Balance Scorecard

This report analyzes Ashley Furniture Company's past and future performance using the Balance Scorecard framework. It includes strategies, objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives for financial, customer, business process, and learning and growth perspectives.

Running Head: BALANCE SCORECARD 0
BALANCE SCORECARD
Student name
3/13/2019

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Balance scorecard............................................................................................................................3
Questions and answers.....................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Ashley Furniture Company is an American based chain manufacturing and retailing
furniture goods since 1997, headquartered in the United States. The company is trading
internationally through chains in more than 800 locations. The company is providing the
products and services to the customer, considering the quality of the product to be good and with
the best services for the customers (ashleyfurniture, 2019). The report includes major strategies
of the company, and to analyze the past performance and future perspective of the company, for
which the Balance scorecard would be developed.

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Balance scorecard
This framework consists of four perspectives for the company to assess and develops the
strategy of the company, which rebased on the vision and mission of the company. From
appendix one, the four pillars of the balanced scorecard of Ashley Furniture Company would be:
Financial perspective – Considering the vision of Ashley Furniture, the major objective
of the company is to increase the organization's profitability, and reduces the cost of the
Company. This can be done through cost management, and resource management that is the
optimum utilization of resources. Theses objective can be measured through increases in profit
margins by twenty percent and increase the revenue of the company by 30 percent
(ashleyfurniturehomestories, 2019).
Customer perspective – Considering the customers, which are the major stakeholders of
the company, the company main objective is to provide excellent services, and create a strong
relationship with the customers. This can be measured through customer satisfaction and how
much revenue the company is earning from each client. The company in order to achieve this
objective could implement customer relationship management, through which the company can
understand the needs, requirements, and expectations of eth customers from the company, and
can try to reach up to the expectations through its products and services.
Business process – Considering the internal business process of Ashley Furniture, the
company’s objective is to improve quality continuously, and enhance supply chain system of the
company by 20 %, which can be measured or evaluated by benchmarking. Moreover, the

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company can implement total quality management to improve quality and supply chain
management could be done to make the supply chain of the company agile.
Learning and growth – This includes the future growth perspectives of the company,
where the objective of the company is to improve the management approach, which can be done
through time management to complete the project on time. The business expansion would be
another objective, which could be done through expanding business another potential market,
and to provide training to employees and develop an incentive system for employees to motivate
them (winonadailynews, 2019).
Questions and answers
1. What are the considerations that you need to be aware of to remain competitive?
For Ashley Furniture Company to remain competitive, the company must be aware of the
opportunities and threats in the industry in which it is working in order to gain opportunity
through its strengths and avoid threats to sustaining in the competitive industry. Moreover, in
such industry, where the designs and technology play a relevant role, the company has to adapt
as per the social and technological changes in company’s operations, designing, new product
development, and innovation. Remain competitive could be challenging for the company’s, the
best way would be to keep updated about the internal and external environment of the company
(Ahlin, 2014).
2. Based on the research and analysis that you have done, can you compete in the market that
you have chosen? Why or why not?

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The market selected for Ashley furniture would be home décor, through which I believe
that the company can compete in the market. The reason being its major strengths and
competitive advantage, which includes the company’s affordable style, and target market of the
company would include the middle-income group as well. Moreover, the quality designs are its
major advantage that can lead the company to sustain in this industry. Moreover, the
technological integration of the company could also be responsible for the ability of the company
to compete in the industry (Aksoy, 2018).
3. What primary factors led you to this decision?
The factors responsible for this decision include:
 Physical appearance – This includes the experience of the customers through store visits,
other than this the physical appearance of the product matter to a greater extent in the
furnishing industry, which is one of the strengths of Ashley furniture.
 Quality – The quality of the product is responsible for customer retention and customer
satisfaction, therefore a major factor for this decision.
 Staff capacity – Human resource play a major role in the success factor of a company,
which seems to be capable of Ashley furniture, reflecting one of eth major factor.
 Technological use – This is one of eth major aspect that is bringing change in the
business model due to change in external factors. The company offering the sale of goods
through an online website, and reaching the customers to their door with a product
(Amabile & Rigolizzo, 2015).
4. What would you say to someone who would dispute your position?

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In furnishing and décor industry, the threat to new entrants is high and the competition is also
high, which indicates the company to sustain to the position. The action the company can take in
order to save the position would be:
 Expansion strategy – The Company needs to expand business in various other locations,
to gain a competitive advantage over the competitors.
 Innovation – Innovation would be the best way to answer in the industry rivalry and gain
competitive advantage, which includes innovation through the supply chain of the
company, operations, products or services. This is also important to attract new customer
and retain the existing customers.
 New product development – in order to answer to the competitors, one of the best way is
to introduce the customer with a new product to attract the customers and competition the
market (Biemans, 2018).
5. How do you plan on evaluating the global marketplace in the future?
The international market can be evaluated through analyzing the external environment of
the nation, in which the company would like to invest and trade, which could be done through
PESTLE analysis. Moreover, benchmarking could be another way to evaluate if the company’s
productivity and quality is as per global standards (Bruns, 2013).

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Conclusion
From the report, it can be concluded that Ashley Furniture Company is an American
based chain manufacturing and retailing furniture goods. For analyzing the past and future
performance of the company, and assess the strategies for the company to achieve the vision of
the company balance scorecard was developed and assessed, where four major perspectives were
considered that were financial perspective, customer perspective, business process, and learning
and growth.

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References
Ahlin, B. (2014). Entrepreneurs’ creativity and firm innovation: the moderating role of
entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Small Business Economics, 43(1), 101.
Aksoy, S. (2018). Applying Ansoff’S Growth Strategy Matrix To Innovation Classification.
International Journal of Innovation Management, 1850039.
Amabile, T., & Rigolizzo, M. (2015). Entrepreneurial creativity: The role of learning processes
and work environment supports. The Oxford handbook of creativity, innovation, and
entrepreneurship, 61.
ashleyfurniture. (2019). about-us. Retrieved from ashleyfurniture:
https://www.ashleyfurniture.com/about-us/
ashleyfurniturehomestories. (2019). our-mission-vision-and-values. Retrieved from
ashleyfurniturehomestories: https://ashleyfurniturehomestories.com/our-mission-vision-
and-values/
Biemans, W. (2018). Managing innovation within networks. London: Routledge.
Bruns, P. (2013). Corporate Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Strategy in large organisations
(3rd ed.). london: Palgrave MacMillan.
winonadailynews. (2019). opjobs_emprec/ashley. Retrieved from winonadailynews:
http://www.winonadailynews.com/app/topjobs_emprec/ashley.html
Zhang, Y., & Tan, Y. (2017). Service performance evaluation using data envelopment analysis
and balance scorecard approach: an application to automotive industry. Annals of

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Operations Research, 248(1-2), 449-470.

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Appendix 1
Ashley Furniture company balance scorecard
Objectives Measures Target
s
Initiatives
Financial  Increase profitability
 Decrease cost
 Profit margins
 Revenue
20%
and
30%
increase
 Apply cost
management
Customer  Service excellence
 Relationship
management
 Customer
satisfaction
 Revenue from
clients
20%
increase
 Implement
CRM
Business
process
 Quality improvement
 The agile Supply chain
system
 Benchmarking 20%
increase
 Total quality
management
 Supply chain
management
Learning
and growth
 Improved management
approach
 Employees training
and benefit
 Business expansion
 Business
locations
 Productivity
 Project
completion
5%,
20%,
and
20%
 Time
management
 Training
program
 Implement an
expansion
strategy