To ensure the loyalty of its customers – i.e. to generate lifetime loyalty the following CSFs should be addressed:

• Stocking the goods that customers most want to buy
• Making the shopping experience as pleasant as possible/differentiating the shopping experience from that of other supermarkets to lock in customers.
• Making the supermarket more accessible to customers by establishing out-of-town outlets
• Etc.
  To ensure its prices are at least 2 percent cheaper than the average of rival supermarkets – i.e. to create value for customers the following CSFs should be addressed:
• Refining internal processes to operate the business on a cost-effective basis – e.g. building close partnerships with suppliers to implement a JIT system (in order to eliminate or reduce warehousing costs)
• Using economies of scale to source appropriate goods as cheaply as possible.
• Etc.

In order to measure how well Addie management is performing against the above CSFs, the supermarket needs to set the following KPIs: The first three KPIs are in respect of the first two CSFs above and the last three are in respect of the remaining CSFs.

• The proportion of goods taking more than a week to sell
• Results of customers feedback surveys
• Percentage of customers who are repeat customers
• Market share
• Cost measures and progress against savings targets
• Cost savings in procurement
• results of benchmarking prices or costs against that of rivals

Critical success factors for the successful mobile money service operations

• Network reach – there is currently only 65% coverage of Ghana by the network operators. For effective remittances across the whole country, there must be expansion of network to unreached areas.
• Network stability – stable network and zero-down time is a prerequisite for the confidence in mobile money solution. Customers may feel frustrated if the network is not stable. Network instability is one major challenge identified.
• Product offering – continuous expansion of services offered on mobile money will guarantee its long-term profitability and success.
• Mobile Technology Infrastructure – the mobile money runs on the mobile telephony technology provided by network operators without which mobile money solution would be impossible. Mobile money solution survival will depend on the survival of network operators.
• Regulation – to protect customer’s money and build confidence stringent regulations have been called for and that has been put in place effective 1 December 2017. This will ensure long-term survival of mobile money operations in Ghana.

• Aaron Yeboahs’ recent exposure to mission statements as part of the strategic management process provides a useful opportunity to evaluate their relevance and value to a small company such as GUSSIE PERRY. In some ways, Aaron is a ‘walking mission statement’. He epitomises the values, behaviour, strategy and purpose of why GUSSIE PERRY exists. Mission statements in defining the reasons why the firm exists, what it aims to achieve, how it aims to achieve its purpose and who it is in business for, can act as a powerful motivating force for the company. In strategic terms it may clarify the markets that the firm intends to serve, the products and services provided for those markets and the way they will be reached. In so doing it may define the boundaries of the organisation chosen by the top management.
• It may also specify the technologies to be used (perhaps important for GUSSIE PERRY and the competencies it will use to compete in its chosen markets. It is therefore a combination of ‘hard’ tangible drivers of the business and the ‘softer’ values and behaviours, which will enable the mission of the business to be achieved.
• Ideally, it should have relevance and resonance with all types and levels of employees. It expresses values and beliefs and in so doing will shape and influence the policies and standards adopted by the firm. They can profoundly influence the attitudes and behaviour of key stakeholder groups both inside and outside the firm and achieve a consistency of purpose for the stakeholders.
• By their very nature mission statements typically come at the beginning of the rational planning process and thereby facilitate consistent strategic decisions. However some commentators have argued that you discover rather than invent your mission.
• Aaron may now be in a position to develop a much more meaningful mission statement reflecting the origins of the company, his preferences, and the environmental conditions influencing the company together with its resources and associated competencies and capabilities.
• As the organisation grows and develops so its need for a formal mission statement may increase, enabling the direction of the company to be understood and for more detailed goal setting and planning to be done against a consistent framework.
• Its ability to communicate what the firm stands for both to stakeholders inside and outside the firm should not be underestimated. As such, development of an effective mission statement will take time and reflect changing conditions faced by the firm.
• Mission statements by their very nature are broad in their scope and intended to positively influence the many stakeholders linked to the company. Effective statements should be brief, adaptable to changing circumstances and clearly show the distinctiveness of the firm and its mission. Ineffective statements will convince nobody, have little or no impact on, or relevance to, what the firm does. They may be merely statements of good aspirations and intentions, and used for public relations purposes to justify actions already taken. Once created, good statements should be re-visited at regular intervals to ensure they are relevant to the environment the firm is operating in.
                                                                                                                                                                                  (Any 4 points)

For objectives to facilitate the implementation of management by objectives (MBO) it should possess the ‘SMART’ characteristics. SMART is the mnemonics representing the following:
i. Specific: An objective must be a clear statement of what the organisation is trying to achieve, and must be easy to understand. For an objective to enhance MBO, it should avoid any form of ambiguities. For example, managers may set an objective to increase sales, profit or customer satisfaction.
ii. Measurable: This means objectives should include some quantifiable element. This way, performance can be monitored and evaluated against the objectives. Measuring performance against objectives is a key element of control in organisation.
iii. Achievable: For MBO to be effective, targets set should always be realistic. If objectives set by management cannot be achieved, those required to achieve the target will not be motivated by it. It may even discourage them, because they know the target can never be reached anyway, no matter the level of effort they put in. To work well, employee must believe that their efforts can be successful.
iv. Agreed: Sometimes, the ‘A’ is explained as agreed. In this sense, objectives or targets set need to be the consensus reached by the different people who are involved in the process. There is no need to impose targets on employees since it could discourage them from making any attempt to achieve it. The essence of MBO is participative management.
v. Relevant: An objective is relevant if it relates to an organisation’s mission, and will help it fulfill that mission. Thus, objectives must necessarily flow from the organisation’s mission otherwise it will lead to avoidable conflicts in its achievement.
vi. Realistic: Sometimes, the ‘R’ is explained as realistic. In this regard, the explanation will be the same as in achievable/attainable.
vii. Time-related: All objectives or targets should state quite clearly when they should be achieved. Managers and/or employees need to know exactly how long they have so that they can plan accordingly. When objectives are time-specific, it enables management to judge whether or not the objective has been achieved. This characteristic also facilitates management function of control. For example, if an organisation has an objective ‘To increase sales revenue by 5%’ how will managers know the time period over which this sales increase is expected.                                                                                                      (Any 3 points)

