Financial Perspective
Case Analysis:

Despite having an exceptional pace of growth throughout the early years of their existence, Saatchi & Saatchi is facing client attrition and declining revenues. What had happened through their continual restructurings was the corporation lost track of their core vision, mission and values. The distance between these three core attributes of their business and financial performance had drifted apart so far that financial results were showing the increasingly disjointed nature of their corporate culture (Greenhalgh, 2004). The reliance on a balanced scorecard to unify their core vision, mission and values back to financial performance was needed (Niven).

As a result of the continued deterioration of financial and customer performance, management at Saatchi & Saatchi put into place financial and customer-driven goals for the company. The financial objectives included the foundation of their company's resurgence and comeback, including growing the revenue base faster than market rates, converting 30% of incremental…...

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References

Greenhalgh, C. (2004) Building a Strategic Balanced Scorecard: Saatchi & Saatchi Complementary Case Study. Business Intelligence Company. Retrieved February 17, 2013, from  http://www.business-intelligence.co.uk/PDFdownloads/strat_bsc/Saatchisr.pdf 

MyStrategicPlan (N.D.) Balanced Scorecard: Performance Measurements for Success. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from  http://www.mystrategicplan.com/strategic-planning-topics/balanced-scorecard.shtml 

Niven, P. (N.D.) Financial perspective. EPM Review. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Delivering-shareholder-value-growing-revenue-and-enhancing-productivity.html

Robin, D. (ND) Vision, Mission and Values: Management Tools for Building a Better Workplace. Daniel Robin & Associates. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.abetterworkplace.com/027.html

Others also rely on the company as well -- suppliers, partners and customers in particular. All of these stakeholders have a stake in the outcomes of the company, so therefore management should take their needs into account when making decisions.
Stakeholder theory has also been extended to more tangential stakeholders, such as local governments, local populations and the environment. Critical to this thinking is that any person, body or even locality that is affected by the actions of the firm should be given due thought when the company is making decisions. The environment is a good example of this, because the company operates in a given community and destroying the environment of that community does affect the company as well. The outcome of the extended stakeholder approach is that managers need to take a wider variety of concerns and outcomes into consideration in their decision-making processes.

It has also been argued…...

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Works Cited:

Freeman, R., Wicks, a. & Parmar, B. (2004). Stakeholder theory and the corporate objective revealed. Organization Science. Vol. 15 (3) 364-69.

BALANCED CORED CARD & THE FINANCIAL PERPECTIVE
The Balanced corecard & the Financial Perspective

CCRC (Cattaraugus County Rehabilitation Center) is a non-profit organization that focuses on the rehabilitation of disabled people in order to improve their quality of life. The organization also delivers the comprehensive services for disabled people to achieve maximum independence. imilar to the for-profit organizations that used balanced scored to maximize their revenues, the Center also attempted to use the strategy planning tools to enhance its effectiveness, however, the organization faced several challenges in its implementation. The new Director of the trategic Planning introduced the Balanced corecards tool "to cascade strategic planning throughout the entire organization." (Martello, Watson, Fischer, 2008, p 72). The goal of using the corecard is to align each area of the organization with the overall strategic plan.

This paper argues that the organization has done a good job by implementing the Balanced corecard to reflect the…...

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Sources)

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Total Contributions

$927,807

Program Service Revenue

Organic Pet Food
For the financial perspective, there should be targets for revenue, net income and contribution margin. Revenue is critical, because the company needs to bring in enough cash to conceivably run the business. Net income is profit, which is the objective of every business owner. Revenue target = $100,000 in the first year. Net income target = profit in the first year. Contribution margin is the amount of money that is left over after variable costs (in this case cost of goods sold) for the coverage of fixed costs. This target should be set at 20%, so as to leave some room for profit.

For the customer value perspective, three metrics are customer retention, customer satisfaction and brand recognition. Retention is a measure of how many customers are return customers. The target here can be 50% initially. Obviously return customers are critical for the long-term growth of the business but…...

