THE GAIL PALMER ASHTON GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
THE BALANCED SCORECARD INITIATIVE
Main part
Jack Watkins, the Dean of the Gail Palmer Ashton Graduate School of Business is concerned about the performance measures through which the performance of the school is being measured. He has stated that the focus of the school has diverted towards achieving a top rank rather than on achieving excellence, innovation and differentiation for what the school is known and for which it has achieved such high rankings. The Ashton Community was quite pleased to find itself ranked in the top-20 MBA schools in the United States but Watkins believes “What gets measured and reported, is what gets done” which leads to the assumption that if the focus tend to be upon ranking; then the performance will be focused on achieving highest ranking. Therefore, the school needs relevant performance measures that focus upon excellence, innovation and differentiation to be more specific. In addition, the school requires performance measures which will measure the successful implementation of the 4 strategic goals of the school that led to the excellence, innovation and differentiation. Consequently, this will help the performance of the school to be aligned with the strategic mission of the school.
Kaplan and Norton Balanced Score Card is a performance management tool which is used to evaluate and manage the performance of an organization; it consists of 4 dimensions and each of them relates to the expectations and desires of a particular stakeholder. These dimensions of the performance management tool includes: Financial Prospective, Customer Prospective, Internal Business Process and Innovation and Learning,
IMPLEMENTATION
The implementation of the balanced score card strategies is done on the basis of the four dimensions which focus on achieving the expectations of stakeholders with consideration for each strategy that is relevant to Critical Success Factor (CSF). The achievement of these factors enables the successful implementation of this strategy; whereas Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each CSF ensures that they are achieved. The CSF and KPI set for each strategy, act as the measure of performance which evaluates and indicates weather a strategy has been achieved or not.
In the Gail Palmer Ashton Graduate School of Business, strategies are already set by the higher management. The four goals that Dean Watkins wants the school to achieve are:
- To have the world's best teaching faculty known for case method and experiential learning.
- To have the world's best graduate business education programs (MBA and short-course executive education programs) for developing results-oriented leaders with a general management perspective.
- To have an alumni network that is unmatched for its effectiveness and integration in the life of the school.
- To garner international recognition for shaping management practice and business education through managerially relevant research and curriculum materials.
The implementation of the balanced score card will lead to the following figure,
INNOVATION AND LEARNING
What new products and processes can we introduce? How can we add value?
A company requires the right type of infrastructure in order to achieve innovation; Dean Watkins believes that the Ashton School requires the right faculty as a part of its strategy in order to achieve innovation. Innovation sets international standards in a company, which is another strategy of the Ashton School. These standards include the following:
To have the world's best teaching faculty known for case method and experiential learning.
To garner international recognition for shaping practice for management and business education through managerially relevant research and curriculum materials.
The critical success factors for this strategy will be as follows:
An efficient HR department ensures that the hired faculty meets the criteria that are set in the goals. These criteria include the performance of the following tasks:
Conduct international seminars
Improve marketing strategy
Provide online short-course executive education programs
The key performance indicators to this CSF will be,
To have regular appraisals of the faculty in order to review their methods and compare their results with pervious appraisal to have a firm picture of where each faculties stand. This will determine that how good the faculty is by comparing faculties’ record with other schools; which will produce a ranking of the best teachers and will indicate that where teachers stand.
However, international recognition, international seminars, new marketing techniques and online courses will ensure and enhance knowledge worldwide about the research and curriculum which the Ashton School is conducting.
The Ashton School can measure the ...........................
This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.
