The Department Prism Approach: The Performance Prism and Performance Evaluation
©2013
Textbook
89 Pages
Summary
The world of today forces companies to rigorously concentrate on key terms like ‘customer satisfaction’, ‘performance boosting’ and ‘performance measurement’. A famous tool for that was developed by Kaplan & Norton who introduced the balanced scorecard. But, Kaplan & Norton mainly concentrate on two stakeholders – the customer and the shareholder. As Neely, Adams and Kennerley (2002) claim, this is not far-reaching enough. A company must consider more stakeholders (e.g. the supplier, the employee and further more) as their approach of the performance prism explains. But, Neely and his colleagues did not explain in detail how to apply their performance prism to the departmental level, and how to connect it to a remuneration system.<br>Here, the actual book gives brand-new ideas and tools for a consistent application of the developed framework to the departmental level. This book concentrates especially on the stakeholder approach of Neely, Adams and Kennerley which will be improved by the ‘stakeholder matrix’, and connected by the development of the ‘multidimensional performance appraisal table’ to performance evaluation.<br>This is the second book of Erik Wödl regarding performance measurement.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
VIII
Figure 18: Neely's Performance Prism ... B
Figure 19: Linkage between Strategy Orientation and Stakeholder Approach ... B
Figure 20: Stakeholder Identification Process ... C
Figure 21: The Basic Stakeholder Web ... C
Figure 22: A Filled, more Detailed Stakeholder Web ... D
Figure 23: A Stakeholder Web for the Sales Department ... D
Figure 24: The Stakeholder Matrix ... E
Figure 25: Filled Stakeholder Matrix with Importance Tradeoff ... E
Figure 26: Importance Tradeoff Performance Unit ... F
Figure 27: Stakeholder Matrix with Stakeholder Prioritization, Needs and Interrelations ... F
Figure 28: The Basic Performance Evaluation Table ... G
Figure 29: Performance Appraisal Table (adapted from Bolsinger 2007) ... H
Figure 30: Adjusted Performance Appraisal Table ... I
Figure 31: Dimension Weighted Performance Appraisal Table ... J
Figure 32: Combined Performance Evaluation Approach ... K
Figure 33: Multi-Dimensional Approach ... L
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1
Introduction
In the post-war times, where goods were scarce, the industry mainly was push-driven.
Companies created ideas of products, developed them and sold them to the customers, who
were quite undemanding. It was comfort enough to get the goods. However, just about a half
century later, at the end of the 20
th
century, the time was driven by more demanding custom-
ers, global competition and slow-growth economies and industries. To fulfill the rising
expectations of the customers and to keep the competitive edge in the industry, quality
management became popular in the 70's and 80's which led to an improvement of both,
product and process quality. These efforts brought important performance improvements
(Garvin, 1983; cited in Woodruff, 1997).
At that time, the systems were most internally focused. The perspective laid on what "the
company" thinks what can be improved and what is requested from the customer. First with
the "Customer Satisfaction Measurement" (in short: CSM), the voice of the customer was
brought into quality management. However, the CSM wave did not held what it promised for
several reasons. First, many companies set up customer satisfaction agendas, but they did not
measure the results (planning without measuring). Second, the companies which measured
their customers' satisfaction did not respond to the results (measuring without managing)
(Dutka, 1994). Third, while applying CSM, companies discovered problems, because custom-
er satisfaction did not always correlate with the performance (Jones and Sasser, 1995).
1.1
Outcome- vs. Behavior-Based Performance Control
Total quality management itself became "standard" with the years and did no longer provide a
basis for a competitive edge (Butz and Goodstein, 1996). So with the time, new fields had to
be explored for gaining competitive advantage. In 1997, Woodruff advocated the "customer
value" as future competitive advantage. Maybe based on Porter's researches in differentiation
(Porter, 1980), Woodruff conceptualized a framework, which tries to deliver customer- /
buyer value to gain and hold competitive advantage (Woodruff, 1997). Synergizing the
definitions of various authors, Woodruff defined customer value as:
"A customer's perceived preference for and evaluation of those attributes, attribute performances and conse-
quences arising from use that facilitate (or block) achieving the customer's goals and purposes in use situa-
tions"
(Woodruff,
1997)
10
In his implications for future research he referred to Garver and Gardial (1996) who found out
that at that time not much was known about the role of salespeople in delivering value to
customers. Woodruff mainly mentioned two approaches of performance evaluation of the
sales people: outcome- and behavior-based control (Woodruff, 1997). Based on the analysis
of the characteristics of the sales force, he tried to derive the adequate system for performance
evaluation. He found out that both have advantages and disadvantages for the sales depart-
ment.
