Week Four discussion replies. Please reply to the TWO students discussion post. 75 word min.

Please reply to the TWO students' discussion posts.

Alexis Gonzales

Board of Directors Memorandum

To: Board of Directors

From: The Digby Management Team

Subject: Round 5 Balanced Scorecard Performance Review

Throughout the simulation rounds, Digby has continuously been dominating the competition by making subtle moves that set us up for the next round. Looking at the reports, we are way heard however, there are still many opportunities for improvement based on the average performance across all the major business categories on the scorecard. In the categories of financial, internal business process, customer, and learning & growth, the results reflect that our company has not met its full potential. The balanced scorecard helps measure performance beyond profits by evaluating how well a company manages financial success, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and long-term organizational development 

For a breakdown summary, Financial was scored average, with the key results being ROS 10.9%, ROA 14.5%, ROE 17.5%, and profit at $36.3 Million. Internal Business process is being average due to a positive product output, a contribution margin of 40.33%, and a balance back due to a high plant investment. This investment can look risky through a current financial lens; however, it is setting the company up to reach a new tier in the next year. 

Customer, in my opinion, was above average due to the high 21.8% market share, which was the highest amongst the competition, and a strong product positioning, but as mentioned before, there is always room to improve. Learning & Growth moved in a positive direction with the high investments in HR and TQM to assist in boosting productivity; however, it was not enough to outperform other company leads. 

Looking at the operation as a whole, Digby made aggressive moves to increase production that helped drive financial results. In each round, we worked on getting R&D as close to what the customers wanted in the customer buying criteria. This effort helped maintain a high market share at 21.8%. Another big move was improving customer awareness and accessibility to help strengthen demand. Investing in plant improvements allowed wiggle room for higher production capacity, which ultimately led to higher sales revenue. 

A trend that a lot of our competitors caught onto as well was that TQM and HR investments helped contribute to internal efficiency and long-term operational growth. These investments assisted in boosting our contribution margin 5%, while also controlling costs and boosting profitability. However, as I mentioned, there is always room for improvement. While these investments supported financial strength and internal processes, our Balanced Scorecard remained in the average category across all four areas, suggesting competitors may have outperformed us in employee productivity, customer satisfaction, or long-term growth metrics. Going forward, Digby should continue refining HR and TQM investments while improving efficiency strategies that move the company from average performance into the strong performance category across the scorecard.

Best Regards,

Alexis Gonzales & The Digby Management Team

References: 

Capsim. (2026).  Balanced scorecard and percentile rankings available for CapsimCore. Capsim Management Simulations.  https://www.capsim.com

Kumar, Atul & Brar, Vinaydeep & Chaudhari, Chetan & Raibagkar, Shirish. (2022). Performance management through the balanced scorecard approach by the South African Revenue Service.  Public Organization Review. 23. DOI:10.1007/s11115-022-00646-5

Kaisean Hawkins

Board of Directors Memorandum: Balanced Scorecard Performance

To: Board of Directors From: Erie Executive Team Subject: Balanced Scorecard Review and Operational Investment Summary

Erie’s projected Balanced Scorecard shows that the company remains financially competitive, but there is still work to do across customer outcomes, internal process performance, and long-term organizational development. The current projection shows a total score of  52.4 out of 100, with  Financial at 18.4/25,  Customer at 10.8/25,  Internal Business Process at 13.9/25, and  Learning and Growth at 9.3/25. This result shows that Erie’s strongest current area is financial performance, while customer performance and learning and growth need continued attention. This aligns with the purpose of the Balanced Scorecard because the model evaluates performance from multiple perspectives instead of relying only on financial results (Gazi et al., 2022).

Operational Area	Investment Focus	Balanced Scorecard Impact
Research & Development	Continued product improvement and alignment with customer expectations	Supports Customer and Internal Business Process results by improving product positioning and competitiveness
TQM	Process efficiency, quality improvement, and cost control	Supports Internal Business Process and Financial results through better efficiency and potential margin improvement
Human Resources	Employee development, productivity, and retention	Supports Learning and Growth while also improving production consistency
Production	Capacity planning, inventory control, and demand alignment	Supports Financial and Internal Business Process results by reducing waste and improving operational execution
Marketing	Customer awareness, accessibility, and sales support	Supports Customer results by improving market visibility and demand capture

From an operational standpoint, Erie’s investments helped protect the company’s financial strength, but the scorecard also shows that financial results alone are not enough to create long-term advantage. R&D and marketing decisions helped position products against customer expectations, but the Customer score suggests that Erie still has room to improve awareness, accessibility, and product fit. Production decisions also played an important role because the company must balance enough capacity to meet demand without creating excess inventory or unnecessary carrying costs. TQM and HR investments are especially important because they support the less visible parts of performance, such as productivity, cycle-time improvement, quality, and workforce stability.

Moving forward, Erie should continue using the Balanced Scorecard as a guide for balanced decision-making. The company should avoid chasing only short-term profit and instead focus on improving customer value, operational efficiency, and employee capability. A stronger balance across all four categories should help Erie improve future scorecard performance while maintaining a competitive position in the simulation. The main recommendation is to keep financial discipline but place more attention on customer-facing improvements and internal process gains so the company can build sustainable performance over the next round.

References

Gazi, F., Atan, T., & Kılıç, M. (2022). The assessment of internal indicators on the balanced scorecard measures of sustainability.  Sustainability, 14(14), 8595.  https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148595

Harvard Business School Online. (2023).  What is a balanced scorecard?  https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/balanced-scorecard