The strategic value of the balanced scorecard in the networked economy

Thesis (D. Tech.) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2007Success in today’s competitive business environment demands innovative approaches. Organisations must be able to react effectively and make informed decisions in order to be in the best position to take advantage of collaborated business opportunities in the organisation’s external network. The results of strategic decisions are affected by the strategic choices that are made and how successfully those objectives are implemented. In many cases the strategies have mediocre success or fail to achieve what they set out to do due to the failure to formulate and implement strategies that enhance the development of a sustainable competitive advantage in the long term. The case study organisation, MultiChoice Africa (Pty) Limited, serves as an example in understanding the knowledge base imperative in utilising strategic management instruments such as Kaplan and Norton’s (1996a: 8-18, 224-292) Balanced Scorecard to guide leadership in creating real-time value, thereby creating a sustainable competitive advantage. Balanced Scorecards have largely been developed and applied to internal managerial purposes, though they are seldom used for external marketing. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the strategic value of the Balanced Scorecard in the networked economy, utilising a case study design by following a phenomenological paradigm approach. The outcome was based on a pre- and postanalysis of the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard within the case study organisation, focusing on the perceived value towards overcoming the barriers to strategy implementation, developing a competitive advantage and sustaining this advantage. Sustainability was specifically defined and tested against the environment and ethical behaviour as the results indicated that a link exists between sustainable competitive advantage and the appropriate utilisation of the Balanced Scorecard. Research results suggest that respondents appear to be enthusiastic and have started the process of transforming the organisation into a ‘Balanced Scorecard organisation’. The main advantages included an increased awareness of vision, linking operational tasks to strategic employees’ participation and flexibility. Shortcomings, on the other hand, included the perceived lack of contribution of the Balanced Scorecard to the final outcome as well as to the transformation process. A number of limitations were evident in the design, deployment and utilisation of the Balanced Scorecard in overcoming the barriers to strategy implementation and how to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the networked economy. Important aspects surrounding employees and stakeholders were also highlighted as the design of the case study organisation’s original Balanced Scorecard is based on its value chain. However, due to the networked economy and its implications for the organisation, the Balanced Scorecard architecture should be modified to make provision for a networked design. These modifications should incorporate additional constructs that need to be taken into consideration when creating larger networks and establishing collaborative communities of practice. Key to the organisation’s future strategic value and intent is the successful implementation of change management (transformation) as a driver into the application of the Balanced Scorecard in the networked economy. Insight gained was used to propose a theoretical model based on global business landscape demands, utilising new and innovative strategies and business model architectures that require the convergence of aggregated metrics of all role players in the borderless network, as outlined in the ‘Networked Balanced Scorecard’ theoretical model. The theoretical model outlines how organisations can reform and integrate their Balanced Scorecards to support strategy formulation, implementation and control. It therefore supports sustainable competitive advantage and is based on embracing components of competitive intelligence and collaboration in the networked economy. It is thus suggested that organisations can no longer implement sustainable competitive advantage strategies in isolation, but need to focus on organisational development strategies that encapsulate the network concomitance structure and architecture, thereby attaining the new value proposition for strategic intent

Business design: strategy practice in innovation consulting

Escalating complexity of the business world establishes an organisation’s ability to innovate as its greatest competitive advantage. And as linear, rational approaches have proven insufficient for the goal, executives seek novel, creative ways to develop and realise breakthrough strategies. The concept of design thinking, centring around empathy, invention and learning, becomes instrumental in tackling business challenges and supporting innovation initiatives. By bringing about a hands-on toolkit, design professionals become well-equipped in developing offerings, improving operations and crafting strategies. Over the past decade, the discipline blending strategy with de'sign began to emerge in specialised consultancy. The large design firm, such as IDEO, Fjord and Doblin, launch strategic offering to drive business growth and align organisations. In parallel, design-led approaches thrive in innovation practices at the consulting majors, including BCG, McKinsey and Deloitte. The insider research aims to establish the relevance of business design by linking its practice to a holistic theoretical framework. Defining and describing the core approach of the discipline provides insights for both professionals and scholars at the intersection of design and strategic management

Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Course for Occupational Therapy Students