1.2
Combined Systems
One year earlier, in 1996, another approach of performance measurement was born too.
Kaplan & Norton's Balanced Scorecard (in short: BSC) combined the output-based and
behavior-based approach with an open framework, in which both KPI-categories could be
included. Furthermore they criticized, that many companies just concentrated on the financial
dimension and captured by that Woodruff's approach of customer value via their customer
dimension. Furthermore they designed an integrated approach, which not just measured more
result based key figures like in the customer perspective and the financial perspective but also
behavior-based key figures. With the Balanced Scorecard they gave an opportunity to derive
the necessary processes (with the process dimension) and the necessary potentials (with the
potential perspective). The Balanced Scorecard became one of the most known systems at that
time (Wödl, 2008).
In 2002 Neely, Adams, & Kennerley used the dimensional approach of Kaplan & Norton and
expanded it by further stakeholders. They critizized, that the Balanced Scorecard considered
just two stakeholders, namely the shareholder and the customer. In Neely and his colleague's
point of view, this would not reflect the reality, because much more stakeholders (e.g. the
supplier, the employees and the public) must be considered as well. Furthermore they
propagated, that (in contrary to the Balanced Scorecard) the strategy should be derived from
the stakeholder at not vice versa.
1.3
Purpose of this Book
Against the Performance Prism the Balanced Scorecard reached a certain degree of fame with
the time, so many books exist about its' implementation, even regarding the topic perfor-
mance evaluation (see for example Chai, 2009). In contrary to the Balanced Scorecard, Neely
11
et al. (2002) wrote nothing about the combination of their performance measurement
appraoch with performance evaluation.
So the actual book tries to add value to the existing literature by combining these two
systems. Although the concept, explained in this book, is designed as open approach, which
can be applied to every department, the application shall be exercised at the sales department
due to Garver and Gardial's (1996) findings, that actually not much is known about the role of
the sales department in the customer value generation. Hereby the real value-add of the actual
book starts beginning from chapter 6 with:
x the development of a model for "departmental" prisms / scorecards
x the development of a process for the identification of the stakeholders of a department
and the assessment of their needs
x the improvement of a simple performance evaluation tool up to a multidimensional
evaluation tool, which is needed for connection to the Performance Prism
x a practical exercise for the combination between the Performance Prism and perfor-
mance evaluation
1.4
Methodology of the Book
Beginning this book, chapter 2 explores the question, why performance evaluation is neces-
sary at all. Here the principal-agent approach is used for verification. Generally it bases on the
assumption, that the company (as the principal) has the main goal of (a) surviving in the
business environment and under the presumption of surviving (b) the maximizing of its profit.
The employee (in the actual book the salesman) has the main goal of assuring his working
place and maximizing his own profit / remuneration. But also every other employee (e.g.
purchase, controlling etc.) is expected to have the same goal. So the employee will behave in
any way, which serves these two goals. A useful tool, which directly touches at this point, is
the performance evaluation which uses assessment bases (in form of KPIs) which are con-
nected to a reward system.
Chapter 3 handles the question, which assessment bases should be used to guide the employee
in the right direction. It starts with a short explanation of the basics about incentive systems.
12
Here it especially underlines the assessment bases, which are connected to the reward. In the
second part of this chapter it introduces the outcome- and behavior / input-based control
system and analyzes the fit of each system to the characteristics of the sales department. This
chapter ends up in a criteria catalogue, which shall be fulfilled by a control system to guide
the employee in the right direction. In the end a mix of both systems is suggested (which
consolidates the advantages of both systems), because pure input or output control do not
meet the requirements of the criteria catalogue completely.
