RT Sports manufactures industrial- size insulated coolers. It competes and plans to grow It competes and plans to grow by selling high- quality coolers at a low price and by delivering them to customers quickly after receiving customers’ orders. There are many other manufacturers who produce similar coolers. RT Sports believes that continuously improving its manufacturing processes and having satisfied employees are critical to implementing its strategy in 2013.

Required

1. Is RT Sports’ 2013 strategy one of product differentiation or cost leadership? Explain briefly.

2. Dryer Corporation, a competitor of RT Sports, manufactures insulated coolers with more sizes and color combinations than RT Sports at a higher price. Dryer’s coolers are of high quality but require more time to produce and so have longer delivery times. Draw a simple customer preference map as in Exhibit 14- 1 for RT Sports and Dryer using the attributes of price, delivery time, quality, and design.

3. Draw a strategy map as in Exhibit 14- 2 with two strategic objectives you would expect to see under each balanced scorecard perspective.

4. For each strategic objective indicate a measure you would expect to see in RT Sports’ balanced scorecard for 2013.