Development of a system of interrelated indicators. Balanced scorecard: an assessment tool or a way to implement a strategy? Using a system of indicators that holistically determine

Irina Loshchilina

Consultant of the Group of Companies "Modern Management Technologies"

The article discusses the methodology for constructing and implementing a balanced scorecard (BSC). The article is intended for business analysts, BSC implementation consultants and IT specialists.

Assessing the need to build a company strategy

Currently, to achieve success in a dynamic environment, companies need to be able to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and surpass their competitors in quality, speed of service delivery, breadth of product range and price of products.

Only prompt receipt of information about the company’s activities will help management make timely decisions. At the same time, the company's operational actions must be coordinated and aimed at achieving certain long-term goals, otherwise there is a risk of remaining stagnant. To do this, the company must be able to correctly identify its strategy and mobilize all resources to achieve its strategic goals.

A lot in the development of a company can depend on a correctly and clearly formulated strategy. It is important to understand that a well-developed strategy is only half the battle. It still needs to be successfully implemented.

What does the strategy look like? Formal ideas about strategy vary from company to company. Presentation options range from a single slide with five keywords to a massive document full of various tables entitled “Long Range Planning.”

Many believe that the content of the strategy plays the key role, and the form of presentation is secondary. Gradually, managers abandon this point of view, as they understand that strategies can only be successfully implemented if they are understood by the company's employees. By describing the strategy in a more or less orderly form, we increase the likelihood of its successful implementation.

One of the tools for presenting the strategy implementation process in an understandable form is the Balanced ScoreCard (BSC).

A balanced scorecard is a system of strategic management of a company based on measuring and assessing its effectiveness using a set of optimally selected indicators that reflect all aspects of the organization’s activities, both financial and non-financial. The name of the system reflects the balance that is maintained between short-term and long-term goals, financial and non-financial indicators, main and auxiliary parameters, as well as external and internal factors of activity.

Currently, there are not many examples of successful application of the balanced scorecard in practice, since when implementing the Balanced ScoreCard one has to face various problems. The most serious problems most often relate to incorrect interpretation of methodology or organizational issues. The complexity of developing a balanced scorecard and the lack of inexpensive and effective software products are also problems faced in the practical implementation of BSC.

The effectiveness of the balanced scorecard depends on the quality of its implementation. The implementation of the balanced scorecard is carried out in four stages:

Preparing to build a BSC;
Construction of BSC;
BSC cascading;
Control of strategy implementation.

The implementation of strategy implementation methodology today is continuously associated with automation. Implementation of Balanced ScoreCard, for example, using Microsoft Excel, or without any information support at all, is possible only at the initial stages of BSC implementation or in small organizations. If a company aims to implement a balanced scorecard system for several structural divisions and periodically clarify and adjust them, then it cannot do without using the advantages of information technology.

Currently, BSC developers have the following software products at their disposal: ARIS 7.0, Microsoft Office Business ScoreCard Manager 2005, Business Studio 2.0.

Let's take a closer look at the methodology for developing and implementing a balanced scorecard. To illustrate the main stages of building a Balanced ScoreCard, we will use the software product Business Studio 2.0.

Preparing to build a balanced scorecard

In preparation for building a BSC, it is necessary to develop a strategy, define perspectives and decide for which organizational units and levels a balanced scorecard needs to be developed.

It is important to always remember that BSC is a concept of implementing existing strategies rather than developing entirely new strategies. It is necessary to first complete the development of the strategy, and then begin to create a balanced scorecard.

When determining the divisions for which the Balanced ScoreCard will be developed, the following must be considered: the more divisions of the enterprise are managed strategically using one BSC, the better it is possible to cascade (decompose, transfer) important goals from the top level to the lower ones.

One of the important activities in preparing to develop a balanced scorecard is the selection of perspectives.

Any strategy development model can claim to be complete only if it contains answers to questions relating to different areas of the company’s activities.

Setting only financial goals when implementing a balanced scorecard is not enough if it is not clear how these goals will be achieved. In the same way, it would not be entirely correct to set goals that are isolated from each other. In this case, the relationships between individual goals and their influence on each other remain unaffected. This implies the need to take into account all important aspects of the enterprise’s activities.

Consideration of different perspectives when forming and implementing strategy is a characteristic feature of the balanced scorecard concept and its key element. The formulation of strategic goals, the selection of indicators and the development of strategic activities from several perspectives are designed to provide a comprehensive review of the company's activities.

Rice. 1. BSC Outlook

Companies that formulate their strategy too one-sidedly do not necessarily deviate only towards finance. There are companies that are too customer-oriented and forget about their financial goals. Some companies may be overly process-oriented and do not pay attention to market aspects. The introduction of a balanced scorecard, in turn, ensures that multiple perspectives are considered equally and helps to avoid such bias.