Chapter 4 and 5 introduce the Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton, 1996) and the Perfor-
mance Prism (Neely, Adams and Kennerley, 2002) as potential solutions and analyze the
better fitting system, because both systems have advantages and disadvantages. In the end the
Performance Prism is used for the rest of this book.
Up from chapter 6 the actual book tries to add value to the existing literature. Like mentioned
in the introduction, the Performance Prism shall be applied to the "department" level and used
for performance evaluation of the employees. To be able to do that, the Performance Prism
needs to be broken down to departments. Furthermore a performance evaluation tool needs to
be improved to multidimensional perspectives, to be able to be connected to the Performance
Prism. Therefore in chapter 6, the Performance Prism is taken as basic system and improved
by a derivation procedure to departments and the linkage to a corporate strategy.
Subsequently chapter 7 explains the identification process for the stakeholders of the depart-
ment and the assessment process of their needs. Later these needs are connected in form of
criteria to a performance evaluation tool.
To be able to do that, chapter 8 improves a simple performance evaluation tool up to a
multidimensional approach, which is needed for the connection to the Performance Prism.
After these two chapters the reader should be able to basically understand the framework of
the Performance Prism, the derivation to the department level (including the identification of
the stakeholders and the assessment of their needs) and based on that, the connection points to
the performance evaluation sheet.
To end the actual book, in chapter 9 all the tools developed above, are applied in a simple
example case of a sales department. Here an imagined existing success map is taken, translat-
ed to criteria and connected to performance evaluation.
13
2
The Principal-Agent Approach as Explanation for Perfor-
mance Evaluation
As the first main chapter of the book, the actual chapter shall clarify the question, why
performance evaluation is necessary at all. Here, like mentioned above, the actual book is
applied to the sales department according to Garver and Gardial`s (1996) finding that not
much is known about the role of the sales department in the customer value generation.
Therefore the examples for key performance indices, which are used later in the following
chapters, mainly concentrate on the input and output of sales persons. However, the approach
explained in the following text, also can be applied to any other department.
The relation between the salesman (respectively any other employee) and the company is
formally described by Eisenhardt (1985) with the agency theory as a normative microeconom-
ic / accounting approach. In this system two parties exist: the principal who delegates decision
making responsibilities and the agent who fulfills the responsibilities. A presumption is that
the principal and the agent have different goals. The theory is concerned with the design of
control systems that realign the incentives of both parties that they desire the same outcome.
The sales department is one of the main drivers in the corporate success, because the profit
stands and falls with the work of the representatives with their customers (assuming a
business where representatives are needed). The representative is the main communicator of
the company to the customer and achieves by "selling" the billable success of the company
(Schmitt, 2008).
But the salesperson is also just an employee of the company and gives his work capacity in
return for a salary. As an employee he is expected to have the goal of assuring his working
place and maximizing his remuneration.
14
2.1
The Company as the Principle
In the upper approach the company represents the principle of the relation.
The main goal of the company is hereby:
(a) the survival in the business environment and next to the survival
(b) the maximization of the profit in the long run.
For that the company must ensure that:
(a) The products are sold with "gross margin" means not under the production costs (variable
costs) of the product.
By this at least the costs for the manufacturing departments and the raw material is re-
financed. This is essential to ensure the survival of the company in the short run. As
long as the price is over the production costs, additional orders lead to gross margin re-
spectively refinancing of the administrative and selling departments.
(b) The products are sold with profit margin means in the long run at a price which covers all
costs of the company.
This assures that the company not just refinances the production costs, but also the ad-
ministration and selling costs. When the products are sold over the total costs, the com-
pany makes profit.
(c) Developing and retaining the customer base (to ensure the survival of the company in the
long run).
No company can survive without customers who buy its products. If a company wants
to survive, it needs at least to retain the existing customer base, even when not expand-
ing it, to ensure a sustainable growth.
(d) Satisfying the customer needs
That the customers continue buying, the company has to meet their requirements. This
has to happen first by the product features, which lead to interest of the customer in the
product, but also the respectful dealing with the customer.
