Saputo Inc. use of balance scorecards (Essay Sample)

A report on the use of balance scorecards by Saputo. Inc
Name of Author
Institutional Affiliation
Saputo Inc. is a daily company situated in Canada. The company has blossomed over the years to be among the top daily companies in the world. This has been achieved through effective management techniques. One of the techniques used by this company’s management is the balance scorecard. The balance scorecard helps management ascertain various areas of interest and those that need more attention. It is through this approach that the company performance is measured.
Saputo Inc. performance is measured through four broad perspectives namely; internal, customer, learning and innovation, and financial perspectives. What mainly drives the company is the need to realize its vision and strategy. The two components are very crucial to both the management and the entire company.
The company has a designed strategy in each of the above mentioned perspectives. Each perspective therefore, is discussed as below.
Learning and innovation
Major improvements can be realized when the company is steered towards providing a stable environment where change is attributed and recognized throughout the company. There are many firms in the daily market that compete favorably with Saputo Inc. and the only way that the company will see its vision and strategy working is how it will be able to remain competitive in the future through inventing new skills and products (Antos, 2009, p. 134).
Saputo Inc. has over the years been innovative in producing high quality products that meet the industry standards. The company has attained from the start a certification allowing them to operate in the market. The most common daily products produced by the company are bakery, ingredients, dairy products, and cheese ("Company Profile - Investors and Media - Saputo," n.d.).
In Canada, Saputo Inc. is the leading producer of snacks. For instance, the Mozzarela, dairy plus, La Sauvagine, and treasure cave all make the list of dairy products produced by the company. Under the ingredients section, the company has a well in built technological system where they can maximize the available raw materials and ingredients. The processing of milk is done into dairy ingredients and by-products (Suntook & Murphy, 2008, p. 120).
The above ingredients are then used in agriculture, industries, and as food. Saputo Inc. understands its clients well and that’s why they specialize on the customer technical details. For example, the company produces products in whey protein isolate, concentrate, milk powder, lactose, and dairy blends.
This innovation and learning process in the company is what is driving performance. The skills attained and retention of company position in the competitive market should be keenly followed to the latter not to forget the strategy to innovate new technological ideas and products.
Internal processes
Saputo Inc. has a wide variety customer base within a larger region. The company, therefore, has been ranked among the leading cheese producers in the United States. Saputo Inc. has grown to offering its customers their products in more than forty countries. The company has a well known brand name all over the countries.
The company also recognizes its employees’ fairy and they believe motivation is the key to driving performance at the work force ("Company Profile - Investors and Media - Saputo," n.d.). Saputo Inc. is the main contributor and sponsor to defined contribution plans.Below is a detailed schedule of the entire company profile in detail starting from the employees. The table also shows how well the company is related to other countries where its products are hugely sold and in demand.
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

12,700

Number of plants

55

Canada Sector


     Dairy Division

24

     Bakery Division

1

USA Sector

 

     Cheese Division

16

     Dairy Foods Division

10

International Sector

 

     Dairy Division (Argentina)

2

     Dairy Division (Australia)

2

     Dairy Ingredients


Table 1
The company also has a well driven business practice of being the leader in keeping the environment a safe place to stay. Saputo Inc. environmental sustainability is achieved through continuous advancements. The Saputo team is always on toes to collecting information that will help the management make decisive decisions based on safeguarding the environment.
Technologically, the company emits its gases through their carbon disclosure project. This is the reason as to why there has been a major improvement in the company’s performance on environmental terms (Antos, 2009, p. 45). It should be noted that, without the improvements the company would not deliver anything to its customers. This improvement is the key reason why Saputo Inc has continued to participate in the EnergyStar Challenge.
Another business process that Saputo Inc. has over the years been steered towards is through social responsibility. The company has given back to the community through supporting them, by offering encouragement, and giving them information. Saputo Inc. invests exactly one percent of its before tax profits to the communities (Meyer, 2002, p. 56). One percent, therefore, means that the contributions from employees, donations from products, and financial contributions within the company will be put together to help the community achieve their dream.
Customer
Having a wide range of customers within forty plus countries is hard to handle but with proper management and attainment of the company vision and strategy, nothing will be impossible. At Saputo Inc. a customer comes first before everything. Customers are deemed to be the people who have made the company who they are. Saputo Inc. could not have had the success it has today were it not for the customers demand for their products (Suntook & Murphy, 2008, p. 68).
The strategy is for the company to identify well who their customers are and how they are going to retain them. The more satisfaction the customers have, the more profits and performance for the company.
Many customers at Saputo Inc. recognize the effectiveness of the company products. For instance, more customers have increased globally due to the satisfaction they receive from the company products. There are many aspects that the company gauges itself in this category. This could be the quality of products they produce, they can do inspection, and services after sales ("Company Profile - Investors and Media - Saputo," n.d.).
Saputo Inc. has received a wide coverage of customers and recognition beyond its borders. This is a clear sign of productivity. Having a look at the company sales, there is an enormous increase in the overall sales made for the year.
Management should be on its toes to carry more inspection to ascertain other areas of improvement to retain and bring more customers on board. Many Saputo Inc. customers do recognize the value of the company’s products and services (Hannabarger, Buchman, & Economy, 2007, p. 24).
Financial
The financial perspective of Saputo Inc. is built on the traditional means. That is, the calculation of the earnings per share ratio and that of profitability return on investment is done. The main goal here is to ascertain whether Saputo Inc. has improved its financial performance.
Earnings per share ratio
The net earnings are amounting to 739,355M
The shares outstanding awaiting to be distributed to shareholders are 533, 966M
Therefore,
EPS=Net earnings/shares outstanding
(739355/533966)= 1.3846
The EPS ratio is 1.3846, meaning the company is performing well in terms of productivity. The ratio exceeds one.
When the EPS ratio is positive, the Profitability ROI is also significantly positive.
Recommendations
Saputo Inc. has adopted the balance scorecard as a measure to focus where they are headed to. Financial forecast and success of the company has been achieved through the above method. It should be noted that proper implementation of the balanced scorecard should be put in place by every organization that wants to achieve productive performance.
However, the management of an organization should first study the method with an objective of fully understanding it. The management should learn how the strategy will affect the adoption, performance, financial, and non-financial issues in the company and how well to counter them.
Moreover, the use of the scorecard system is related closely with the size of the company. For instance, communication within a small company is difficult as pertains to large companies. Big companies who implement the system have an added advantage of handling the issue amicably. This is the case with Saputo Inc. where communication is effective. Therefore, the balanced scorecard system is highly recommended.
References
Antos, J. (2009). Balanced scorecard. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Company Profile - Investors and Media - Saputo. (n.d.). Retrieved from /investors-and-medias/company-profile/default.aspx?id=818&langtype=4105
Hannabarger, C., Buchman, R., & Economy, P. (2007). Balanced scorecard strategy for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Meyer, M. W. (2002). Rethinking performance measurement: Beyond the balanced scorecard. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Suntook, F., & Murphy, J. A. (2008). The stakeholder balance sheet: Profiting from really understandi...