Based on empirical research, Robert Kaplan and David Norton have proven that successful companies take into account at least four perspectives in their BSC (Fig. 1):

Finance;
Clients;
Internal business processes;
Education and development.

These four perspectives should answer different questions, namely:

Finance Perspective: What kind of self-image should we create among our shareholders in order to achieve financial success?;
Customer Perspective: What kind of self-image do we need our customers to have in order to realize their vision for the future?;
Internal Business Processes Perspective: In which business processes do we need to excel in order to satisfy our shareholders and customers?;
Learning and Development Perspective: How should we support the ability to change and improve to realize our vision for the future?

The simplicity and presence of clear logical relationships between the BSC perspectives make it possible to achieve an understanding of the processes occurring in the company at the level of all performers.

Building a balanced scorecard

At the first stage of building a Balanced ScoreCard, a balanced scorecard is developed for one organizational unit. This could be the company as a whole, a division or department.

In this case, the construction of the BSC is carried out by performing the following steps:

Specification of strategic goals;
Linking strategic goals with cause-and-effect chains—building a strategic map;
Selection of indicators and determination of their target values;
Development of strategic activities.

Specifying the strategic goals of the balanced scorecard

Rice. 2. BSC strategic goals

In general terms, a goal is a description of the desired state of something in the future. This state can be expressed in the words: “to deliver our products to customers within a short period of time.” You can specify the formulation using indicators and their target values: “delivery time less than 36 hours.”

To build a strategic management system, it is necessary to decompose (break down, structure) the company's strategy into specific strategic goals that detail various strategic aspects. By integrating individual goals, cause-and-effect relationships can be established between them so that the full set of goals reflects the company's strategy.

Each strategic goal is associated with one of the organization’s development prospects (Fig. 2).

Avoid defining too many strategic goals at the top level of the organization. A maximum of 25 targets will be enough. Too many goals in the scorecard indicates an organization's inability to focus on what is important, and also means that the goals formulated are not strategic for the organizational level at which the scorecard is being developed. The development of tactical and operational goals should be given attention in the indicator systems of units at lower levels of the organizational structure.

Building a Balanced Scorecard Strategic Map

Defining and documenting the cause-and-effect relationships between individual strategic objectives is one of the core elements of BSC.

The established cause-and-effect relationships reflect the existence of dependencies between individual goals. Strategic goals are not independent and isolated from each other; on the contrary, they are closely related to each other and influence each other. Achieving one goal serves to achieve another, and so on, until the main goal of the organization. The connections between different goals are clearly visible through the cause-and-effect chain (Figure 3). Those that do not contribute to the realization of the main goal are excluded from consideration.

The cause-and-effect chain is a useful tool for communicating BSC to lower organizational levels.

A strategic map is used to graphically display the relationship between strategic goals and prospects.

Rice. 3. Cause-and-effect relationships of strategic goals

Selection of indicators of the degree of achievement of strategic goals

The BSC metrics (boxes in Figure 3) are goal measures. Indicators (Fig. 4) are a means of assessing progress towards the implementation of a strategic goal.

The use of indicators is intended to concretize the system of goals developed during strategic planning and make the developed goals measurable. Indicators can only be identified when there is clarity about the objectives. Selecting appropriate metrics is a secondary issue, since even the best metrics will not help a company achieve success if the goals are not formulated correctly. It is recommended to use no more than two or three indicators for each of the strategic objectives.

Without target values, indicators designed to measure strategic goals are meaningless. Determining target values of management indicators causes difficulties not only when developing a BSC. The fundamental difficulty in determining the target value of a particular indicator is to find a realistically achievable level.

As a rule, a balanced scorecard is developed for a period corresponding to the long-term strategic planning period (3-5 years). At the same time, target values for the long-term period are determined from deferred indicators (indicators that indicate the final goals of the corporate strategy). Since the strategy is being implemented in the current year, target values are also set for the medium-term (1 year) period - for leading indicators (indicators whose changes over time occur over a short period of time). In this way, a balanced system of indicators is achieved for long-term and short-term goals.

In the Business Studio 2.0 system, the content of short-term plans is detailed by periods (quarters, months, weeks, days) and is expressed in the form of planned indicator values. Indicators and their target values (values that are planned to be achieved) provide management with timely signals based on deviations of the actual state of affairs from the planned one, i.e., the actual quantitative results obtained are compared with the planned ones.

So, an indicator is a meter that shows the degree to which a goal has been achieved. However, it is also a means for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of a business process. Indicators serve both to assess the effectiveness of processes and to assess the degree of achievement of the goal at the same time.

Rice. 4 BSC indicators

Strategic activities to achieve strategic goals

Achieving strategic goals involves the implementation of relevant strategic activities. “Strategic activities” is a general term for all activities, projects, programs and initiatives that are implemented to achieve strategic goals.