15
(e) Satisfying the needs of other stakeholder groups in and out of the company
Next to the customers, the company also has other stakeholder groups, which wants to
be served. For example suppliers want long-term and profitable relationships with the
company and the employees want fair working conditions and a regular salary.
The upper list reflects just a few criteria, which a company aims to achieve. Sure, there may
be much more things a company has to consider, but they shall not be mentioned here.
For the selling process and the retention of the customer base, the company as the principle
employs the salesman as an agent, which shall perform the upper criteria within the meaning
of the company.
2.2
The Salesman as the Agent
The representative as an employee is expected to have the goals of assuring his working place
and maximizing his remuneration. This assumption can be explained with Maslow's "pyramid
of needs" (Maslow, 2011). The first two layers (the basic needs like food, water and sleep in
the first layer and security and shelter in the second layer) are served by a secured job, which
grants the basics (by money) for a home and food. The third layer (friends, family and
community) is more entertainment based and varies with the additional money given by the
employer. Because the employee also wants to maximize this layer (higher entertainment
higher social status) he tries to maximize his profit.
Hereby he may perform in any way, which serves these goals. The possible way to influence
the salesman to act according to the meaning of the company is to connect his remuneration to
assessment bases, which shall direct the salesman as an employee in the right direction.
2.3
Summary of the Chapter
Like seen in the upper chapter, the relation of the salesman as well as any other employee
with the company can be described with the principal-agent approach, which presumes that
the company and the employees can have different goals. Whereas the company wants to
survive in the business environment and maximize its profit, the employee wants to assure his
working place and maximize his own (and not necessarily the companies) profit. To guide the
employee in the right direction a possible method may be an incentive system, which rewards
the employee upon certain assessment bases which reflect the goals of the company.
16
3
Incentive Systems as a Potential Solution to the Control Prob-
lem
Like explained in the upper chapter, a method used to guide the employee into a direction
which is whished by the company, is the application of an incentive system.
The idea of incentive systems is not quite new, and already a broad body of knowledge exists
in the literature. In the following chapter the knowledge about incentive systems of various
authors shall shortly be explained to give the reader a broad overview about that topic, which
is needed to understand the rest of the book. Here the book mainly describes the basics of
incentive systems followed by a more detailed look on assessment bases with the question,
which assessment bases should be taken to guide the employee in the "right" direction.
3.1
Definitions
An incentive system basically consists of incentives, which are connected to the assessment
bases in form of a reward function (Bolsinger, 2007).
Incentive system
The literature defines incentive systems as the: "sum of all intentionally designed and aligned
stimuli (working conditions), which enforce certain behaviors (by positive stimuli / reward)
and reduce the possibility of occurrence of unwished behaviors (by negative sanctions)"
(Becker, 1995; cited in Bolsinger, 2007).
The stimuli are so called "motivators" which shall enforce job related behavior and guide its
form, direction, strength and length (Weinert, 2002; cited in Bolsinger, 2007). Incentive
systems are characterized by the granting of the incentives upon well-defined assessment
bases (Kossbiel, 1994; cited in Bolsinger, 2007).
Incentives
Friedl (2003; cited in Bolsinger, 2007) defines incentives as rewards, which are granted as a
result of a realized decision and satisfy the motive or motives of the decision maker.
17
Assessment bases
The assessment bases are defined as indicators which reflect either the desired behavior itself
(input) or the result of the desired behavior (output) (Weißenberger, 2003; cited in Bolsinger,
2007).
Rewards Function
The rewards function shows the relation between assessment basis level and incentive level.
The relation can be linear, progressive, regressive or S-shaped (Fischer & Rödel, 2007; cited
in Bolsinger, 2007). Furthermore the relation can show leaps, which can be used for granting
a reward just then, when a certain level of performance is reached (floor) and capping it on a
certain level (Bolsinger, 2007).
3.2
Outcome-Based versus Behavior-Based Control Systems
However, just stating that an incentive system is needed is more simply done than implement-
ing it. The upper part just considers the process of connecting incentives to measures, to make
the employee acting according to a wished direction.