There is limited information regarding the occupational therapists role in the cardiac rehabilitation setting. This lack of information may contribute to a limited amount of therapists working in this setting. Through the identification of this problem, the need for a course on cardiac rehabilitation for occupational therapy students was identified. The course was intended to expand the students’ knowledge of cardiac rehabilitation and the position of an occupational therapist within this setting. A literature review was conducted utilizing several research databases which include PubMed, ERIC, and SCOPUS in order to determine the depth of information available regarding educational theories, educational strategies, occupational therapy and cardiac rehabilitation. Information was also gathered from journals, textbooks and faculty knowledge. The information for the course was developed from the research on educational concepts but the content of the course was developed from Hoff’s (2007) scholarly project: provide title. The course, which was developed, is intended for occupational therapy students who are interested in further developing their knowledge in cardiac rehabilitation. The course is intended to be an elective study which spans over the period of one semester. There are a total of two quizzes, one treatment plan, fieldwork experience, and other assignment which are projected to expand and assess the knowledge of the students. This course consists of four educational modules which contain 13 units regarding information on cardiac rehabilitation. In conclusion, the occupational therapist has the ability to provide high quality services to various areas of practice. An area of practice which receives little attention in research in relation to occupational therapy is cardiac rehabilitation. Through the implementation of courses such as the one developed, occupational therapy will be able to expand its scope of practice to areas which can be complimented by the skills of an occupational therapists. The cardiac rehabilitation course is intended to provide occupational therapy students with additional information about this specialty, allowing for entrance into the cardiac rehabilitation clinic as an entry-level therapis

Learning Lessons from The Bangalore Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme: Participatory Approaches to Urban Development

The present report contains the findings of a review study of the BUPP programme in the context of the SINPA programme. This study aims to be relevant in a practical, operational sense, first for the Bangladesh city of Tangail, then for other cities in Bangladesh which want to set up Urban Platforms, and also for the other SINPA countries Zambia and Bolivia. It aimed to collect concrete and applicable suggestions and recommendations leading from the experiences of stakeholders involved in the BUPP programme (see an abstract of the study’s Terms of Reference in annex II)

Training materials for different categories of users

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

TAC's Approach to CGIAR Priority Assessment

Discussion paper on the approach to determining, evaluating, and monitoring the implementation of CGIAR priorities and strategies, and to assessing the impact of CGIAR research and training. The paper draws together various partial efforts at several preceding TAC meetings to decide on methodologies for determining impact and setting priorities.Agenda document, TAC 46

Bayesian participatory-based decision analysis : an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrated analysis of complex challenges to social-ecological system sustainability

Includes bibliographical references (pages. 379-400).This dissertation responds to the need for integration between researchers and decision-makers who are dealing with complex social-ecological system sustainability and decision-making challenges. To this end, we propose a new approach, called Bayesian Participatory-based Decision Analysis (BPDA), which makes use of graphical causal maps and Bayesian networks to facilitate integration at the appropriate scales and levels of descriptions. The BPDA approach is not a predictive approach, but rather, caters for a wide range of future scenarios in anticipation of the need to adapt to unforeseeable changes as they occur. We argue that the graphical causal models and Bayesian networks constitute an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrating research and decision-making for sustainable development. The approach was implemented in a number of different interdisciplinary case studies that were concerned with social-ecological system scale challenges and problems, culminating in a study where the approach was implemented with decision-makers in Government. This dissertation introduces the BPDA approach, and shows how the approach helps identify critical cross-scale and cross-sector linkages and sensitivities, and addresses critical requirements for understanding system resilience and adaptive capacity

Towards Managing and Understanding the Risk of Underwater Terrorism

This dissertation proposes a methodology to manage and understand the risk of underwater terrorism to critical infrastructures utilizing the parameters of the risk equation. Current methods frequently rely on statistical methods, which suffer from a lack of appropriate historical data to produce distributions and do not integrate epistemic uncertainty. Other methods rely on locating subject matter experts who can provide judgment and then undertaking an associated validation of these judgments. Using experimentation, data from unclassified successful, or near successful, underwater attacks are analyzed and instantiated as a network graph with the key characteristics of the risk of terrorism represented as nodes and the relationship between the key characteristics forming the edges. The values of the key characteristics, instantiated as the length of the edges, are defaulted to absolute uncertainty, the state where there is no information for, or against, a particular causal factor. To facilitate obtaining the value of the nodes, the Malice spectrum is formally defined which provides a dimensionless, methodology independent model to determine the value of any given parameter. The methodology produces a meta-model constructed from the relationships between the parameters of the risk equation, which determines a relative risk value

Developing a Guide to Implement a Program through the Library Resource Center for Academically Talented at the Elementary Level

To provide for the unmet needs of the academically talented at Southgate Elementary School in Kennewick, Washington, a pull-out program was written and implemented through the library resource center. Research related to gifted/talented characteristics, identification and selection techniques, curriculum development, and teachers of the gifted was evaluated and applied to the program organization. Benefits of the program to students, parents, staff, and the cormnunity were numerous. Suggestions were made for application in other school settings using the developed guide as a resource