Strategic Management Accounting: Apple's Balanced Scorecard Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple's strategic management accounting, focusing on the implementation and implications of the balanced scorecard. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction outlining the application of the balanced scorecard in the organization. The report then delves into the challenges Apple faced during implementation, followed by a discussion of the company's long-term goals, stakeholders, and clients. It explores the various perspectives of the balanced scorecard, including financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth, along with their respective objectives. Furthermore, the report examines the relationship between different objectives through a strategy map and the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) and key performance drivers (KPDs). A critical evaluation of the balanced scorecard, including its advantages and disadvantages, is also provided. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications of using the balanced scorecard in Apple's strategic management accounting framework.

Strategic Management
Accounting

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Implementation of balance score card in the organization......................................................1
2. The various issues in implementing the balance scorecard in Apple.....................................1
3. The long term goal, stakeholders and clients of Apple...........................................................2
4. Various perspective for the balance scorecard and their objective.........................................2
5. Relationship between different objective through the strategy map.......................................3
6. KPI's and KPD's indicators.....................................................................................................3
7. Critical evaluation of balance scorecard.................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The aim of strategic management accounting is to focus on the internal and external factors of
the organization. It analyze the business data and the competitors in the organization. Balance
score card is used to measure the performance of the employees and management team by the
performance metric. Apple face many challenges while implementing the balance scorecard
technique in the organization. The long term goal of apple is to maximize its profit by satisfy the
consumer needs and demand. The various perspective of the balance scorecard are financial,
customer, internal process and learning and growth perspective. Key performance indicators
refers to achieve the objective of the organization efficiently and effectively.

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management accounting refers to combination of strategies to the management
accounting to provide the future perspective. The aim of strategic management is to provide the
external information like trends, cost, market share etc. Apple is multinational company who
operate their business in many countries and generate the high level of profit with the cost
leadership strategy. The report highlights the usage of balance scorecard in the organization and
the various issues to implement the scorecard. It describe the long term goals, stakeholders and
clients of the organization and the different perspective of the balance scorecard. It highlights the
relation between the objectives and the various indicators like KPI and KPD and their
implication in the organization.
1. Implementation of balance score card in the organization
Balance score card is used to measure the performance of the employees and
management team by the performance metric. It indicate the performance of the each and every
employee and help to improve their performance in the organization (Tan, Zhang and
Khodaverdi, 2017). Apple use the balance scorecard technique to measure the performance of
each employee and provide the feedback according to their performance. The appraise their
employees on the basis of the balance scorecard. The various company use the balance scorecard
to measure the performance of employees and the organization in the market and do the valuable
changes to meet the demand of the customer in the market.
2. The various issues in implementing the balance scorecard in Apple
Apple face many challenges while implementing the balance scorecard technique in the
organization. The define goal and objective is necessary for implementing the performance
measurement tool. They face problem in define the goal and objective. Apple also feel that the
employee turnover, resignation, time management and the commitment of employees is affected
due to the implementation of the balance scorecard in the organization. Employees fells insecure
after implementing the performance measurement tool and also it increases the conflicts in initial
time period. It also increases the training cost of the organization in initial period and after
getting the training some employee are not able to adopt the changes.
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3. The long term goal, stakeholders and clients of Apple
The long term goal of apple is to maximize its profit by satisfy the consumer needs and
demand. They also focus on the environment protection in their corporate social responsibility
activities. The stakeholders of Apple are customers, employees, investors and the suppliers and
distributors. The investors are the shareholder who invest in the organization and get share in the
profit of the organization (Debnath and et.al., 2018). Customer are the main element of the firm.
They determine the sale of the product and services of Apple. Customer are also known as client
for whom the product and services are made.
4. Various perspective for the balance scorecard and their objective
The various perspective of the balance scorecard are financial, customer, internal process
and learning and growth perspective.
Financial perspective is used to measure the financial performance such as return on
investment, net income etc. It provides a common basis point to measure performance by
comparing the companies (The Four Perspectives In A Balanced Scorecard, 2019).
Objectives : The objective of financial perspective is measure the companies financial
conditions and performance.
Customer perspective is used to identify the customer need and demand in the market. There
aim is to right segmentation of the market.
Objective : The objective of apple in customer perspective is to provide the best services to
satisfy the customer need and demand and capture the greater market share.
In Internal process perspective the responsibility of manager is to identify the internal process
in which organization works.
Objective : The objective of internal perspective is to improve the quality, optimum utilization
of resources and improve the performance of the organization.
The focus of learning and growth perspective is on the capabilities of the individuals. Manager
develop the capabilities of employees through various training and development programs.
Objective : The objective of apple through learning and growth perspective is to increase the
employee productivity, employee satisfaction and employee retention in the organization.
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5. Relationship between different objective through the strategy map
The steps to identify the relationship between the various objectives are :
1. Identify the financial position of the organization by evaluating the financial strength and
weakness.
2. Research the market to identify the customer needs and demands and set various strategy
to meet their demands.
3. Improve the quality and performance of the organization by analyze the different areas of
improvement.
4. Improve the employee performance and satisfaction level to meet the quality standard of
the organization.
6. KPI's and KPD's indicators
Key performance indicators refers to achieve the objective of the organization efficiently and
effectively. Apple use the KPI's at different levels to measure the performance to achieve the
targets (Toussaint, and et.al., 2017). The high level KPI's aims to focus on the overall business
and low level KPI's aims to focus on the particular department. The lead indicators focus on the
change and leg indicator focus on the result i.e. what is happening in the end.
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Key performance drivers are the person who drive the organization to improve the performance,
quality and management in Apple. These are the day to day activities which aims to acquire the
result of the key performance indicators.
7. Critical evaluation of balance scorecard
Advantages of balance scorecard
There are various advantages to follow the balance scorecard in the organization to measure the
performance (Muda, Erlina and Nasution, 2018).
 It helps to measure the performance of the company
 It gives a clear picture about the financial strength, customer, internal process etc.
 It helps to achieve the goal of the Apple company
Disadvantage of balance scorecard
 It consume the time and money of the firm
 Increases the conflicts, employee turnover and the dissatisfaction level of the employees.
CONCLUSION
The report summarize the use of balance scorecard in the organization and the various issues to
implement the balance scorecard. It indicate the performance level of the organization and their
employees. The report emphasis the different perspective of the balance scorecard and decides
the various objectives of each perspective. It also summarize the use of key performance
indicators and drivers in Apple.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Debnath, A., and et.al., 2018. Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility Based on Fuzzy
Analytic Networking Process-Based Balance Scorecard Model. International Journal of
Information Technology & Decision Making, 17(04). pp.1203-1235.
Muda, I., Erlina, I.Y. and Nasution, A.A., 2018. Performance Audit and Balanced Scorecard
Perspective. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 9(5). pp.1321-
1333.
Tan, Y., Zhang, Y. and Khodaverdi, R., 2017. Service performance evaluation using data
envelopment analysis and balance scorecard approach: an application to automotive
industry. Annals of Operations Research, 248(1-2). pp.449-470.
Toussaint, N.D., and et.al., 2017. Introduction of renal key performance indicators associated
with increased uptake of peritoneal dialysis in a publicly funded health
service.Peritoneal Dialysis International, 37(2). pp.198-204.
Online
The Four Perspectives In A Balanced Scorecard. 2019. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=972>
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