The question, which is more important, is "what kind" of measures shall be taken to setup the
control system. Generally in the literature two basic kinds of control approaches exist. The
first category consists of input (behavior) assessment bases and the second category consists
of output (result) based assessment bases. Here it must be carefully considered which ap-
proach is adequate, because by the use of wrong assessment bases various problems can
occur.
3.2.1
Outcome-Based Control Systems
Outcome based sales control systems use various objective measures, such as sales and profit
achieved by the sales personal to evaluate whether the salespeople are performing to their
expectations (Anderson and Oliver, 1987).
This system is often used in sales departments with various and complex sales transactions,
where the clear identification of sales processes is not possible. If (in such a complex envi-
ronment) the sales manager would try to analyze efficient sales methods by observation and
analysis of the methods used, the management cost would increase significantly (Takashima,
2004).
18
Therefore, according to Anderson and Oliver (1987), this system is characterized by relatively
little (behavior) monitoring by the management. Sales force is expected to act on their own
way using their own strategies and methods. They are only held accountable for the result but
not the way they reach the result. So management also shows little direction and guidance
regarding the sales methods used. The guidance can be seen as extrinsic by the market
rewarding the behavior the sales force use by buying their products.
But the system is also seen to shift the risk to the salesperson. It can occur that sales are low
for reasons behind the influence of the salesperson e.g. economic crises, deflation and so on.
These facts are in case of outcome-based control not beard by the company but by the
representative.
This system is often applied by companies (Churchill, Ford, Hartley and Walker, 1985). The
reason is seen in the simplicity of getting the measures of sales volume and turnover. Peck
(1982) also finds evidence that these measures are widely used in practice. Other measures
which are widely used are profit or net margins which in contrary measure the profitability
of the business (Behrmann and Perreault, 1982).
3.2.2
Behavior-Based Control Systems
Behavior-based control represents the contrary approach of the upper system. Management
staff highly monitors the behavior and guides the sales staff. Managers often have a well-
defined idea what leads the company to success and therefore wants sales staff to behave in
that way. Because results are expected to come in the long run, the risk is beard by the
company (Anderson and Oliver, 1987). The evaluation and remuneration are based on a
broader set of different performance measures most taken from input factors like calls done,
customers visited, and days worked (Jackson, Keith and Schlacter, 1983). The focus lies on
the methods and procedures instead of the results of an action.
3.3
Evaluation of the Control Approaches
The upper two systems are two extreme poles of control. In the following subchapter the
characteristics of the sales department are mentioned to analyze the appropriateness of these
systems for the sales department with the question which system shall be applied to the sales
department.
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3.3.1
Distance between Salesman and Manager
The sales occupation is inherently a very independent occupation. Sales persons spend much
of their time on the road. This makes it difficult to monitor them. Especially it's hard to figure
out what makes a sales person more efficient than another (Weitz, 1981).
So the data necessary for the control should be gathered with adequate time effort. The output
based control system has the advantage that result figures are much more easily gathered,
because they can be prepared by the accounting department, controlling or already exist in the
ERP-system. Pure behavior based control often needs special procedures to gather the data
and that often needs the direct involvement of the sales manager, which also leads to the
problem of a biased view on how reality works. So upon this characteristic the output-based
control would be more appropriate.
3.3.2
Biased View of the Manager and Various Factors for Sales Success
The major disadvantage of behavior based control lies in the complexity of the performance
measurement and the related subjectivity of the evaluation. Like mentioned before, managers
often have their own "view" what drives success and evaluate the sales staff according to that
view, not knowing whether reality really works in that way or not. The view of the manager
can be shifted by bias, ignorance, halo effects and lack of credibility into the evaluation
system (Behrmann and Perreault, 1982).
Also according to the sales situation itself, a method, what could work in one situation, may
fail in another. There is no "universal transformation process" (Ouchi and McGuire, 1975)
which transfers sales force input to output. This makes managers letting sales persons use
their own methods. Outcome based controls for example give hereby the sales staff the
necessary flexibility in using their own resources and just get evaluated for the result.
