Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The system of indicators used in the analysis as an element of the analysis methodology The use of a system of indicators that holistically determine
All objects of analysis of economic activity are reflected in the system of indicators of the plan, accounting, reporting and other sources of information.
Indicators are elementary models that describe quantitative and quality characteristics certain processes in the economic activity of the enterprise. At the same time, each indicator reveals only a part of the real activity, and a significant number of indicators are needed to characterize the activity of the enterprise as a whole.
Under a system of indicators characterizing a certain economic object or a phenomenon, is understood as a set of interrelated quantities that comprehensively reflect the state and development of a given object or phenomenon.
The most important requirements that the system of indicators must satisfy are: the necessary breadth of coverage by the indicators of the system of all aspects of the object or phenomenon under study, the relationship of these indicators, the logical deployment of some indicators from others.
Any system of indicators consists of two types of values: economic indicators (volume of production and sales, financial results etc.) and statistical indicators (growth rates, coefficients, etc.).
The system of indicators characterizing the performance of the enterprise should perform the following main functions:
1) accurately reflect the objective economic essence of the phenomena and processes under study;
2) take into account the organizational and specific features of the industry in which the enterprise operates;
3) fully reflect the activities of the enterprise as a whole and take into account the characteristics of each structural unit;
4) be a reliable tool complex analysis economic activity of the enterprise and its management;
5) be comparable in dynamics and commensurate with accounting data, ensure in accounting feedback;
6) act as a tool for identifying on-farm reserves and developing a further strategy for the development of the enterprise.
Since the analysis uses a large number of indicators of different quality, it is necessary to group and systematize them. By properties of reflected phenomena indicators are divided into quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative indicators are used to express absolute and relative values that characterize various areas of the enterprise's activities and can be expressed in natural, conditionally natural and cost meters. Qualitative indicators are used to evaluate manufactured products in terms of their conformity established requirements(standards, specifications, samples), to assess the economic efficiency of the use of resources available at the enterprise.
Some indicators are used in the analysis of the activities of all sectors of the national economy, others - only in certain sectors. On this basis, indicators are divided into general and specific. General indicators include indicators of manufactured and sold products, labor productivity, profit, cost, etc. An example of specific indicators can be crop yields, livestock productivity, calorie content hard coal, peat moisture, etc.
According to the degree of synthesis, the indicators used in the analysis are divided into generalizing, particular and auxiliary, or indirect.
Generalizing indicators are used for generalized characteristics of complex economic phenomena. Private indicators reflect individual aspects, elements of the studied phenomena and processes. For example, generalizing indicators of labor productivity are the average annual, average daily, average hourly production of products by one worker. Particular indicators of labor productivity include the cost of working time for the production of a unit of output of a certain type or the amount of output per unit of working time. Auxiliary (indirect) indicators are used to more fully characterize a particular object of analysis. For example, when analyzing labor productivity, this is the amount of working time spent per unit of work performed, the production rate.
Analytical indicators are divided into absolute and relative. Absolute indicators are expressed in monetary and physical units. Relative indicators show the ratio of any two absolute indicators and are defined as percentages, coefficients or indices.
Absolute indicators, in turn, are divided into natural and value. Cost indicators are currently among the most common. The most important cost indicators are indicators of the volume of manufactured and sold products. Also, in monetary terms, the costs of production, profit, etc. are expressed.
Natural indicators are used in the planning and accounting and analytical activities of the enterprise. Along with natural indicators in analytical practice, their variety is also used - conditionally natural indicators.
In the study of cause-and-effect relationships, indicators are divided into factor and result. If one or another indicator is considered as the result of the impact of one or more causes and acts as an object of study, then when studying the relationships, it is called effective.
The indicators that determine the behavior of the effective indicator and act as the reasons for changing its value are called factorial.
According to the method of formation, indicators are distinguished: normative (fuel consumption rate, energy, depreciation, prices, etc.); planned (plan data); accounting (accounting, statistical and operational reporting data); analytical (evaluative), which are calculated during the analysis to evaluate the results and efficiency of the enterprise.
