Reference no: EM133182743

Question - Susan Lopez, a consultant with Deloitte & Young, has just begun an engagement at Four Corners Airlines, which is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The company has fallen on hard times of late despite record profits for the rest of the airline industry. Management is somewhat set in its ways and could probably use some "new blood," as the most recent hire to the firm's executive team was 12 years ago.

In Lopez's first meeting with the team, the airline's chief executive officer commented that "all that mattered in this industry were load factors-the percentage of seats sold on scheduled flights. If load factors were adequate, everything else would take care of itself." Lopez noted that while this measure was important, other, broader facets of operation were significant as well. She asked if any of the management team had heard of the balanced scorecard, and received dead silence as a response.

Based on her experiences with other engagements, including two that involved airlines, Lopez was convinced that the balanced scorecard could provide benefits in helping to solve the airline's woes. After a presentation about the philosophy of the balanced scorecard, Four Corners Airlines' management team accepted her idea, feeling that a shift in operating philosophy was needed for survival.

Required -

a. What is a balanced scorecard?

b. What are the balanced scorecard's typical key elements?