TESCO BSC
Tesco Balanced Scorecard

FINANCIAL PESPECTIVE

MEASUES

MEASUES

Growth

Market share

More stores, more locations

Sales volume

Online sales volume

Profitability

OCE measures

Variety

Product channels

Costs/profit margins

Affordability

Price comparisons

Security

Debt reduction

INTENAL Business PESPECTIVE

LEANING/INNVATION PESPECTIVE

MEASUES

MEASUES

Integrity

Cultural consistency

Development

Training expenditures

Middle-management promotion levels

Consistency

Staff retention

eporting regularity

Diversification

Changes in department outputs

Explanation and Justification of Proposed Measures

From the financial perspective, the company has set itself goals of continued and even stronger growth, and profitability is also specifically mentioned by the CEO in his review of the company's 2011 annual report (Tesco, 2012). Likewise, the specific measures listed for these goals -- market share, sales volume, OCE measures, and profit margins -- are all referenced by the CEO in his assessment of the company's current position, its future desires, and its real future outlook, and they are also generally associated with financial performance and strength (Tesco, 2012; Quiry et al., 2011). educing debt will add to financial security during a time of continue global economic uncertainty. Moving to the customer perspective, the CEO again…...

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References

Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2007). Business Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Quiry, Fur, Y., Salvi, A., Dallochio, M. & Vernimmen, P. (2011). Corporate Finance. New York: Wiley.

Tesco. (2012). CEO Review. Accessed 29 April 2012. http://ar2011.tescoplc.com/chief-executive's-review.html

Walters, D. & Hanranhan, J. (2000). Retail Strategy. New York: Macmillan.

high-quality healthcare services to families with children suffering from a broad range of developmental disabilities is a challenging enterprise in any setting, but the constraints to productivity faced by Cattaraugus County eHabilitation Center were daunting indeed. The Center had grown to include a number of organizations that provide specialized care to disabled children, but it had outgrown its old business model when a Balanced Scorecard initiative was implemented. This paper examines the Center's efforts to determine if the job they did in implementing a balanced scorecard approach was effective in reflecting its organizational mission and vision. A summary of the research and an overall evaluation of the Center's efforts are provided in the conclusion.
eview and Analysis

The balanced scorecard approach developed by Kaplan and Norton (1992) is intended to provide managers with quantifiable performance metrics that link outcome measures with measures reflecting future outcome drivers (Martello, Watson & Fischer, 2008).…...

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References

Kaplan, R. & Norton, D. (1992). The balanced scorecard -- measures that drive performance.

Harvard Business Review, 70(1): 71-79.

Martello, M., Watson, J., Fischer, M., (2008). Implementing a balanced scorecard in a not-for-

profit organization. Journal of Business & Economics Research. 6(9), 67-80. Retrieved

Balanced Scorecard
Blogger Balanced Scorecard

Financial Perspective

Customer Perpsective

MEASURES

MEASURES

Don't drag

Costs

Ease of use

Complaint/question rate

Contribute

Cash flow, profit margin

Innovation

Percentage of users adopting new features

Rate of additional feature additions

Generate

Percentage of parent's total revenue

Integration

Reported problems adding additional non-Google components

Reported problems with Google components

Frequency of use with various applications

Internal Business Pers.

Innovation/Learning

MEASURES

MEASURES

Increased crossover

Rate of adoption of other google products by Blogger

Usability focus

Customer feedback

Rate of Blogger adoption by users of other products

Continuous in-house testing and review

Ad embedding

Click rate for Google-placed ads

Marketing refinement

Rate of ad changes based on algorithmic processes

Click rate

Reduced human resources

Labor hours/usage hours ratio

Blogger HR budget/expenditures

Functionality increase

Time-to-market for new media supports

The above balanced scorecard is rather simply explained. From the financial perspective, Blogger's main goals are to ensure it does not present a cost burden to its parent company (Google), that it helps to contribute to Google's bottom line, and that it becomes a major part of Google's overall revenue/financial scheme. These are measured through costs, cash flow and profits,…...

According to these analysts, "The implicit assumption underlying the price-to-earnings method is that the fair market value of the closely held business can be approximated from the market value of comparable publicly traded businesses. To implement this method, the valuator must be able to identify a set of presumed-to-be comparable publicly traded companies and obtain sufficient information on each to verify the extent of comparability from an economic, management, and financial perspective. No publicly traded company will be precisely comparable to the closely held business being valued, so informed judgment must be exercised" (p. 81). As a general rule, the smaller in size and the more limited the scope of activities of the business being valued, the less likely there will be a set of publicly traded companies that are comparable, or even a single comparable publicly traded company. Publicly traded companies are for the most part large, measured…...