Each of the indicators discussed above has its own specific meaning and significance for monitoring and analysis. If these indicators are considered separately, it turns out that some of them suffer from a certain limitation. Analysis involves a comprehensive, systematic use of indicators. Only under this condition is it possible to comprehensively and objectively investigate the economic activity of an enterprise in a particular area and, moreover, the activity of an enterprise as a whole.
A comprehensive study of the activities of the enterprise provides for the systematization of indicators.
In the system of indicators of complex analysis, the following subsystems can be distinguished, presented in Figure 3.1.
The completeness and integrity of any analysis that has an economic focus is largely determined by the validity of the set of criteria used. Typically, this set includes quality and quantitative markdowns, and its basis is usually calculated indicators that have a clear standardization and, if possible, some guidelines (limits, standards, trends).
Indicators – these are elementary models that describe the quantitative and qualitative characteristics or other processes in economic activity. Each indicator reveals only a part of the real activity. To characterize the activities of the enterprise, you need a huge number of indicators.
When selecting indicators, it is necessary to formulate the logic of their combination into a given set so that the role of each of them is visible and it does not give the impression that some aspect has remained uncovered or, on the contrary, does not fit into the scheme under consideration. In other words, a set of indicators, which in this case is quite possible to interpret as a system, must have some inner core, some basis that explains the logic of its construction.
The term "scorecard" is widely used in economic research. The analyst, in accordance with the selected criteria, selects indicators, forms a system from them, and analyzes it. The complexity of the analysis requires the use of entire systems, rather than individual indicators.
A system of indicators that characterizes a certain economic object or phenomenon is understood as a set of interrelated values that comprehensively reflect the state and development of this object or phenomenon.
The most important requirements, which the system of indicators must satisfy are: the necessary breadth of coverage by the indicators of the system of all aspects of the object or phenomenon under study, the relationship of these indicators and the development of some indicators from others.
In addition, when building scorecards, the following principles should be followed:
tree structure principle scorecards. It assumes the presence in the system of particular and generalized indicators of varying degrees of integration, and particular and generalizing indicators should be connected both logically and formally by a relationship, i.e. a set of private indicators, by means of some simple mathematical operations, should be reduced (integrated) into one or more reporting indicators;
visibility principle the presence of a certain set of indicators that is optimal for this enterprise and covering all the essential aspects of the phenomenon under study. At the same time, the indicators of the system should complement each other, and not duplicate. each other, be significant and insignificantly correlated with each other. The latter means that the system of indicators must also meet the principle of admissible multicollinearity;
the principle of a reasonable combination of absolute and relative indicators involves the use in systems, along with absolute values, of a sufficiently large number of relative and specific values;
the scorecard should provide adequacy analytical information on the current state of affairs at the enterprise;
system indicators should be informal character, those. the system should have the maximum degree of analyticity, and the indicators of the system should be unambiguously calculable.
Any system of indicators consists of two types of values:
economic indicators (commodity turnover, financial result, etc.)
statistical indicators (growth rates, coefficients, etc.)
There are four types of links between indicators:
brain teaser
Semantic
Functional
Stochastic
The system of performance indicators of an enterprise (organization) should perform the following main functions:
accurately reflect the objective economic essence;
take into account the organizational and specific features of the industry;
sufficiently fully reflect the activities of the enterprise as a whole and take into account the characteristics of each economic level;
serve as a reliable tool for a comprehensive study of the financial and economic activities of the enterprise and its management;
act as a tool for opening reserves and developing a further strategy for the development of the enterprise;
be comparable in dynamics and commensurate with accounting data, provide feedback in accounting.
This method is especially significant in the analysis of the financial and economic activities of the enterprise. The fact is that a more or less objective judgment about an enterprise can only be made on the basis of certain indicators. It is no coincidence that the annual report of any large company begins with the section “Main indicators” (in the English literature, the term “highlights” is used to name this section, which can be translated as “brightly lit, protruding spot”), which provides key financial indicators, in a comprehensive manner. characterizing the financial position and performance of the company.