Upon the upper information it is also useful, that a control system uses outcome measures to
grand enough flexibility for rewarding the sales specific procedures and knowledge, which
cannot exactly be measured with behavior based measures. By the upper criteria, the outcome
based control would be more appropriate. But a pure outcome-based control also can launch
some difficulties.
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3.3.3
Short Term Performance Driven
When using a pure outcome based control system, the sales staff may start to concentrate on
short-term performance and reaching turnover goals while neglecting customer needs and
future selling potential (Anderson and Oliver, 1987). Sales staff could neglect effort in selling
new product lines, concentrating on the cash-cow products, which are already in the market,
due to the higher pay off by the measures (Moynahan, 1983). So the control system definitely
should use some behavior based measures to bring the sales staff onto the "right direction".
The motto should be:
"As much flexibility as possible to ensure the use of sales specific knowledge, but as much control as needed to
ensure the walk on the "right path".
3.3.4
Better Linkage to Corporate Strategy
Generally an advantage of behavior based control lies in the linkage to the corporate strategy,
which is not necessarily short-term oriented, by using measures for compliance with the
corporate strategy (Anderson and Oliver, 1987). Pure outcome based control can be a "black
box" regarding the strategy, because no control exists regarding "how" the sales staff achieves
the results. Behavior based control gives control over the way the results are achieved.
3.3.5
Exclusion of External Factors
Behavior based control also leads to more equated evaluation of the sales staff, because
external market factors are eliminated. So this system is more intrinsically driven. Turnover
can be influenced by external factors beyond the control of the sales staff. By behavior based
control this fact is considered (Churchill, Ford, Hartley and Walker, 1985).
3.4
Criteria Catalogue
As seen above, each of the polarized systems has advantages and disadvantages. To conclude,
a system should be implementable with low or medium effort and leave enough space for
unique sales knowledge and behavior which is not known by management but also leads to
sales success. But also measures are needed, which guide the sales staff in the strategy wished
direction and assures a long-term (not only short-term) success. Furthermore a right mix
between internal and external factors should be measured to exclude negative external effects
on the sales success, which lie beyond the responsibility of the sales person.
21
Upon the upper characteristics it can be recognized that a polarized approach is not appropri-
ate for the sales department. The solution could be a mixed approach between behavior- and
results-based measures. Upon these characteristics in the following part a criteria catalogue
shall be developed.
1.
Manager Independent Control System
Ideally the system should be independent from the sales management in two terms. Like
mentioned above the sales occupation is very independent, because the representatives spent
much of their time on the road. So the manager should not have the hassle to observe and
control the employee permanently in the matter of time. The system should be automated, that
the manager just gets the key figures at the end of the month and evaluate and direct by that
the employee into the right direction. Second it should be a standardized system which is set
up independent from the manager in meaning of criteria selection. Like mentioned above, the
manager has his personal view of how reality works but this view may not always be in line
with the reality or the goals of the company itself. These personal biases could lead to a
misevaluation and by that misdirection of the employee.
2.
Not too Deep Measurement of Sales Activities
Like mentioned above various and different behaviors can drive sales success. And not
always there is one ultimate sales solution, which transforms input into output. So the control
system should just use measures on a higher level, which lead the employee in a certain
(wished) direction, but gives him enough free space to act in his own way.
3.
Right Mix between Short Term and Long Term Goals
While pure output based control mainly concentrates on results, which stem from the past and
does not use input figures which lead to future results, it can occur that a salesperson just
concentrates on maximization of the short term success, because this leads directly to his
"next" remuneration. So the system should use a mix between short term oriented goals and
long term oriented goals, which also ensure the success of the company in the future.
22
4.
Linkage to Corporate Strategy
The sales department is not a "lone wolf". It also has to follow the corporate strategy. So the
measures should be derived from and be in line with the corporate strategy.
5.
Right Mix between External and Internal Key Figures
The measures of the control system should include a right mix between internal and external
key figures. Like mentioned above a pure concentration on external key figures, could make
the employee responsible for situations which are beyond his control. But in contrary a pure
internal key figure control could neglect "unknown" success-driving influences, which are
just known by the employee but not by the management. Furthermore it would take the
flexibility to act differently in different sales situations. So the tonus should be to give as
much space as possible by external key figures, to give space to the employee to act freely
and as much needed internal control as necessary to guide the employee into the right (and
from the corporate strategy) whished direction.
