Cost Management: Measuring, Monitoring, and Motivating Performance, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 16

Strategic Performance Measurement

In Brief

Successful organizations adopt a strategic decision-making process to ensure that strategies and operating activities are aligned with the organization's vision and core competencies. They also engage in continuous improvement by monitoring and learning from the results of their strategies and operations. Accountants develop and track a variety of financial and nonfinancial measures to monitor results. The balanced scorecard is a formal approach for identifying and measuring an organization's performance from four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth. Approaches such as the balanced scorecard motivate individuals and units throughout an organization to work toward a common vision and improve strategic and operating success.

This Chapter Addresses the Following Questions:

• Q1 What is strategic decision making?
• Q2 How are financial and nonfinancial measures used to evaluate organizational performance?
• Q3 What is a balanced scorecard?
• Q4 How is a balanced scorecard implemented?
• Q5 How does the balanced scorecard affect strategic management and incentives?
• Q6 What is the future direction of cost accounting?

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