Of course, the selection of indicators is usually carried out purposefully (in other words, biased), although some of them may be universal. Thus, one of the main characteristics of the company's success is the indicator "revenue (profit) per share", therefore, in the annual report of any large company, this indicator is given in dynamics. On the contrary, due to the ambiguous interpretation of the concept of "efficiency", one can choose those performance indicators that most favorably characterize the activities of a given enterprise.
Since one indicator, no matter how good, is usually impossible to get a complete picture of the enterprise, it is recommended to work with a scorecard. Imagine a situation where an analyst is tasked with giving a comprehensive assessment of the activities of an economic entity. Since this activity is multifaceted, the problem of selecting indicators inevitably arises. This problem becomes more complicated if other factors are taken into account: the purpose of the analysis, available information, time limit, the presence or absence of appropriate technical means, etc. However, even if the target setting is of a general nature, the complexity of the assessment can only be achieved when it is possible to form a system of indicators.
The term "scorecard" is widely used in economic research. It is the complexity of the analysis that involves the use of certain sets, sets of indicators in the work. The analyst, in accordance with the criteria defined by him, tries to select indicators, forms a system from them, and analyzes it. Can any set of indicators be considered a system? Of course no. Compared with individual indicators or some set of them, the system is a qualitatively new formation and is always more significant than the sum of its individual parts, since in addition to information about individual aspects of the described phenomenon (process, object), it carries certain information about the new that appears in the result of the interaction of these individual parties, ie, information about the development of the phenomenon as a whole.
The construction of a detailed system of indicators is based on a clear understanding of two points: what is the system and what basic requirements it must meet. The definition of the concept of "system of indicators" is given in scientific and educational literature - a system of indicators that characterizes a certain economic entity or phenomenon is understood as a set of interrelated values that comprehensively reflect the state and development of this entity or phenomenon. Such a definition is very general. Therefore, for practical use in the scientific literature, a number of requirements have been developed that a system of indicators must satisfy. The most important of them, which have methodological significance, are: a) the necessary breadth of coverage by the indicators of the system of all aspects of the subject or phenomenon under study; b) the relationship of these indicators; c) verifiability.
Note that the second requirement provides for the presence, first of all, of content, i.e. internal, interconnection of the components of the system. This can be understood as follows: in order to recognize a set of indicators as a system, it must have some kind of “organizing principle”, i.e. something in common that unites indicators. The establishment of this "organizing principle" is a fundamental step in the process of building a system of indicators. important place the establishment of formal relationships should also be given. Professor V. E. Adamov noted: “no matter how many particular indicators ... of any economic phenomenon or process we define, they will remain a set, not a system of indicators until meaningful and formal relationships between them are established” [Statistical study..., p. 124].
The importance of the verifiability requirement, i.e. verifiability. In theoretical manuals on analysis, one can often find indicators for which both the calculation algorithm and information support are unclear. The cognitive value of such indicators is highly questionable. It is no coincidence that in annual reports Western companies often separate a section describing the algorithms for calculating key indicators.
In addition to the three requirements noted, when building indicator systems, it is necessary to be guided by a number of principles. It cannot be said that they are of secondary importance, but in practice their implementation is hindered by a number of circumstances.
We list the most important of these principles.
The principle of the tree structure of the system of indicators.
It assumes that most often the system should have private and generalizing indicators, and the most optimal is to ensure the logical deployment of private indicators into generalizing ones. Such logic is not something fundamentally new. In particular, the resources of the enterprise can be summarized in three groups - material, labor and financial; moreover, the ratio between these types of resources, firstly, may depend on the type of activity (for example, in companies operating in the field of high technologies, the significance of the costs associated with labor resources, may be relatively smaller; importance in financial companies financial resources etc.) and, secondly, unconditionally controllable. The effectiveness of each type of resource is evaluated by its own indicators (capital productivity, labor productivity, turnover), which play the role of private indicators of the system; at the same time, these indicators can quite logically be supplemented by a small number of generalizing indicators, for example, resource productivity. This approach is widely used in financial analysis.
