BSkyB and Entertainment and Sports Programming Network - Essay Example

?BSkyB & ESPN Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Question 3 The Need for a Performance Measurement System in an Organisation 3 The Balanced Scorecard 4 Suggested Balanced Scorecard Measures for BSkyB and ESPN 4 Question 2 6 Two Other Different Strategic Management Accounting Techniques 6 Comparison and Contrast of the Problems Faced 9 References 10 Question 1 The Need for a Performance Measurement System in an Organisation Ever since the commencement of an organisation, it is significant and necessary to comprehend the requirement of gauging the performance of an organisation. Any organisation that operates its business in the absence of a proper system for gauging the performance is considered to be an aimless organisation. The existence of an appropriate system of judging the overall performance of an organisation not only assesses the way a particular is operating but also facilitates the organisation in enhancing its performance. The vital objective behind employing an effective system of performance measurement could be stated to enhance the performance and the productivity of a particular organisation. The application of such a system would aid the organisation to serve its respective employees, stakeholders, customers and owners in an increasingly better manner (Johnson, 2006). The implementation of an accurate system of performance measurement would help to bring out the information which would evidently indicate the health along with the future and the present position of a business. The system of measuring the performance of an organisation would provide with necessary and vital information regarding the ways of enhancing the prospects and minimising the challenges posed to an organisation. An appropriate system of performance measurement facilitates an organisation to plan, gauge and manage its overall business performance in accordance with an already set strategy. In other words, it can be stated that such a system would facilitate a specific business to attain the aspired results and would also enable the organisation to create shareholder worth (Johnson, 2006). The Balanced Scorecard The system of balanced scorecard (BSC) is considered to be the most broadly employed system of gauging the performance of an organisation in the present day context. This particular system entails the parameters of measuring the performance from few different aspects. These aspects include a customer perspective, learning as well as an innovative perspective, financial perspective and an internal perspective related to the business process (Johnson, 2006). With the aid of the employment of such different perspectives, this system takes into concern both kinds of performance measures that is leading as well as lagging. The consideration of both the kinds of performance measures aids in delivering and ascertaining an increasingly balanced perception with regard to the performance of the organisation. The leading indicators entail vital measures like customer contentment, timely delivery, development of fresh products and developing the capabilities of the employees. The conventional lagging indicators take into concern the financial measures like the factor of profitability and increase in the revenue. This system of balanced scorecard is considered to be beneficial and effective for organisations as it facilitates the organisations to bring into line each and every staff level towards a particular strategy for the purpose of carrying it out more successfully (Johnson, 2006). Suggested Balanced Scorecard Measures for BSkyB and ESPN Both the considered organisations i.e. BSkyB and ESPN need to implement the measures with regard to the balanced scorecard system which would aid the organisations to monitor their respective performances. The organisations would need to evidently state its mission statement. After this the strategic purposes in harmony with its mission statement needs to be recognised. Determination of the strategic aims would aid the companies to develop a comprehension regarding the role of every functional field in attaining the different strategic aims. In relation to the individual functional fields, international performance measures need to be established which would be competent in identifying the organisations’ complete competitive situation till the top management. The defined strategic purposes and the performance objectives then would be needed to be communicated to all the staffs of the organisations. The organisations should constantly develop increasingly particular performance parameters at every individual level. The organisations would need to guarantee uniformity between the strategic aims and the performance parameter employed at every individual level. Guarantee also needs to be provided regarding the compatibility associated with the different performance measures employed in the functional fields. The system of gauging the performance should be made use of by the organisations to recognise the competitive situation, tracing the problem related fields, aiding the organisations in revising the strategic purposes along with facilitating in adopting calculated decisions for the reason of attaining the predetermined purposes and providing views regarding the impact of the applied decisions. The organisations should also keep on re-assessing the suitability of the developed system of gauging the performance with regard to the present competitive environment of business (Neely & et al., 2000). The adoption of the above mentioned measures would satisfy all the four perspectives. The customer perspective has been classified into four different groups’, namely, quality, service, time and performance. Improving the performance of the organisations would certainly result in pleasing the customers as well. The factors entailed in the perspective of internal business are work quality, productivity, cycle time and skills of the employees. These factors would be enhanced as result of the improved performances