Question

case study of the control of management by Kenneth A. Merchant, Harvard University.
question one
Merchant discusses specific action, results, and personnel controls. provide three examples of each.
can organisations focus on just one major type of control method (e.g. action controls)?

endnotes case study
2.2a what is a strategy map?
2.2b according to Kaplan and Norton, what are the two basic approaches to increasing economic value
2.3 describe the five principles of a strategy _focused organisation

Answer 1

2.2 a ) A strategy map is a visual representation of an organization’s overall objectives and how they relate to one another. he map is created during the strategic planning process and is used as a primary reference material during periodic strategy check-in and review meetings.

It helps develop highly effective strategies that can actually be implemented. In addition, strategy maps help those who are involved to develop the mission, vision and goals and action plans to address them, as well as understand the challenges they may face during the journey.

Steps in Creating Strategy Map:

Step 1: Defining Mission and Vision
Step 2: Understanding Your Environment
Step 3: Defining the Strategy
Step 4: Translating the Strategy
Step 5: Highlighting the Cause and Effect Relationships
Step 6: Showing Themes in Your Strategy Map
Step 7: Cascading the Strategy Map

2.2 b) Kaplan and Norton defined a scorecard model, whereby in addition to financial measures, organizational performance should include measures from a customer perspective, an internal business process perspective, and a perspective measuring employee innovation and learning. Sometimes referred to as the four perspectives model, the name "Balanced Scorecard" was chosen to reflect the need for organizations to manage using a balanced assessment of performance measures. A good scorecard, therefore, includes a mix of core outcome measures common to most strategies, and performance drivers that reflect the uniqueness of a particular strategy.

Kaplan and Norton's value-chain is a generic, high-level process representation. It starts with innovation processes, where customer needs and markets are identified, and then products and services are designed to meet these needs. It proceeds to operations processes where products and services are crafted and delivered, and concludes with post sale services to assure that customer needs are meet, and if not, engages corrective actions to result in customer satisfaction.

The scorecard produces a balance between:

• Four key business perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes and innovation.
• How the organisation sees itself and how others see it.
• The short run and the long run
• The situation at a moment in time and change over time

2.2 c)

The five principles of strategy focused organisation are as follows

• Translate the Strategy in Operational Terms. Once managers identify specific performance measures and develop an implementation strategy, it is important to describe the new performance measures to employees. In a strategy-focused organization everyone understands the performance measures and the goals and objectives of the organization.

• Align the Organization to the Strategy. Managers work around organizational barriers to achieve success. In a strategy-focused organization, work units become linked to the strategy through common goals and objectives, thus creating a synergy that ensures that the linkages continue to work.

• Make Strategy Everyone's Everyday Job. In a strategy-focused organization, executives and managers use the balanced scorecard to communicate with and educate their employees about the new business strategy. Everyone understands the strategy and understands how they impact the goals and objectives of the organization.

• Make Strategy a Continual Process. In a strategy-focused organization, the strategy is linked to the budgeting process, thus protecting long-term initiatives. Managers meet regularly to discuss and review the strategy; they use the strategy to learn of new issues and goals and to adopt new processes for change. As a result, the managers gain new ideas and knowledge that they immediately use to improve organizational performance.

• Mobilize Change Through Executive Leadership. In a strategy-focused organization, executives instill in their employees how important the change is to the organization and provide leadership and support for the change. The authors note that executives use the balanced scorecard as a vehicle to communicate a vision for future performance that is better than the present.