Individual Assignment: Developing a Balanced Scorecard

In this unit, you are exploring the need for organisations to measure and manage performance against objectives, as well as the potential effectiveness of tools such as Balanced Scorecards and Strategy Maps as aids in this cause.
You will now develop a BSC for Anthony's Orchard. The company has a number of strategic goals; measuring performance towards those goals will be critical to its sustained success.

To prepare for this Individual Assignment:

Visit the Anthony's Orchard case study in the unit resources. Review again the current and historical financials. Consider that one of the company's key goals in its strategic plan is to exceed revenue of $25 million dollars by the year 2015.

To complete this Individual Assignment:

Explain the potential value of a BSC to Anthony's Orchard. Describe specific ways that the introduction of a BSC can contribute to this organisation.

Develop a BSC that is aligned to the key goal in the strategic plan, i.e. exceeding revenue of $25 million dollars by 2015. Develop, quantify and justify suitable key performance measurement criteria for Anthony's Orchard in each of these four key areas:

• Financial
• Customer
• Internal Business Processes
• Learning and Growth

Notes:

You should fully state and justify any assumptions that you make in relation to the financial measurements you use. You should also make suitable use of appendices to include relevant financial performance measurement information you include. Be sure to include all references as well.

This Individual Assignment forms the basis of Section 3 of your Final Project. You will receive feedback on this work from your Faculty Member, and will be expected to incorporate any suggestions into the Final Project.

Your submission (excluding appendices) should be 1,000 words (+/- 10%) in length.

 Please answer the Individual Assignment in a single Word document.

Shared Activity: Balanced Scorecard Performance Analysis

In this unit, you have been introduced to the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a tool that can provide a unique combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics for performance measurement and evaluation. The scorecard incorporates measures derived from an organisation's strategy.

Not all organisations make use of tools such as the BSC; those that do often enjoy benefits in planning, budgeting, reporting and more. As with any tool, the BSC is only helpful when developed and used properly. You reviewed an example of a BSC in this unit, and should review several others to identify the relevant components that make a BSC effective.

To prepare for this Shared Activity:

Identify an available Balanced Scorecard (from your organisation or another). If you are having trouble securing one, a number of examples are available online.

To complete this Shared Activity:

Post a summary of the following four measurement areas within the BSC of this organisation:

• Objectives
• Measures
• Targets
• Initiatives

Note: Include a link to this BSC if available.

Explain how useful you think the BSC is as a form of performance measurement and management for this particular organisation.

Discuss with your group your recommendations and best practises for utilising BSCs in general. Note the various formats that may be used across examples, and discuss any advantages you may see to one style of presentation over another.