Question 1

The fundamental rethinking and redesign of business processes to achieve improvements in critical measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, speed, and customer satisfaction is ________.

Accepted Answer

Reengineering involves completely rethinking and redesigning business processes in order to achieve significant improvements in performance measures such as cost, quality, service, speed, and customer satisfaction. It typically involves radical changes to established processes and the use of new technology to achieve improvements. Directing and structuring are more general terms that do not specifically refer to the process of reengineering, while controlling involves monitoring and measuring performance rather than fundamentally changing processes.

Question 2

________ is a measure of the balanced scorecard's internal-business-process perspective.

Accepted Answer

Manufacturing downtime, which measures the amount of time that manufacturing operations are not running, is a key performance indicator for the internal-business-process perspective of the balanced scorecard. It reflects the efficiency of the manufacturing processes and their impact on overall business success. Market share and return on investment are measures of the financial perspective, while number of customer complaints is a measure of the customer perspective.

Question 3

re-engineering benefits are most significant when they focus on one business function rather than crossing functional lines of the business process.

Accepted Answer

Reengineering benefits are most significant when they cut across functional lines to focus on the entire business process.

Question 4

Feedback on how a company is doing from the perspectives of financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth.

Accepted Answer

The balanced scorecard is a management tool that evaluates a company's performance from four different perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth. It provides a comprehensive view of the organization's overall health by analyzing both financial and non-financial factors. The other options, Master budget, Product differentiation, and Differential report, are not directly related to evaluating a company's performance from these four perspectives.

Question 5

Which of the following statements best relates to the balanced scorecard's learning and growth perspective?

Accepted Answer

The learning and growth perspective in the balanced scorecard framework is focused on strategies for improving and enhancing the skills and competencies of employees, as well as fostering a culture of continuous learning and development within the organization. Option A is the only statement that directly relates to this perspective. Option B relates to the financial perspective, option C relates to the customer perspective, and option D relates to the internal business perspective.

Question 6

Which of the following is a measure of the balanced scorecard's customer perspective?

Accepted Answer

The balanced scorecard's customer perspective focuses on customer satisfaction and customer-related metrics. The number of client complaints is a direct measure of customer satisfaction, as it reflects the customers' dissatisfaction with the products or services offered.

Question 7

In an effective balanced scorecard, ________.

Accepted Answer

In an effective balanced scorecard, customer satisfaction serves as one of the leading indicators for the hard-to-measure long-run financial performance such as the likelihood of higher sales and income. The scorecard should include a mix of financial and nonfinancial metrics, where financial metrics such as net income may serve as indicators for short-term financial performance, while nonfinancial metrics such as customer satisfaction can provide insights into long-term financial performance. The sales budget may serve as an indicator for short-term financial performance, but is not necessarily a leading indicator for nonfinancial performance. Therefore, option D is the best choice.

Question 8

Which of the following could be a measure of the balanced scorecard's financial perspective?

Accepted Answer

Operating income is a financial measure that reflects the profitability of a company and is a commonly used metric in the financial perspective of the balanced scorecard. Service response time, number of new patents, and defect rates are measures that may be more relevant to other perspectives, such as the customer or internal business processes perspectives.

Question 9

Which of the following statements is true of a balanced scorecard?

Accepted Answer

The purpose of a balanced scorecard is to provide a comprehensive view of an organization's performance, including both financial and nonfinancial measures. It does not aim to reduce emphasis on financial performance, but rather to balance it with other important factors such as customer satisfaction, internal processes, and employee development. The balanced scorecard can help managers focus on long-term success rather than short-term financial gains. Therefore, option B is the correct choice.

Question 10

Companies which strive to achieve cost leadership should never try to implement business process re-engineering measures.

Accepted Answer

Companies which strive to achieve cost leadership can always look at business process reengineering measures to reduce process costs.

Question 11

Which of the strategic perspectives of the balanced scorecard focuses on a company's own operations that create value for customers that, in turn, help achieve financial objectives?

Accepted Answer

The internal-business-process perspective of the balanced scorecard focuses on a company's own operations that create value for customers that, in turn, help achieve financial objectives. This perspective includes metrics related to the efficiency and effectiveness of internal processes, such as production and supply chain management, which ultimately can impact customer satisfaction and financial performance.

Question 12

Which of the following questions best relates to the balanced scorecard's internal business processes perspective?

Accepted Answer

The internal business processes perspective of the balanced scorecard focuses on improving processes and operations to increase value to customers. Option D directly relates to this perspective. Options A and C relate to the financial perspective, while option B relates to the learning and growth perspective.

Question 13

Which of the following efforts would most likely yield the greatest re-engineering benefits?

Accepted Answer

Focusing on entire processes and eliminating unnecessary activities and tasks would most likely yield the greatest re-engineering benefits as it involves a comprehensive review of the entire process and can result in significant efficiency improvements. Focusing on a single activity may not have a significant impact, decreasing output may negatively impact the business, and increasing costs may not necessarily result in increased productivity.

Question 14

The first step to successful balanced scorecard implementation is clarifying the ________.

Accepted Answer

Clarifying the organization's vision and strategy is the first step to successful balanced scorecard implementation. This provides a clear direction for the development of objectives and key performance indicators for the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard. It is important to align the scorecard with the organization's strategic goals to ensure that it measures what matters most for the business.

Question 15

What is re-engineering. Can you contrast a re-engineering approach to change with a kaizen approach to change?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is re-engineering. Can you contrast a...

Question 16

Which of the following is not correct about the balanced scorecard?

Accepted Answer

The balanced scorecard is designed to balance both short-term and long-term goals, and to prevent management from focusing solely on short-term results. Therefore, choice D is incorrect.

Question 17

Which of the following statements best relates to the balanced scorecard's financial perspective?

Accepted Answer

The financial perspective in the balanced scorecard primarily focuses on creating long-term shareholder value, rather than just maximizing short-term profits. This involves measures such as revenue growth, profitability, return on investment, and cash flow, all of which contribute to increasing the overall value of the business.

Question 18

Which of the following statements is true of the internal-business-process perspective of a balanced scorecard?

Accepted Answer

The internal-business-process perspective focuses on improving processes within the organization to achieve strategic objectives. Improvement targets are often determined by benchmarking against competitors' standards. The perspective typically includes processes related to operations, post-sales service, and learning and growth, but not necessarily innovation. The evaluation of profitability and creation of shareholder value is typically part of the financial perspective of a balanced scorecard. Therefore, options A, B, and D are incorrect.

Question 19

Successful re-engineering efforts generally involve changing the roles and responsibilities of employees.

Accepted Answer

Successful re-engineering efforts involve making significant changes to organizational structures and processes. This often results in changing the roles and responsibilities of employees to better align with the new structure and processes. Therefore, the statement is true.

Question 20

Which of the following is a measure of the balanced scorecard's internal process perspective?

Accepted Answer

Service response time is a measure of the internal process perspective as it focuses on the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization's internal processes in delivering services to customers. Customer satisfaction and gross profit percentage are measures of the customer and financial perspectives, respectively, while cost reduction is a measure of the learning and growth perspective.

Quiz 12: Strategy, Balanced Scorecard, and Strategic Profitability Analysis