Organizing a company's projects according to the goals of a balanced system creates clarity in understanding how a particular project contributes to achieving strategic goals. If projects do not make a significant contribution to achieving the strategic objectives, they should be reviewed to see how they contribute to the achievement of the underlying objectives. If a particular strategic measure does not make a significant contribution to achieving basic goals, then the need for its implementation is extremely doubtful.

Cascading Balanced Scorecard

Cascading leads to improved quality of strategic management in organizational units involved in building a balanced scorecard, since goals and strategic activities from higher-level units can be consistently transferred to the BSC of lower organizational units - this is vertical integration of goals.

When cascading, the strategy specified in the corporate Balanced ScoreCard applies to all levels of management. Strategic goals, metrics, targets, and improvement actions are then fleshed out and adapted across departments and teams. That is, the corporate balanced scorecard should be linked to the BSC of divisions, departments and individual employee work plans. Based on the BSC of its department, each department develops its own BSC, which must be consistent with the corporate BSC. Then, with the participation of the department head, each employee develops his own individual work plan. This plan is more focused on achieving tangible results in the workplace rather than focusing on assignments or improvement activities.

Thus, when cascading, a bridge is established between successive levels of the hierarchy, along which corporate strategy sequentially descends.

Strategy execution control

To improve the balanced scorecard, senior management and those responsible must continually analyze and evaluate the organization's performance.

Strategic objectives are characterized by a high degree of relevance to the company, and this relevance should be assessed at least annually. In this case, it is necessary to evaluate:

Are the selected indicators suitable for assessing the degree of achievement of the developed goals?;
How easy is it to calculate indicator values?;
Has the structural unit achieved the target values of the developed indicators?;
Have the target values of indicators of higher divisions been achieved?;
What contribution does the structural unit in question make to achieving the goals of the upper levels?

Evaluating indicators is primarily about understanding the possibility of calculating the actual value of an indicator based on the data of the reporting period. In addition, it is necessary to carry out plan-actual comparisons based on the values of the developed indicators with clarification of the reasons for deviations. Such an analysis is accompanied by either an adjustment to the target value of the indicator, or the development of corrective measures aimed at achieving the previously established target value.

The lower level BSC should always be assessed for its contribution to the higher level objectives.

In addition, it is advisable to predict target values of indicators for a long period of time.

What does an enterprise gain as a result of implementing a balanced scorecard?

Let us summarize some intermediate results. What does an enterprise get as a result of describing the strategy and its consistent implementation using the Balanced ScoreCard methodology? The first and most important thing is to concentrate efforts on areas that are strategically important for the company. The main goal of the company was determined, the means to achieve it (strategic goals) were outlined, and the goals were cascaded across departments. The second result, accordingly, is the presence of strategic goals for each division - that is, everyone understands what needs to be done. The third result is the ability to clearly understand the effectiveness of actions. The presence of indicators for each goal of its achievement allows each participant in the process to understand their role in the implementation of the company's strategy. And finally, the fourth result is control and manageability of the top-down strategy implementation process. A company, in the hands of its leaders, becomes an effective tool for achieving its goal.

Advantages of a computer over pencil and paper

Everything stated above is quite achievable without the use of any automation. Moreover, a number of successful businesses used similar methods in the late 19th century, when computer technology was not as advanced as it is today. Another question is whether it is convenient to work with pencil and paper, and whether automation at some stage will increase the efficiency of implementing the strategy? Of course, pencil and paper are just a symbol. Collecting and some processing of indicators is quite feasible using at least the same Microsoft Excel. However, goals may change, the significance of some indicators after the test of time will turn out to be overestimated, some elements that we considered unimportant will begin to play a strong role... The leader must be able to respond to changes and make changes to his plan, as quickly as possible - after all, every step, done in the wrong direction takes us away from the goal.

As a rule, the main problem faced by enterprises that decide to implement this strategy implementation methodology is not how to automate the creation of a tree of goals and indicators or the construction of a strategic map, but how to automatically constantly provide the BSC with fresh data and keep it in working order. Without this, operational control over the implementation of the strategy is impossible. For example, you can use the mechanism for collecting indicator values using mailings, implemented in the Business Studio 2.0 software product (Fig. 5). The means for collecting indicator values not contained in the information system are Microsoft Excel files, which are automatically sent to performers and then imported into the system.

For each individual who is responsible for entering indicator values into the system, a dynamic letter is generated with instructions for filling out the reporting table. The Business Studio 2.0 system finds all indicators for a given individual and generates a Microsoft Excel file containing a table with indicators for which this individual is responsible for entering values. This file is attached to the letter, and then these letters with files are sent to the electronic address (E-mail) of the individual stored in the system directory.