of the organisations which would be attained with the application of balanced scorecard measures. The implementation of this system would also help to identify the ways which would help to boost the revenue with the help of fresh products or services. Enhanced performance would raise the degree of innovativeness and the ability to learn and progress with regard to the organisations. These mentioned factors would satisfy the perspective of innovation as well as learning. And finally, with respect to the financial perspective, it can be stated that enhanced performance of the organisations would bring in more revenue which in turn would raise the worth of the stakeholders (Goethert & Fisher, 2003). Question 2 Two Other Different Strategic Management Accounting Techniques The two different strategic management accounting techniques applicable for both the considered organisations would be Activity-Based Management and Total Quality Management. The Activity Based Management would be applied in BSkyB organisation. This system of strategic management accounting would help the organisation to identify the indirect expenses by dividing them on the basis of processes as well as activities. The chief objective of this kind of costing is to appropriately distribute the indirect expenses among the services and the customers. This system even aid in calculating exactly the unit expense related to each kind of services which would facilitate in enhancing the decisions related to operations and strategies. Activity-Based Management not just helps in ascertaining exact costs but also brings together the operation of various activities like process analysis, costing, value analysis and quality management into one single analysis. Recognition of the activities, estimating their expenses, choosing the cost drivers along with their respective system of measurement with regard to various activities is attained with the help of this accounting technique. The attainment of these objectives helps in offering a base of information for the reason of controlling the expenses related to the business operations with the help of effectively dealing with the activities. The ascertainment of dependable and exact data related to unit costs of services through this technique of accounting facilitates to carry out a profitability evaluation of the offered services along with the markets and the customers (Szychta, 2010). The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) would be applied in case of ESPN. TQM would focus on enhancing the overall quality which would entail the process as well as service quality. The proper and successful application of this system would prove advantageous as it would enhance quality along with bringing down the degree of rework accompanied with decrease in the expenses related to inferior quality like rework, warranty, scrap, late deliveries and replacements. The process of TQM entails the enhancement of those factors that are taken into concern by the customers while ascertaining the quality of a definite service like responsiveness, empathy, tangibles, reliability and assurance. The notion of TQM or the ways by which it helps in enhancing the overall quality of the offered services includes a structured pursuance. The process calls for the complete involvement of the employees, and it strives towards attaining constant enhancements along with training. The process includes teamwork, empowerment, assurance and encouragement of the management along with emphasising on a democratic way of management. The process follows this structured process of enhancement which in turn helps in attaining customer contentment with enhanced quality of service (Psychogios & Priporas, 2007). Comparison and Contrast of the Problems Faced Both the companies face tough competition from the other satellite broadcasters in terms of the kinds of entertainment offered by them. BSkyB provides an assortment of channels which includes entertainment along with news and sports channels which makes its service quite diversified. However, ESPN witnesses increased competition and complexities in this context. The organisation offers channels that are dedicated to sports. Therefore, the service offered by ESPN is not branched out which makes it tough for the organisation to attract viewers. BSkyB offers programmes taking into concern the tastes and the preferences of every kind of audiences but ESPN just caters to the sports lovers which narrows its market (New York Times, 2012; Front Porch Digital, 2011). Owing to the broad variety of channels offered by BSkyB, it can be considered to be more successful compared to ESPN which just takes into concern the audiences favouring programmes related to sporting events (New York Times, 2012; Front Porch Digital, 2011). References Front Porch Digital, 2011. ESPN Star Sports Case Study. About ESPN STAR Sports. Goethert, W. & Fisher, M., 2003. Deriving Enterprise-Based Measures Using the Balanced Scorecard and Goal-Driven Measurement Techniques. Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis Initiative, pp. 1-49. Johnson, C. C., 2006. Introduction to the Balanced Scorecard and Performance Measurement Systems. Balanced Scorecard for State-Owned Enterprises, pp. 1-13. Neely, A. & et. al., 2000. Performance Measurement System Design: Developing and Testing a Process-Based Approach. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 20, No. 10. Psychogios, A. G. & Priporas, C. V., 2007. Understanding Total Quality Management in Context: Qualitative Research on Managers’ Awareness of TQM Aspects in the Greek Service Industry. The Qualitative Report, Vol. 12, No.1, pp. 40-66. Szychta, A., 2010. Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing in Service Industries. Information Technology Development Institute, pp. 49-60. The New York Times, 2012. British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB). Business Day. [Online] Available at: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/british-sky-broadcasting-group-plc/index.html [Accessed February 01, 2012]. Read More