to match the growing rate of demand for customer service with equally rapid growing rate of delivery service.
Customer service productivity provides an index which can measure whether or not they are achieving greater levels of customer services, and customer service lead time signals the needs to boost both hiring and CS reps productivity.
To improve the rate of delivering services, Sentra should decrease CS lead time and increase CS productivity. When the lead time increase and /or CS productivity goes down, you will know it is the high time the company should take action to either hire Customer Service Reps in a faster pace or boost the Customer Service Rep productivity via enhancing training programs. These two measures can tell you not only what you should do but also when you should do to improve the quality of service delivery. Total GM Sales / Total Techie Sales (L;G perspective) oSales Growth % GM / Sales Growth % Techie (L;G perspective) When GM market is growing faster than Techie market, Sentra will have to adjust their business strategies to get the company moving ahead.
In order to achieve their financial goals, Sentra will need to take series of actions to reallocate resources among firms, such as shifting PD team efforts to develop ease of use feature for their product, bringing in consultants, etc. o appeal the GM market. The above measures are necessary for tracking performance towards this objective and provide data for the company to execute strategy and come up with next-step decisions. c)How what you learnt relates to the proposed benefits of the balanced scorecard? Linking the Balance Scorecards (BSC) to key management processes helps overcome the vision barrier, people barrier, resource barrier and management barrier to implementing strategy.
Vision Barrier – The BSC is created through a shared understanding and translation of the organization’s strategy into objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives in each of the four scorecard perspectives. By using BSC as a framework for translating the strategy, the organization will able to create a new language of measurement that serves to guide all employees’ actions towards the achievement of the stated direction.
People barrier – Use of BSC means driving it down into the organization and giving all employees the opportunity to demonstrate how their day-to-day activities contribute to the company’s strategy. The system enables everyone in the organization understand the business unit’s long-term goals, as well as the strategy for achieving these goals. Using BSC can overcome people barrier via aligning departmental and personal goals to the strategy
Resource barrier – The BSC framework can be used to allocate strategic resources which means it enables an organization to integrate its strategic planning with its annual budgeting process. Developing BSC provides an excellent opportunity to tie budgeting and strategic planning processes together. Management barrier – Using the measurement focus of the scorecard provides necessary elements to move away from making strategic decisions by analysis of actual versus budget variances to a new model in which scorecard results become a starting point for reviewing, questioning, and learning about company strategy.