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References

Allen, M.F. & Cote, J. 2005, "Creditors' Use of Operating Cash Flows: An Experimental

Study." Journal of Managerial Issues 17(2): 198-199.

"Asset/equity ratio." 2009, Investor Glossary. [Online]. Available: http://www.investorglossary.

com/asset-equity-ratio.htm.

organization: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
What this organization does -- its mission, vision and overall strategy:

The mission of the VA is taken from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address which is to "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, his widow and his orphans."

Vision: The VA states that, "The President's vision for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to transform VA into a 21st Century organization that is Veteran-centric, results-driven, and forward-looking" (Annual budget submission, 2013, para. 2).

Overall Strategy: The VA Secretary, Honorable Eric K. Shinseki, states that the VA "will not compromise the safety, security, or well-being of Veterans or our employees, but we must scrutinize every event, initiative, program, and proposal to assure that each is absolutely essential and will produce positive, measurable, returns to the accomplishment of our mission" (2013). The VA's current priorities are to:

Expand access for veterans.

2. Eliminate the claims backlog.

3. End…...

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References

Annual budget submission. (2013). Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved from http://

www.va.gov/budget/products.asp.

Outpatient prescription drug coverage comparison. (2013). Military.com. Retrieved from  http://www.military.com/benefits/tricare/outpatient-prescription-drug-coverage-comparison.html .

Shinseki, E.K. (2013). Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved from   / bios/secretary.asp.http://www.va.gov/opa 

Financial Derivatives
This study emphasized the importance roles of financial derivatives, which has been known for the last decade and its effects on the Global financial crisis. It further analyzes the impact of financial derivatives and how it can be controlled to prevent corporations from incurring a lot of risks. It also explains the existence of financial derivatives since 1970, to the recent Global Financial Crisis which occurred in the 2006.

Risk is a feature associated with all productivity. As a result, financial markets adjust themselves to the fluctuation of exchange and interest rates. Hedging risk, these corporations highlight the importance of risk management tools known as Derivatives. Derivatives are defined as financial tools providing investors with effective solutions when avoiding risk caused from market volatility (Dodd, 2006). Financial derivatives are considered to be an effective risk management tool associated with Financial Engineering creating solutions to financial problems (Marks, 2010). In this…...

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Works Cited

Angel, James, and Douglas McCabe. "The Business Ethics Of Short Selling And Naked

Short Selling." Journal Of Business Ethics 85.(2009): 239-249. Business

Source Elite. Web. 1 Apr. 2012.

Barth, Mary E., and Wayne R. Landsman. "How Did Financial Reporting Contribute To

Financial analysts play a number of roles within an organization. They made assessments of the value of investments the firm has or may have in the future. They can specialize in determining the value of projects. In addition, financial analysts are engaged in risk assessment, and take steps to determining the best ways for the firm to mitigate the risks that have been identified. Overall, financial analysts use a multitude of different knowledge sets including taxes, finance, economics and risk management to assist the company in making the best financial decisions for the firm (BLS, 2010).
a )The net profit would be the gross profit less operating expenses, interest expenses and tax expenses. Thus, the net profit is: $1,000,000 - $345,000 - $125,000 = $530,000. From this the taxes are removed: $530,000 * (1-.3) = $371,000. The preferred stock dividends of $57,000 must then be removed in order to determine the…...

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Works Cited

BLS. (2010). Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010-11 Edition. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 21, 2011 from  http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos301.htm 

Loth, R. (2011). Financial ratios tutorial. Investopedia. Retrieved May 21, 2011 from  http://www.investopedia.com/university/ratios/

Therefore, I do believe that qualitative research is necessary. The financial statements can reveal much, but there are definitely instances in which the financial statements require contextual understanding for proper interpretation. Without this understanding, the firm's numbers may only reveal raw data. Raw data can be interpreted any number of different ways, so it is essential that qualitative analysis be conducted in order to place the numbers within a framework that will make understanding easier. or example, Landry's is taking on debt, but we know from the company's statements that this is to finance expansion and that hopefully when those properties are open, the returns will begin to improve.