Visibility principle
Assumes the presence of a certain set of indicators that is optimal for a given enterprise. As a result of a qualitative analysis, it is necessary to build a system that would cover all the essential aspects of the phenomenon under study. At the same time, the indicators of the system should complement each other, and not duplicate each other, be significant and, if possible, slightly correlated with each other. The latter, in addition, means that the system of indicators must also comply with the principle of acceptable multicollinearity. Failure to comply with this principle leads to information overload of the selected set of indicators, since correlating indicators behave in the same way in dynamics, and therefore the usefulness of their simultaneous inclusion in the system may be doubtful. Of course, we are not talking about the fact that, when forming a set of indicators, it is always necessary to calculate the correlation coefficients; this circumstance should simply be kept in mind and, if possible, taken into account.
The principle of a reasonable combination of absolute and relative indicators
It is that the main purpose of any system
indicators consists in comparing and analyzing some characteristics in the spatio-temporal context. Relative values are most suitable for this purpose; with their help, it is possible to identify and evaluate the influence of extensive and intensive factors in the development of the phenomenon, to eliminate the spatio-temporal incompatibility of indicators due to such factors as inflation, economies of scale, organizational changes etc. For example, profit, being an absolute indicator, cannot always serve as a criterion for a comparative assessment of the efficiency of enterprises; Another thing is profitability indicators. Thus, the prevalence of relative and specific indicators is due to the fact that they have certain advantages over absolute ones - they allow comparing objects that are not comparable in absolute values, make it possible to eliminate the influence of certain general economic factors (for example, inflation), are more stable in space and time, t .e. characterize more homogeneous variational series, make it possible to "improve" the statistical properties of indicators (in the sense that they belong to a distribution law close to normal), which is an important factor for correct data processing using statistical methods etc.
Without dwelling on the principles of construction and types of relative indicators, we only note that the relative indicator is most often calculated by comparing two absolute indicators; it is recommended to control their logical comparability. In particular, if one of the compared indicators is a momentary (interval) value, then the other should be the same. Thus, the capital productivity indicator is the ratio of turnover (volume products sold) to the cost of fixed assets; since turnover is, by definition, an interval indicator, and fixed assets can be characterized by both interval and moment indicators, it is more reasonable to use the average (for the corresponding period) cost of fixed assets when calculating the return on assets.
The principle of informality.
This means that the system should have the maximum degree of analyticity, provide an opportunity to assess the current state of the enterprise and its development prospects, and also be suitable for adoption. management decisions. Compliance with this principle is achieved by: a) the predominant inclusion in the system of indicators used in traditional analysis; b) providing uniquely interpreted algorithms for their calculation; c) predominant use as an information database of accounting and reporting.
In conclusion, we note that the development of a system of indicators for the purposes of a specific analysis is always creative.
The company has a huge number of indicators. The more indicators are used, the more contradictions arise. Behind the contradictions of the indicators are the real contradictions of departments, project teams, and personnel. Let's consider such an example. The company "Keramike" produces and produces tiles. The assortment includes more than 1000 sizes of tiles with different coatings, patterns, etc. The marketing department and sales departments, who are interested in sales volume, insist on expanding the range and producing according to custom order. However, these divisions do not take into account the consequences - growth production costs, reducing the rhythm of production. Since work production units traditionally assessed in terms of output and costs, there is a risk of internal conflict situations. To avoid these situations, it is necessary to use a system of indicators that allows orienting the management of the entire marketing activities on the bottom line of the company's business.
Scorecard - this is a set of indicators built according to certain principles that are interconnected and form a kind of integrity, unity. The system of indicators can be built according to hierarchical principle (Fig. 2.3). In a hierarchical system, the indicator at the highest level depends on the indicators at the lower level, and the indicator at the top depends on all the others. The classic example of a hierarchical scorecard is the DuPont formula discussed in Chapter 1.
Rice. 2.3.
In reality, it is practically impossible to build a clear hierarchy of indicators, especially for marketing in general or such capacious areas as product competitiveness, distribution system, etc.. Indicators can complement each other, have many intersecting links. In this case, they are built according to the principle of complexity (Fig. 2.4).
Rice. 2.4.
Examples of such a system of indicators are the balanced scorecard, the system of indicators of product quality. These systems are a set of naturally interconnected indicators that have a certain order and logic of construction. Requirements for the system of indicators. The construction of a system of indicators, on the basis of which it is possible to diagnose, plan, enforce and evaluate results, must comply with certain principles.
