Eric Mathis stared at the latest operational report, trying to decipher it. As president of MetroMed, Inc., he realized that he was responsible for directing the company's progress. Yet he couldn't understand how, after six months of meeting about the company's strategic direction, its performance still seemed to be declining rather than improving.

Sherry Noel, vice president of operations, poked her head in the door. "How's it going, Eric? Did we meet our targets for last month? "Things could be better," Eric replied. "We spent all that time meeting about our strategic direction, and I really thought we were all in agreement on where we were heading. But now I get the monthly operating report, and it's as if no one knows what we're trying to do."

"I just read an article about something called a balanced scorecard," Sherry replied. "It's all about communicating corporate strategy throughout the organization, and then selecting the right metrics to monitor performance at achieving the strategy. Maybe we should look into it.

We've already set our objectives, and I know we get lots of metrics each month in our reports." Eric arranged a few more meetings and invited a friend with experience in developing balanced scorecards to facilitate the process.

The scorecard that resulted follows.

Required
a. Prepare a strategy map to support the proposed balanced scorecard.
b. Evaluate the proposed scorecard in terms of its use of leading and lagging, financial and nonfinancial measures.
c. Evaluate the measures as they relate to the objectives. Be sure you consider the SMART criteria. What modifications would you suggest Eric make before implementing the balancedscorecard?

PERSPECTIVE OBJECTIVES MEASURES Financial! Achieve strong, balanced growth .Number of new products developed . Percentage of sales by product - Time to double sales revenue Generate a fair return to shareholders Stock price that exceeds $30 . Customer Grow market share of existing brands . Number of retained accounts Increased domestic and foreign sales Maintain high-quality, "market leader" brand image Number of brands that are Number of new icon brands acquired Fair pricing (price relative to . Internal business processes Improve product quality Encourage innovatioh in terms of product and processes .Establish inventory turnover measures under Capital budget maintained at 4.7% Learning and growth Continue to be a values-driven companyNumber of appropriate hires Training and development cost .