3.5
Summary of the Chapter
Like mentioned at the end of chapter 2, an incentive system is a possible method to guide the
employee in the right direction. So in the first part of this chapter the incentive system as a
performance evaluation system was introduced. The basic components like the incentives, the
assessment bases and the reward function were shortly explained. Regarding the assessment
bases the second part of the upper chapter explored the behavior based and the output based
control systems as contrary extreme poles of assessment bases with the question, which of
these systems better fits the requirements of the sales department. Here, it was found out, that
no "pure" solution (neither pure behavior-based nor pure outcome-based) is adequate due to
the characteristics of the sales department. Merely a combination of both systems is neces-
sary. So in the last part of the chapter a criteria catalogue was developed, which took the
advantages of both approaches and tried to delete the weaknesses. This catalogue shall be
taken as match criteria, which a potential control system for performance evaluation should
fulfill.
23
4
The Balanced Scorecard as First Approach
Like mentioned above, upon the upper criteria it can be discovered that a mix between
external and internal criteria for guiding and evaluation the sales staff is needed. A pure
behavior- or outcome based control like explained in the work of Anderson and Oliver (1987)
may be inadequate. Already Woodruff (like mentioned in the introduction) found out, that
each pure system has advantages and disadvantages. So a system has to be taken which
combines both approaches.
The first well known performance management system, which fulfilled this requirement, was
developed by Kaplan and Norton in 1996 the Balanced Scorecard. The development was
driven by the fact that in the 80's most American companies used financial key figures (in
most cases outcome-based) for evaluation of performance (Kaplan and Norton, 1996).
Kaplan and Norton shared the idea, that a control and guidance of a company cannot be made
solely on a single financial perspective. But also a single customer based concentration of
performance management, like it is the case in Woodruff's (1997) customer value manage-
ment framework could lead to a suboptimal solution. A "balanced" solution of several
dimensions of a company would mirror the reality of the company. So the Balanced Score-
card considered both, the customer and the financial perspective as external stakeholders.
4.1
Perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard
Characterizing for the Balanced Scorecard is that all goals, measures and actions are allocated
to a certain perspective. Here Kaplan and Norton define four main perspectives (Kaplan &
Norton, 1996).
4.1.1
The Financial Perspective
The core question is "which goals can be derived from the financial requirements of the
shareholders". Here the perspective mirrors whether the main goal of business the long term
financial success was reached. Kaplan and Norton see in the financial perspective the result
of all other perspectives and make it by that to the main perspective. The customer, process
and potential perspectives are seen as "driver" perspectives (Horváth and Partners, 2001).
24
4.1.2
The Customer Perspective
The core question in this perspective is "which goals have to be set regarding the customers to
reach the financial result". In this perspective the measures should reflect the creation of a
concrete customer value as also proposed by Woodruff (1997). Contents of this perspective
can be originality, functionality, quality and price of the product as well as the creation of the
image and reputation of the company.
In later versions of the Balanced Scorecard Kaplan and Norton replaced the input oriented key
figures of this perspective by output oriented key figures, which reflect the result of the
interaction with the customer like market share, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and
customer profitability (Horváth and Partners, 2001). But the system is still open to connect
both categories of KPIs.
4.1.3
The Process Perspective
This dimension defines "which goals have to be set in the process level to fulfill the require-
ments of the customers and the financial perspective". According to Kaplan and Norton a
customer value just can be created when the processes are mastered. Therefore key figures
should be set to these processes to measure their effectiveness and efficiency. Contents could
be core competencies and key factors like cycle time, the employee skills, the quality or the
productivity (Kaplan & Norton, 1996).
4.1.4
The Potential Perspective
The last perspective defines "which goals have to be set regarding the potentials to handle
actual and future challenges". Key content is the strategic infrastructure. It mainly contains
the employees, the knowledge, innovation and creativity and technology and information
systems. Important for this perspective is, that it not just reflects the actual strategic require-
ments, but should be the background for future change- and adaptability-abilities.