How the firm makes money is an important consideration. This can help to not only place past performance into perspective but also to provide greater understanding of the firm's future prospects as well. Competitive advantages can be derived sometimes from the financial…...

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Free Cash Flow = Cash from Operating Activities -- Capital Expenditures (aka Cash from Investing Activities)

2003: $121,529 -- 189,930 = ($68,401)

2002: $111,637 -- 274,913 = ($163,276)

3. hat evidence of socio-centric tendencies do you find in either perspective? Support your findings with specific examples. The tendency veers away from providing the necessary information at the most vital time. Bottorf (2007) expresses that often students and their parents find out generic information at the very last minute when decisions no longer have time to wait for extended periods, therefore, they are left with very few options and not truly able to make informed choices. He goes further in the writing to express that no only is the responsibility on the school but also on the parent to question and seek out answers to important college funding questions.

Retrieved at http://www.ocregister.com/news/college-parents-schools-1926973-high-funding...

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What evidence of egocentric thinking do you find in either perspective? Support your findings with specific examples. It is possible to feel that the schools have an egocentric manner in the fact that they state they have it covered, as Bottorf (2007) stated in the writing, when in fact most schools do not. The reading gives the reader an opportunity to see that often because of the thoughts that go into a school lead one to believe they know what they are talking about shows how such a comment can be made and tons of individuals put faith into a simple sentence without any support or idea as to whether or not these statements are supported.

3. What evidence of socio-centric tendencies do you find in either perspective? Support your findings with specific examples. The tendency veers away from providing the necessary information at the most vital time. Bottorf (2007) expresses that often students and their parents find out generic information at the very last minute when decisions no longer have time to wait for extended periods, therefore, they are left with very few options and not truly able to make informed choices. He goes further in the writing to express that no only is the responsibility on the school but also on the parent to question and seek out answers to important college funding questions.

Retrieved at  http://www.ocregister.com/news/college-parents-schools-1926973-high-funding

Financial managers and CEO's play important roles in ensuring that organizations meet their specific goals. The skill levels for both positions are high and require a great deal of patience and experience. The purpose of this discussion is to determine whether being a financial manager is the best preparation for later becoming a CEO.
ole of the Financial Manager

According to the Bureau of Labor, financial managers must have a bachelor's degree in a field such as business administration, accounting, economics or finance. Although, as the business world becomes more competitive, organizations are requiring financial managers to have Master's degrees and a great deal of experience before they can become financial managers. The Bureau also explains that financial managers are vital to the success of any organization and their jobs involve supervising the preparation of financial reports, direct investment activities, and implement cash management strategies. As computers are increasingly used to record…...

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References

Campbell, M.W., Kowalski, R.B. Healthcare Financial Management Association Apr 2000

Financial Managers. 2004. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.  http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos010.htm

She is well-connected within the community and is confident that her business would be profitable within a year or two. She has a strong, charismatic personality and is also connected to Milwaukee's artistic community through her husband's architectural work restoring some of the city's beautiful historic buildings. She has a considerable portfolio, and occasionally sold stock photos or worked as a wedding photographer when she was in law school.
Laura realizes that in the current market, individuals and companies may be cutting back on "luxuries" like professional family and staff pictures. However, she has a range of expertise in architectural and interior photography as well as portrait and event photography. She is willing to diversify her skill set and pursue further education if necessary, although in her field an additional artistic degree would only be desirable for teaching or competing for gallery showings at a national level.

According to her business…...

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References

College Board. (2010). Trends in college pricing, 2010. Retrieved from  http://trends.collegeboard.org/ 

Hung, a., & Yoong, J. (2010). Asking for Help: Survey and experimental evidence on financial advice and behavior change. RAND Working Paper WR-714-1.

Morris, Kenneth M., Alan M. Siegel, and Virginia B. Morris. (1995). The Wall Street Journal Guide to Planning Your Financial Future. New York: Lightbulb Press.

Parisse, a., & Richman, D. (2006). Questions Great Financial Advisors Ask… and Investors Need to Know. Chicago: Kaplan.