Customer Perspective in the Balanced Scorecard Framework
This paper examines the customer perspective of the Balanced Scorecard as applied by three small businesses: Hyde Park Electronics, Futura, and SGC. Drawing on Gumbus (2006) and Niven (2011), the paper analyzes the specific customer-focused measures each company employed, evaluates whether those measures were truly customer-centric, and assesses whether the customer perspective was the key driver of improved performance. The paper also proposes an additional measure — integrating customer needs with operational efficiency — that could have strengthened each company's approach. The discussion highlights the importance of product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy as interconnected dimensions of customer value.
- Customer Perspectives and Measures Used by Each Company: Measures each firm used to track customer goals
- Are These Measures Truly Customer-Centric?: Evaluating customer-centricity against Niven's framework
- Was the Customer Perspective the Key Contributor to Improved Performance?: Customer focus as the primary performance driver
- A Missing Measure: Balancing Customer Needs with Operational Efficiency: Proposed improvement integrating efficiency with customer needs
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper directly answers each analytical prompt in sequence, making its argument easy to follow and assess.
- It supports every claim with citations to Gumbus (2006) and Niven (2011), grounding observations in assigned course readings rather than unsupported opinion.
- The evaluation section moves beyond description by proposing a concrete improvement — linking customer needs to operational efficiency — demonstrating critical thinking beyond summarization.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative analysis across three business cases. Rather than treating each company in isolation, it identifies shared themes — product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy — that cut across all three examples, allowing the author to draw a unified conclusion about the value of the customer perspective in the Balanced Scorecard framework.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized around four analytical questions: (1) identifying the customer measures each company used, (2) evaluating whether those measures are genuinely customer-centric per Niven's framework, (3) determining whether the customer perspective was the primary performance driver, and (4) proposing an omitted measure. Each section builds on the previous one, moving from description to evaluation to prescription.
Customer Perspectives and Measures Used by Each Company
Hyde Park Electronics concentrated on the quality of the product delivered in order to determine customer perspectives. The measures used to achieve these objectives were manufacturing and labor efficiency, as well as new product sales. Futura, by contrast, focused on customer perceptions about the products and services they were receiving. To measure this, the company randomly contacted customers and examined how employee retention affected the underlying quality of the product. SGC, meanwhile, was concerned about the quality of the orange juice it was selling to retail customers, and analyzed its effectiveness at meeting that goal by concentrating on customer feedback (Gumbus, 2006, pp. 407–425).
Are These Measures Truly Customer-Centric?
These measures are genuinely customer-centric. All three companies focused on several distinct customer perspectives, including product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy. This approach helped them concentrate on the potential impact they could have in the marketplace and with customers, as they examined the viewpoints of individual customers and what mattered most to each of them. By doing so, each company was able to identify and address specific customer needs (Gumbus, 2006, pp. 407–425; Niven, 2011).
According to the Balanced Scorecard framework, the customer perspective asks organizations to define the value proposition they will deliver to customers and to identify the measures that reflect how well that value is being provided. The approaches taken by Hyde Park Electronics, Futura, and SGC each align with this definition: they sought direct or indirect feedback from customers and tied internal processes to outcomes that customers care about, such as product quality, service consistency, and responsiveness.
References
Gumbus, A. (2006). Entrepreneurs use a balanced scorecard. Journal of Small Business Management, 44(3), 407–425.
Niven, P. (2011). EPM view. Retrieved from http://www.epmreview.com/Resources/Articles/Customer-Perspective.html
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