Kaplan and Norton (1996) believed that the customer and process perspective underlie a
continuous change. Just those companies survive who are able to adapt to the always chang-
ing situations.
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4.2
Evaluation of the Balanced Scorecard
Now the Balanced Scorecard shall be analyzed for the use in the sales department upon the
criteria established in chapter 3.4.
4.2.1
Check for Independence from Management
One of the requests in the upper criteria catalogue was that the control system is independent
from the sales management, means that the manager has no opportunity to bias the evaluation
of the controls. The Balanced Scorecard measures are derived from the financial perspective
down to customer, processes and potentials. Often (as a corporate approach) the Balanced
Scorecard is designed by the top-level management in cooperation with the corporate control-
ling, means above the responsibility of the single sales managers. The key figures themselves
are standardized and in most cases calculated by computerized systems upon well-defined
criteria. By that a personal biasing by the sales manager is reduced even if not completely
impossible.
But also from the distance aspect the Balanced Scorecard can fulfill the criteria. Surely it
depends on the goals set up in the perspectives, but as soon as measures are created, it is
assumed that the raw data is registered. So the manager is freed of the task to observe and
control the representative actively.
4.2.2
Check for Mid-Depth Insight in Sales Activities
Another request was that the control system measures at a level, which grants enough space
for the sales agents to act freely but deep enough to direct the agents in the of the company
supposed direction.
Like mentioned in the customer perspective Kaplan and Norton started with an input based
approach, but switched later to outcome-based measures. But these two approaches can be
combined. So the customer perspective, as relatively free space for implementation, can be set
up with a combination between input-based measures and output-based measures. Further-
more the other perspectives also can be applied to the sales agent. Kaplan & Norton also
advocated the derivation of a "Corporate Balanced Scorecard" to departmental and individual
scorecards, including all four perspectives. So a financial perspective, which is mainly results
based, can be used to measure sales related outcome measures like turnover and profit. The
process dimension can be used to measure input, like calls done, visits and the amount of
26
offers and orders. To summarize the Balanced Scorecard is able to freely define the degree of
depth in measuring sales activities.
4.2.3
Check for Short-Term and Long Term Goals
The Balanced Scorecard also fulfills this requirement. Whereas on the upper financial
perspective mostly results (output) are measured, which lays the focus on short term perfor-
mance, the contrary side the potential perspective is mainly future oriented. The customer
perspective itself can contain short term measures and long term measures as well.
4.2.4
Check for Corporate Strategy Linkage
Although the Balanced Scorecard basically fulfills the requirement of strategy adaptability the
characteristics are suboptimal. The system has no own "explicit" dimension for strategies,
where these can be defined and broken down. The corporate strategy is latently considered in
the background, where it can be estimated in the setup of the elements of the four dimensions.
When the corporate strategy changes, it is often not easy to know which key figure belongs to
which corporate strategy, so the replacement of key figures in case or a corporate strategy
change is considered as difficult (Wödl, 2008).
4.2.5
Check for Right Mix between Internal and External Key Figures
The Balanced Scorecard also fulfills this requirement. Like mentioned in the check for mid-
depth insight of the system, external key figures, like financial key figures in the finance &
customer perspective, are used. But to balance the system and to ensure that external effects
beyond the responsibility of the salesman do not affect his remuneration, also internal key
figures like process key figures can be used.
4.3
Suboptimal Points in the Balanced Scorecard
The Balanced Scorecard already fulfills the setup criteria at a very high level. However, it still
has some weaknesses.
4.3.1
No "Explicit" Definition and Linkage to the Corporate Strategy
Like mentioned before, one of the weak points is the latently considered corporate strategy.
Due to technology and changing customer demands the company must be able to adapt its
strategy according to the market. In the Balanced Scorecard this fact is still not optimally
solved.
Details
- Pages
- Type of Edition
- Erstausgabe
- Year
- 2013
- ISBN (eBook)
- 9783954896097
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9783954891092
- File size
- 1.3 MB
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2013 (August)
- Keywords
- Performance Prism Controlling Performance Measurement Performance Evaluation Management Accounting
