Schedule J

Question 1

how would you measure finance (6 points)

Answer 1

• Revenue
• costs
• ROCE
• profit
• balance sheet
• gearing ratio

Question 2

how would you measure marketing (2 points)

Answer 2

• brand loyalty
• market share

Question 3

how would you measure operations (5 points)

Answer 3

• labour productivity
• unit cost
• capacity
• capacity utilisation
• defected products

Question 4

how would you measure HR (5 points)

Answer 4

• employee motivation
• labour turnover
• retention rates
• labour productivity
• absenteeism

Question 5

core competency definition

Answer 5

a set of skills or actions that a business performs better than anyone else

Question 6

benefits of having a core competency (3 points)

Answer 6

• competitive advantage
• you can outsource weak areas of your business to ones with them as core competencies
• if you can leverage a core competency you can gain brand loyalty

Question 7

drawbacks of core competencies

Answer 7

external environment changes means there are never constant core competencies

Question 8

how can core competencies be tested (3 points)

Answer 8

• do they allow for market development?
• do they provide noticeable benefits to the end user?
• are they difficult to imitate?

Question 9

Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard model

Answer 9

look it up! (schedule J)

Question 10

Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard model: Financial

Answer 10

shareholders want: - ROCE, ROI, increased share price and sales growth
- Objective = increase liquidity
- measure = current ratio
- target = from 1:1 to 2:1
- initiatives = decrease receivable days and increase payable days

Question 11

Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard model: customer/market

Answer 11

brand loyalty
- Objective = increase brand loyalty
- measure = PED
- target = become more inelastic
- initiatives = quality assurance/control

Question 12

Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard model: Internal business processes

Answer 12

Ability to produce products
- Objectives = increase production
- Measure = capacity utilisation
- target = increase from 60% to 80%
- initiatives = increase labour turnover

Question 13

Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard model: Learning innovation and growth

Answer 13

learn, improve and innovate
- objective = produce more new products
- measure = number of products in portfolio
- Target = go from 4 to 6 products
- initiatives = invest in R&D

Question 14

Elkington’s triple bottom line aim

Answer 14

an attempt to make PLC’s more socially responsible

Question 15

Elkington’s triple bottom line: People

Answer 15

social bottom line
- stake holders
- fair pay for employees
- fair trade products

Question 16

Elkington’s triple bottom line: Planet

Answer 16

environmental bottom line
- looking to minimise environmental impact
- reduce environmental cost
- use of sustainable raw materials

Question 17

Elkington’s triple bottom line: profit

Answer 17

financial bottom line
- how much profit is the business making

Question 18

strengths of Elkington’s triple bottom line (2 points)

Answer 18

• forces the business to look at areas they are less comfortable with
• CSR costs more to maintain (e.g. fairtrade)

Question 19

weaknesses of Elkington’s triple bottom line

Answer 19

• hard to measure people and planet (no calculation)