Strategic Plan Part 3: Balanced Scorecard and Communication Plan (Editing Sample)

Strategic Plan Part 3: Balanced Scorecard and Communication Plan
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Balanced Scorecard Paper
Around the world, firms utilize a tool known as balanced scorecard in implementing as well as monitoring their strategies. In particular, a balanced scorecard tool utilized by Vanguard in its quest to monitor their activities of their new division including Virtual Advisor Services as well as evaluating performance. Four elements are of the balanced scorecard used to measure performance include internal, client, financial, as well as innovation and learning. Without a doubt, an exploration of these elements is sure to reveal ways through which Vanguard averts over concentration in any division, which could influence the realization of the overall strategic plans.
Virtual Advisor Services balanced scorecard
The following is the balanced scorecard for Vanguard’s Virtual Advisor service
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Strategic objectives for Financial Perspective
Some of the strategic objectives that will be pursued by Vanguard include hitting 10 billion in managed assets, cut down operating cost, as well as upholding a competitive market position. It is beyond doubt that these factors are vital to Vanguard’s aspiration to achieve financial well-being. Nevertheless, the stakeholders leading the achievement of the objectives include the top-level management team. This includes the firm’s CEO as well as the Board of Directors. Financial analysts and the marketing team from the organization support the top-level management team. in particular, the marketing team is tasked with undertaking market research and identifying the target market for the organization. The aim of the marketing team involves developing a proper understanding of the market to facilitate aggressive penetration of the market and thus more Virtual Advisor clients. This is achieved in collaboration with the marketing team, which aids in establishing attractive pricing to oversee the company’s competitive edge in the market. As well, the firm’s financial analysts are involved in evaluating the financial position including operating expenses as well as making recommendations on ways to enhance overall profitability. The Board of Directors gives the green light to the CEO to implement the identified strategic objectives.
The CEO’s decision to lower operating costs will likely not be approved by the company’s Board of Directors even as the financial analysts speculate that doing so by 2 percent annually for 5 years would still see the firm realize profits. in such a case, the CEO would need to have a contingency plan in place. Moreover, the CEO is well aware of the potential pitfalls that arise when Vanguard fails to keep its pricing low to match competitors’ and thus maintain a competitive edge. In fact, if competitors manage to undercut Vanguard with respect to market pricing the firm would be required to lower expense ratios of its funds by 0.1 percent to ensure retention of its value and avoid a price war. It must be pointed out that such a decision would likely lead to considerable losses in the firm. More so, maintain a favorable market position as well as low cost leader status in the industry for the near future is increasingly dependent on keeping costs low. It must be noted that achieving this objective requires increase in assets under management. As new clients join the firm, there is likelihood of them bringing in funds and Virtual Advisor looks to have in excess of 10 billion assets under management within 5 years. it follows that attracting new customers as well as enabling them to transfer assets will be critical to attaining the identified objectives.
Strategic Objectives for Customer Value Perspective
The following are the strategic objectives out of a client viewpoint; to deliver financial plans in an hour following the initiation of the process, keep service costs low to attract new and retain existing customers, and to improve overall client experience. In this quadrant, some of the key stakeholders include the clients as Virtual Advisor customers are often of high net worth who increasingly place expectations on service received. Nonetheless, as far as the first objective of delivering financial plans in an hour following the initiation of the process is concerned it exceeds their needs. More so, financial planning is renowned for its considerable time-consuming characteristics partly due to the need to compile information to enable delivery of a plan. It must be pointed out that competitors do not possess such a capability and thus giving Virtual Advisor a competitive edge in the market, as it facilitates spreading the word and consequently attractive even more clients.
The second objective involves the need to keep service cost low at just 0.3 percent to retain existing clients as well as attract new ones for the following 5 years. in particular, long-term clients had an option to lock in this price for 5 years but risks as well as ethical implications could arise. As an example, Vanguard cannot ethically up an advice contract that for a certain number of years simply because clients have a right to go to another firm at any time. Indeed, Vanguard could receive FINRA sanctions because of engaging in such unlawful conduct. It follows that the firm can explore an alternative plans to increase fees including brokerage fees as well as fees linked to account maintenance. Yet, the firm must remember those clients are interested in an enhanced financial planning experience. This includes the fact that clients increasingly place value on interactive sessions with their financial consultant even when they cannot meet with them in person.
Strategic Objectives for Process or Internal Operations Perspectives
Out of a process viewpoint, the strategic objectives include the need to accelerate adoption of virtual reality technology, invest in technology that records virtual consultations and transcribes the dialogue into financial plans, and increasing the speed of plan implementation. Clients emerge as key stakeholders in this part, and the accelerated adoption of virtual reality technology emerges as a crucial strategic objective simply because Virtual Advisor success is dependent on it. More so, the aim of Virtual Advisor is to increase the adoption of virtual reality at a rate of 35 percent a year for the next 10 years and failure to do so poses risks. Alternatively, the firm can look to offer customers who adopt incentives including brokerage fees but this also raises ethical questions because it could be understood as sugarcoating the client service agreement. This is punishable through fines. The next objective involves investing 5 percent of profits into technology that record virtual consulta...