1.

Maurico Santillan needs BSC because he recognizes that basic strategy for each country
was different so he developed a common business model for all countries complemented
with selected measures from the semiannual report to create BSC indicator system.
developed a system for measuring performance in order to help the managers in his
country systematize and control strategy. An entirely new corporate database software
package and a strategy to fight off software piracy are Microsoft Latin America’s
priorities
This application useful for him because he uses this system of measurement to motivate
the managers of his country to establish relevant strategies that are lined up with regional
priorities. He tells that the Balanced Scorecard system can be useful for managers in new
markets to learn about how important strategy is and how they can become better
managers. He illustrates that a strategic measurement system can be implemented in an
environment where acquiring trustworthy data can be challenging. He also wanted their
managers to use BSC model and existing reports to communicate their ideas. He said that
it also helped to analyze based on change of the objective of the current BSC critical
success factor and how they translate the new objective into measures that could be used
to monitor their strategy implementation process. BSC also used to accelerate growth
(main objective). The BSC helped to understand the importance of market share.
Eventually when we moved our efforts from gaining market share into expanding market
penetration. We can closely monitor and analyze the condition of the market and analyze
best strategic to increase our sales.
2. How does Microsoft BSC operate as a management system at present? How is each
critical success factor measured?
Microsoft BSC operate as a management system in each country to defined the business
model and discussed it in meeting with managers from each country. The BSC helped to
identify key strategic issues and indicators to define the most appropriate plan. BSC
model has helped to think about the long term. The BSC allows us to select indicators
from our report and focus the discussion on the most relevant once.
BSC have critical success factor measured, there are
a. Financial perspective
 Financial perspective measure by the division balanced current profitability, top
line growth, and efficient use of resource.
b. Customer perspective
Customer perspective detailed measures included the availability of trained
software professionals in the market, measured as the umber of people certified
by Microsoft. This measure was essential to gain “mind share” of these
professionals. Another important customer objective was product availability,
which was measured as a wholesales and dealers. The time required to replenish
stock (lead time) had to be less than the number of sales days of product in stock.
Technical support was measured as number of service calls per month as well as
time to solve customers’ service request.
c. Internal Processes
Internal Processes as a critical to identify enhancing supports center, developing,
training centers, and producing local version of US-released products.
d. Learning Perspective
Learning perspective include on skill development and implementation
procedures as well as enhancing the stock of technological knowledge and
success in opening new subsidiaries. Learning Perspective relate to human capital
profoundly. They develop stringent hiring policies and prepared to keep a position
vacant for a year while search for the right employee. A sophisticated internal
information network will be needed for our internal business process providing
information and product on time.
3. Strength and Limitation of BSC
The strength of using a balanced scorecard (BSC) compared to existing measurement
systems is the ability of the BSC to list the aspects that a company must measure in order
to get a balanced perspective. Besides having these advantages, the BSC concept is also
very popular because it has various strengths for its users, namely:
Improve communication between different departments within a company in terms of
achieving the company's vision.
Make it easy for employees to be able to carry out the company's strategy every day
 Maximizing cooperation where all team members will be motivated to work together and
encourage each other to be successful
The BSC concept also allows for a continuous learning process through feedback
received from various parties
Assist in increasing the company's focus on the strategy to be used and the expected end
results
Shows clear targets that need to be achieved in the future
Assist in setting priorities according to the level of needs and the time available
Provides a clear and comprehensive picture of the ongoing business operations
Is the right tool in turning strategy into action that is effective and gives the expected
results, and many other benefits.
Limitation of BSC, it not able to incorporate the perspective of the environment and
competition into BSC. It is not easy to obtain precise information but it should be found
to include it. It just focuses on internal factor, no focus on external factors and
competitors.
Lack of risk analyze to helps shaping strategy, considering additional points of view.
The choice of indicators is not validated, Strategy is a hypothesis that needs to be
validated with indicators. We are always experimenting, and in some experiments, the
indicators won’t be the best ones, the goals will appear to be wrong, and the results will
not be as expected.
4. Based on the new challenges faced by Microsoft in 1998, List critical success factor BSC
and gather them into a BSC. Which of these should be definitively included in the new
regional BSCs in order to implement Seattle’s strategy in the best way?
In Nov 1998, Launch the new SQL version that totally redesigned product and together
with the appropriate support had the objective to increase market in a highly competitive
market. SQL 7.0 was a reliable database with high storage capabilities and scalability that
allowed the software to grow with customer needs. These characteristics made it a very
competitive platform on which to run key business system. Competitors in the corporate
market database such as Oracle, Informix, and Sytase were different from the ones that
Microsoft faced in its traditional market. Microsoft Planned a marketing strategy to build
competitive advantage for SQL 7.0 around price and functionality. Microsoft had to
 collaborate with partners who would adapt the software to the needs of customers. The
new marketing strategy for database product therefore was quite different from Microsoft
traditional strategy of mass merchandising simple, low-cost product. To solve the
additional problem about distribution of SQL 7.0 Microsoft sold to a company’s system
manager. For the database product, however a financial, human resource, or even senior
general manager would make the purchase decision.
Financial Perspective
- Microsoft planned marketing strategy around price. They calculate the efficient and
effective resource to give the best price.
Internal Business Process
- Microsoft redesign product to more functionality.
Customer Perspective
- The new product fits with the customer needs that have high storage capabilities and
scalability that allowed the software.
Learning Perspective
- Microsoft sold to a company’s system manager. For the database product, however a
financial, human resource, or even senior general manager would make the purchase
decision. It will make the employee learning more to grow up Microsoft.

Financial perspective definitively included in the new regional BSCs in order to

5. What did you learn from this BSC implementation process? Which are the main
characteristics of a flexible BSC?
BSC implementation process teach us to analyze from various perspective and measured
compared to get balanced perspective.
BSC require us to always adapt to changes by establishing new strategies accordingly.
In the application of the BSC, there is an implicit premise that BSC is a strategy. BSC as
a performance measurement is perhaps the easiest thing to know, because each
perspective which is derived as a target function is performance measurement. However,
if aware to the relationship between vision, mission and strategy as a starting point rather
than setting a perspective, it can be seen that the relationship between each perspective
and strategy is very strong. Note that the scorecard is derived from the vision and
strategy. This is the key that implicitly reminds us that the company is actually driven by
a vision and mission. If the vision and mission are well stated, this will be the `` machine
'' to driving all activities.
Main characteristic flexible BSC is there’s no administration but it to be flexibility, and
multiplatform become integrability. It’s create adaptive condition.