Relevance to goals implies the presence of precise and specific measures and criteria for assessing the achievement of goals. Whatever goals a company sets for itself: the first step to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing or any other processes is to find accurate indicators of their achievement. The metrics should also be linked to the company's mission, values, and key factors success. Marketing goals should be defined in specific numbers and indicators. Table 2.2 provides examples of setting goals and indicators for measuring them.
Table 2.2.
The principle of fitness for purpose is also expressed in the fact that marketing indicators must meet the specific needs of a particular user. In many management systems, indicators are assigned to specific people responsible for their implementation or "production". For example, the head of marketing communications may be assigned responsibility for meeting the following indicators: awareness of the company, recognition and correct identification of advertising. For the head of the service department, indicators can be set: the share of active customers, the level of customer retention, etc.
The principle of using best practice in setting indicators. Following this principle ensures that attention is switched from one's own expectations and subjective assessments to comparison with the external environment. Comparison can be carried out in relation to benchmark firms and firms that are similar in some parameters (strategy applied, market share, etc.). The implementation of this principle is associated with the use of benchmarking. Benchmarking (English bench mark - the beginning of the countdown) - a method of using someone else's experience, advanced achievements the best companies, departments of your own company, individual specialists to improve business performance. The main point of benchmarking is to learn from the best in order to be the first yourself.
Staff involvement. A prerequisite The success of the performance management system is the leadership of top management. Without his active support, the implementation of any system is impossible. However, this is a necessary but not sufficient condition. A scorecard will only work if all staff participate to some extent in its development. It is also important that indicators are not perceived by employees as a threat to their position, income, etc. Indicators must be accepted by all.
In addition, indicators must meet the requirements that apply to any business information. They must be reliable, timely, sufficient in volume, accessible, not violate trade secret. Implementation of the principle credibility implies the relevance of indicators (updateability), the use of reliable sources and methods of calculation.
Principle of timeliness provides for prompt collection, prompt transmission and regular updating of indicators.
Principle required volume connected, on the one hand, with ensuring the necessary completeness of information, and on the other hand, with the absence of its redundancy. The necessary completeness means that the number of indicators should be sufficient to make a management decision. Sometimes the collected data is generalized to such an extent that it loses all meaning. For example, it is very difficult to assess how rationally the promotion budget is used by the total cost of attraction. For such a conclusion, it is necessary to have a number of additional data on the structure of such a budget, the degree of impact on consumers of each of the promotion tools, the level of costs for each attracted client for each tool. However, a more common problem is the abundance of unnecessary scattered data that is difficult to work with. As a rule, none of the employees should process more than 15-20 indicators. This is a reasonable number of variables that can be controlled.
The principle of accessibility implies the availability of initial data for calculation, ease of obtaining and using, clarity. For ease of use and understanding, indicators can be visualized. They can be presented in the form of graphs, diagrams, drawings. A convenient method of visualizing performance is to use a "dashboard" of indicators (Figure 2.5), which looks like a speedometer or tachometer in a car. So, to control the car, the driver does not need to know the exact values \u200b\u200bof speed, the amount of gasoline and temperature.
Rice. 2.5.
fuel tank openings. It is enough to see at a glance that they are within the acceptable range. Also, one glance at the "marketing panel" is enough to determine that the main characteristics are in the norm. For convenience of perception, the zones of "bad" values are highlighted in color. Figure 2.5 shows different options for visualizing marketing metrics.
Ensuring trade secrets. Companies try not to disclose many indicators, especially financial ones, believing that they contain trade secrets. AT Civil Code The Russian Federation stipulates the following: "Information constitutes an official or commercial secret in the event that the information has actual or potential commercial value due to its unknownness to third parties, there is no free access to it on a legal basis, and the owner of the information takes measures to protect its confidentiality" .
In general, following these principles, one can form information base for making managerial decisions. Its use will help companies make the necessary diagnostics, identify problems and opportunities for their business, quickly recognize emerging trends and evaluate the results.
