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Describes how the Balanced Scorecard built by the Online Financial Services (OFS) group is used to select the highest-priority initiatives for the organization. Currently, initiatives arise continually throughout the organization, and management spends considerable time reviewing, approving, and, often , canceling initiatives. OFS develops a ranking procedure, based on the Balanced Scorecard, to align initiatives with the group's strategy. Currently 11 proposals have made it through the first two screening processes. Students evaluate these proposals according to the strategic themes described in the Balanced Scorecard plus supplementary criteria developed by senior managers.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 199019

Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to perform transactions via the Internet. The new division faces rapid change and must invest heavily in new technology and in the development of innovative products and services. OFS was finding it difficult to balance the need for a clearly articulated strategy and measurable objectives with the flexibility required in its dynamic environment. Wells Fargo had a culture that embraced financial metrics. Yet OFS management believed that its business could not be measured and evaluated on the basis of financial metrics alone. For example, the group was not yet profitable, yet it provided a critical component to the bank's long-term strategy. The OFS group believed that the Balanced Scorecard would allow them to develop a set of integrated, multidimensional measures to assess performance against its goals and to communicate and update its strategy in a rapidly changing environment.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 198146

Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), an investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, has a very unique culture relative to its Wall Street counterparts. Firm members and even competitors describe the culture as entrepreneurial, team-driven, non-bureaucratic, and change-oriented. H&Q's unique culture has given it a number of competitive advantages, including the ability to attract high-quality staff, the ability to win business among its target group of emerging growth companies, and the ability to maintain below-average SG&A costs. However, competition in the investment banking industry is intensifying in 1997-98 due to an unprecedented wave of mega-mergers between investment banks and commercial banks. The new combined banking entities are able to offer customers a broader array of products and services than H&Q is able to offer, creating a significant amount of pressure for H&Q to sell to, or merge with, another financial institution itself. Industry analysts believe it is not a question of whether, but rather of when H&Q will lose its independence. However, H&Q management believes that "selling out" would destroy the very culture that made the firm successful. What action should Dan Case, the CEO and chairman of H&Q, take to balance the seemingly competing demands of maintaining the firm's culture and positioning the firm for future growth?

ONSET Ventures, is a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage start-ups. Describes the principles and strategies the firm has developed over its life. Also presents an in-depth discussion of one of the seed-stage companies ONSET has been incubating.

The case describes the early evolution of Siebel Systems, a sales force automation software company, focusing on issues surrounding Siebel's use of systems integrators as implementation partners and the relationship between implementation and the selling function.

Supplements the (A) case.

Founded in 1984, Cisco Systems made the Fortune 500 list and surpassed the significant $100 billion mark for market capitalization in 1997. Cisco, whose core technology is routers that allow disparate computer networks to "talk to one another," has become the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Acquisitions have been an integral part of Cisco's corporate strategy--one industry analyst estimated that 40% of Cisco's 1997 revenues came from acquired businesses. Cisco undertakes acquisitions to enable it to quickly tap into new market opportunities and offer customers end-to-end networking solutions. The case discusses Cisco's background and founders, its philosophy toward acquisitions, its stringent acquisition criteria, and its well-documented and tested approach to integrating manufacturing processes and organizations. Also describes a recent acquisition and poses the question of how to integrate the acquired company's manufacturing organization.