                                                                                                      MEMO
To: The Chief Executive Officer
From: Management Accountant
Date:
Subject: Balanced Scorecard
Introduction
This memo is to describe the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard and the major problems inherent in its application to corporate strategic management.
i. Description of the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard

• Financial perspective – The financial perspective of the balance scorecard answers the question, ‘how do we as an organisation look to shareholders?’ Thus, it addresses the question on how the organisation should create value for its shareholders in order to succeed financially. It covers traditional measures such as growth, profitability and shareholder value, with measures set through talking directly to the shareholders. Financial performance measures indicate whether the company’s strategy, implementation, and execution are contributing to bottom-line improvement.
• Customer perspective – The customer perspective of the balance scorecard is a means by which management translates its overall mission statement on customer service into specific measures that reflect the factors that really matter to customers. It answers the question of how the organisation should appear to its customers in order to achieve its vision. It helps management to pay attention to customers’ concerns such as cost, time, quality, performance, reliability and service.
• Internal business process perspective – This perspective addresses internal business processes for which the organisation must excel at in order to meet or exceed customer expectations and achieve financial objectives. Internal measures for the balanced scorecard should stem from the business processes that have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction – factors that affect quality, employee skills, and productivity. It also attempts to identify and measure the organisation’s core competencies and critical technologies needed to ensure continued market leadership.
• Innovation and learning perspective – This perspective is a means of recognising that the targets for success keep changing due to intense global competition and other environmental factors. Thus, it is an attempt to measure the continual improvement of the organisation with regards to existing products and processes. Thus, measures may include the ability of the company to introduce entirely new products with expanded capabilities as well as innovative processes that delivers better value to customers. It brief, it answers the question of how the organisation can continue to create value and maintain its competitive position through improvement and change.

• Conflicting measures – The balanced scorecard sometimes presents conflicting measures. A typical example is research funding and cost reduction. While research is a means of ensuring innovation and learning it leads to cost accumulation which may reflect in high prices for customers. Thus, it is often difficult to determine the balance which achieves the best results.
• Selecting measures – Not only do appropriate measures have to be devised but the number of measures used must be agreed. Care must be taken that the impact of the results is not lost in a sea of information. The innovative
• Expertise – Measurement is only useful if it initiates appropriate action. Non-financial managers may have difficulty with the usual profit measures. With more measures to consider, this problem will be compounded. Measures need to be developed by someone who understands the business processes concerned.
• Interpretation – Even a financially-trained manager may have difficulty in putting the figures into an overall perspective.
• Management commitment – The scorecard can only be effective if senior managers commit to it. If they revert to focusing solely on the financial measures they are used to, then the value of introducing additional measures will be reduced. In this context, do not overlook the cost of BSC. There will be costs involved in data-gathering and in measuring the performance of additional processes.
• Lack of aggregate performance measure – The balance scorecard doesn’t provide a single aggregate summary performance measure; for example, part of the popularity of ROI or ROCE comes from the fact that they provide a convenient summary of how well a business is performing.
• No direct link with shareholder value – In comparison to other measures used in value-based management (such as economic value added or EVA) there is no direct link between the scorecard and shareholder value.
• Culture – Introducing the scorecard may require a shift in corporate culture; for example, in understanding an organisation as a set of processes rather than as departments.
• Imbalance between short-term and long-term perspective – Implementing the scorecard will require an organisation to move away from looking solely at short-term financing measures, and focus on longer-term strategic measures instead. This usually leads to an imbalance between the long and short-term perspectives by management.
                                                                                                                                                                                               Signed
                                                                                                                                                                                  (Any 3 points)

1) Stating the purpose of the organization
2) Stating the business areas in which the organization intends to operate
3) Providing a general statement of the organization’s culture
4) Acting as a guide to develop the direction of the entity’s strategy and its goals/objectives
5) Customers. Who are the enterprise’s customers?
6) Products or services. What are the firm’s major products or services?
7) Markets. Where does the firm compete?
8) Technology. What is the firm’s basic technology?
9) Concern for survival, growth, and profitability. What is the firm’s commitment towards economic objectives?
10) Philosophy. What are the basic beliefs, values, aspirations, and philosophical aspirations of the firm?
11) Self-concept. What are the firm’s major strengths and competitive advantages?
12) Concern for public image. What is the firm’s public image?
13) Concern for employees. What is the firm’s attitude toward employees?

Note: Any student who approaches this question from the Ashridge College model perspective should earn the full mark. Find below
1) Purpose: Why does the company exist? Who does it exist for?
2) Values: are the beliefs and moral principles that underlie the organisation’s culture.
3) Strategy: provides the commercial logic for the company (the nature of the organisations business), and so addresses the following questions. ‘What‘s our business? Or, what should it be?’ What are our elements of sustainable competitive advantage?
4) Policies and standards of behavior: provides guidance on how the organistaion’s business should be conducted.