Performance management and control systems

A.A. 2024/2025
9
Crediti massimi
60
Ore totali
SSD
SECS-P/07
Lingua
Inglese
Obiettivi formativi
While much is written and taught about strategy development, only few firms and academic courses are focused on strategy implementation and control. The aim of the course is to illustrate the importance of Performance Management and Control Systems (PMCSs) in order to guarantee the success of a company.
PMCSs are essential tools used by managers to achieve their desired profit goal and strategies. In fact, these systems allow managers to balance different tensions between: i) profit, growth and control; ii) short-term versus long-term performance; iii) expectations of different stakeholders; iv) opportunities and attention; v) and the different motives of human behavior.
Students will first address why managers rely on PMCSs to implement their strategy, which are the main tools and analysis in order to build a successful strategy, how managers organize businesses to create competitive advantage, how they use information for monitoring business processes and ensure the right kind of control. The focus will then move on the primary tools that managers use to describe their business strategy in economic terms (profit plans), the process of profit planning, how to use variances to understand business performance and to identify future opportunities, and how to build a balanced scorecard as a tool to translate company strategy into actionable goals and measures. Finally, the students will address the four main levers of control to implement strategy and manage strategic uncertainties, identifying and manage strategic risks, and align performance goals and incentives.
Risultati apprendimento attesi
At the end of the course student will be able to:
· gain knowledge about the role and functioning of performance management and control systems for a successful strategy;
· identify the variables for the design of the PMSs in order to monitor results, to assign financial responsibilities and to communicate to stakeholders;
· understand the different phases of Performance Management cycle and the related tools and techniques in order to influence people's behaviors and support strategy execution;
· apply tools and techniques for strategic control and performance measurement such as: key performance indicators (KPIs), performance evaluation, strategic profitability analysis, balanced scorecards, results-based incentive systems, etc.
· develop capacity to calculate KPIs (both financial and not financial indicators) and analyze the performance of a company, using also historical trends and benchmarking with peers and industry.
Corso singolo

Questo insegnamento può essere seguito come corso singolo.

Programma e organizzazione didattica

Edizione unica

Responsabile
Periodo
Secondo trimestre

Programma
The first part of the course is dedicated to understand the organizational tensions, how to design the organization to reach the performances, the basics for a successful strategy, and how to use information for performance measurement.
The second part of the course is focused on the design of PMSs: from the structure of control systems to the development of KPIs, both in terms of financial and not financial measures.
The third part is designed to understand how to achieve the performances and realize the strategies: using interactive and diagnostic control systems, identifying and managing risks, aligning performance goals and incentives.
The topics are explored and developed by using case studies.
Prerequisiti
Students should be familiar with financial accounting and financial statement analysis (basic), cost and managerial accounting (basic).
Metodi didattici
· Face-to-face lectures
· In-class exercises
· Theories and/or case studies discussions (in-class or in distance)
· Oral presentations of individual/group assignments
· Guest speaker's talks (in-class or in distance)
Materiale di riferimento
Materials for attending students:

R. Simons, Strategy Execution, Harvard Business School (each single module of Strategy Execution may be purchased at the link https://store.hbr.org/)

Selected chapters and cases for attending students will be detailed in the program syllabus.

Slides, syllabus and other materials will be available on the Ariel web platform for the course.

Materials for non attending students:

R. Simons, Strategy Execution, Harvard Business School (each single module of Strategy Execution may be purchased at the link https://store.hbr.org/)
All the modules, except module 10
Modalità di verifica dell’apprendimento e criteri di valutazione
For attending students
· Written exam with multiple choices questions, open-ended questions and exercises
· Class participation
· Group assignments
The final mark results from a weighted evaluation of written exam, group assignments, participation in case discussions, and in all class activities.

The status of attending student will be maintained only on the first two sessions of the end-of-term exam.

Written exam and individual assignments will be assessed according to the correctness of the contents, to the clarity of the explanation as well as to the capacity of critical analysis.

For non attending students
· Written exam with multiple choices questions, open-ended questions and exercises.

Written exam and individual assignments will be assessed according to the correctness of the contents, to the clarity of the explanation as well as to the capacity of critical analysis.
SECS-P/07 - ECONOMIA AZIENDALE - CFU: 9
Lezioni: 60 ore
Docente: Prenestini Anna
Docente/i
Ricevimento:
Si prega di iscriversi al seguente link per il ricevimento studenti. I ricevimenti saranno effettuati su Teams.
Microsoft Teams platform