introduction: what was the situation for saatchi & saatchi in the mid 1990s? the management team adopted an approach that was primarily two-pronged: the financial perspective and the customer perspective. in terms of the financial perspective, what goals did the new leadership set for the company analysis: how did the company categorize its different business units (agencies)? what strategies were chosen for each unit? saatch & saatchi also adopted several strategies that related best to a customer perspective. what were they? conclusion: did the financial strategies make sense for each given unit? why or why not? does the more recent acquisition by publicis groupe sa change the results of the bsc? now that you have analyzed both "prongs" conclude whether the two approaches worked in synthesis or in conflict. evaluation: assuming that it would be best if the customer perspective strategies meshed with the financial strategies, do you think the customer perspective reinforces or conflicts with their financial strategies? agree or disagree with the issue, then defend your position. use the readings done so far to decide whether the implementation was done well or poorly. the situation: greenhalgh, clare (2004, june 22) building a strategic balanced scorecard: saatchi & saatchi complementary case study. business intelligence company. available at http://www.business-ntelligence.co.uk/ pdfdownloads/strat_bsc/saatchisr.pdf on june 06, 2008 this case study is about saatchi and saatchi''s turnaround in which ceo kevin marks led a senior team in saving the company. anonymous (2007). what is the balanced scorecard? balanced scorecard institute, a strategy management group company. available at http://www.balancedscorecard.org/basics/bsc1.html on may 20, 2008 in this module, you are introduced to the financial perspective, which, overlaps a bit with the stakeholder perspective, and the business process perspective. by clicking on the following, author unknown (2007). financial perspective. balanced scorecard institute, a strategy management group company. available at http://www.balancedscorecard.org/basics/financial.html on Friday, June 06, 2008 The financial perspective is familiar to most managers. Financial measures are, after all, frequently the only performance measures that are compiled. As you learned in Module 1, the Balanced Scorecard was developed to counteract the weight given to financial measures. This does not mean, however, that financial measures are unimportant! The financial perspective asks the question "How do we look to our investors?" In evaluating measures that indicate if and how the company''s strategy, implementation, and execution contribute to profitability or the bottom line, keep the following in mind. Depending solely on financial measures led some organizations to buy anything and everything based on three bids. One source for the bids was always an internal. Thus, if a department wanted an advertisement prepared, it was forced to seek bids - one from the advertising department within the organization and two from outside bidders. Given that they were consistently undercut by outside bidders several departments were outsourced and eventually closed. Of note are organizations that outsource their accounting, IT, advertising, and/or HR functions. The financial performance measure that is used varies based upon the long-run objective and strategy of a business and if it is in the growth, sustain, or harvest stage of its business life cycle. In general companies use the following three approaches or tactics to achieve their business goals: Revenue growth and mix Cost reduction/ Productivity improvement Asset utilization/ Investment strategy Financial measures that indicate how successful the company is at implementing its strategy include the following: Cash flow Sales growth Market share ROE - Return On Equity ROCE - Return on Capital Employed Economic value added Module Learning Objectives: Evaluate the application of the Balanced Scorecard to an organizational situation, emphasizing the financial perspective. (You will show that you have met this objective in your case assignment). Write objectives, identify measures, and propose initiatives to improve performance from the financial process perspective. (You will show that you have met this objective in your SLP assignment.) Discuss the application of an integrative approach to organizational improvement using a financial perspective. (You will show that you have met this objective in your TD assignment).