Control systems and performance measurement

9 important questions on Control systems and performance measurement

Benefits of non-financial measures

* They provide a closer link to long-term organizational strategies
* They provide indirect quantitative information on a company's intangible assets
* They can be good indicators of future financial performance
* They can improve manager's performance by providing more transparent evaluation of their
   actions

Costs of non-financial measures

* They can be time consuming and costly to be implemented
* They do not have a common denominator and entail different denominators such as time,
   percentage, quantities etc.
* They sometimes lack verifying links to accounting profits or stock prices and may have
   weak statistical reliability. 
* They may be too numerous to translate into main drivers of succes

Alternative definitions of Investment

1. Total assets available
     (All assets are included)

2. Total assets employed
     (Total assets - idle assets - assets purchased for future expansion)

3. Working capital + long-term assets)
     (Current assets - current liabilities

4. Shareholders' equity
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4 Approaches of performance measures

1. Return on investment (ROI)
2. Residual income (RI)
3. Economic value (EVA)
4. Return on sales (ROS)

The Dupont method for analysis of profitability

(Revenues/Investment) x (Income/Revenues) = Income / Investment

This method recognizes that there are 2 basic ingredients in profit making:
1. using assets to generate more revenue
2. increasing income per euro of revenue
An improvement in either ingredient without changing the other, increases return on investment.

Examples of reducing investments

* Decreasing idle cash (funds that are not invested in an income-earning vehicle) as it earns
   no income for the owner
* Managing credit carefully
* Determining proper stock levels
* Spending carefully on fixed assets

Return on sales (ROS)

Also the income-to-revenue (sales) ratio, is 1 component of ROI in the DuPont method of profitability analysis.

Return on sales (ROS) % =  Operating profit / Revenues (sales)

ROI based on Net book value vs Gross book value

Those in favor of using gross book value for ROI calculations, claim it enables more accurate comparisons across subunits. ROI based on net book value masks potential decline in earning power, leading to wrong decisions. Those in favor of using net book value claim that it is less complex as it is consistent with the total assets on the balance sheet, and that it is consistent with net profit calculations including deduction for depreciation.

Steps in designing an accounting-based performance measure

1. Choosing variables to include in the performance measure
2. Defining the terms
3. Measuring the items included in the variables
4. Choosing a target for performance
5. Choosing the timing of feedback

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