Rice. 5. Mechanism for collecting indicator values using mailings

Next, individuals fill out the files with the actual values of the indicators and place them in a specific folder on the file server or send them to the system administrator. The system automatically reads files from the folder and uploads them to its database.

This completes the stage of collecting indicator values.

The balanced scorecard, like any other management tool, must be adjusted as the company develops and the external environment changes. The environment in which an enterprise operates is usually very dynamic, which leads to adjustments in strategic goals. And this, in turn, requires constant updating of indicators for achieving these goals. However, in most cases this does not happen, which makes the balanced scorecard unworkable at best, if not downright harmful.

The collected indicator values should be made available to stakeholders for analysis. To do this, the system contains a set of pre-configured reports, which, if necessary, can be changed or supplemented with new ones. Planned and actual values of individual indicators are presented in BSC reports over time for several periods. The user can select the analysis period in the system settings of Business Studio 2.0.

The fierce competition in which modern enterprises live and operate dictates the need to improve the efficiency of every aspect of the enterprise's activities. Management activities are no exception. A manager needs tools for his job just like any other employee. The technique we described is not as complicated as it is effective, and the availability of software tools for its implementation allows you to perform this work in real time.

This method is especially significant in the analysis of the financial and economic activities of an enterprise. The fact is that a more or less objective judgment about an enterprise can be made only on the basis of certain indicators. It is no coincidence that the annual report of any large company begins with the section “Main Indicators” (in English literature the term “highlights” is used for the name of this section, which can be translated as “a brightly lit, protruding spot”), which presents key financial indicators in a comprehensive manner characterizing the financial position and results of operations of this company.

Of course, the selection of indicators is usually carried out purposefully (in other words, biased), although some of them may be universal. Thus, one of the main characteristics of the success of a company is the indicator “income (profit) per share”, therefore in the annual report of any large company this indicator is presented in dynamics. On the contrary, due to the ambiguous interpretation of the concept of “efficiency,” it is possible to select those performance indicators that most favorably characterize the activities of a given enterprise.

Since it is usually impossible to get a complete picture of the enterprise using one indicator, no matter how good it is, it is recommended to work with a system of indicators. Let's imagine a situation where an analyst is tasked with giving a comprehensive assessment of the activities of an economic entity. Since this activity is multifaceted, the problem of selecting indicators inevitably arises. This problem becomes more complicated if we take into account other factors: the purpose of the analysis, available information support, time limitations, the presence or absence of appropriate technical means, etc. However, even if the goal is general, a comprehensive assessment can only be achieved if it is possible to form a system of indicators.

The term "scorecard" is widely used in economic research. It is the complexity of the analysis that presupposes the use of certain sets and sets of indicators in the work. The analyst, in accordance with the criteria he defines, tries to select indicators, forms a system from them, and analyzes it. Can any set of indicators be considered a system? Of course no. Compared to individual indicators or some set of them, the system is a qualitatively new formation and is always more significant than the sum of its individual parts, since in addition to information about individual aspects of the described phenomenon (process, object), it carries certain information about the new that appears in the result of the interaction of these individual parties, i.e. information about the development of the phenomenon as a whole.

The construction of a comprehensive system of indicators is based on a clear understanding of two points: what the system is and what basic requirements it must satisfy. The definition of the concept “system of indicators” is given in scientific and educational literature - a system of indicators characterizing a certain economic entity or phenomenon is understood as a set of interrelated values that comprehensively reflect the state and development of a given entity or phenomenon. This definition is very general. Therefore, for practical use in the scientific literature, a number of requirements have been developed that the system of indicators must satisfy. The most important of them, which have methodological significance, are: a) the necessary breadth of coverage by the system’s indicators of all aspects of the subject or phenomenon being studied; b) the relationship between these indicators; c) verifiability.

Note that the second requirement requires the presence, first of all, of content, i.e. internal, interconnection of the components of the system. This can be understood as follows: in order to recognize a set of indicators as a system, it must have some kind of “organizing principle”, i.e. something common that unites indicators. The establishment of this “organizing principle” is a fundamental stage in the process of constructing a system of indicators. An important place should also be given to the establishment of formal relationships. Professor V. E. Adamov noted: “no matter how many private indicators... of any economic phenomenon or process we define, they will remain a set, and not a system of indicators, until meaningful and formal relationships between them are established” [Statistical study..., p. 124].

Particular emphasis should be placed on the importance of the verifiability requirement, i.e. verifiability. In theoretical analysis manuals one can often find indicators for which both the calculation algorithm and the information support are unclear. The educational value of such indicators is very doubtful. It is no coincidence that annual reports of Western companies often include a section describing algorithms for calculating key indicators.

In addition to the three noted requirements, when constructing indicator systems, it is necessary to be guided by a number of principles. It cannot be said that they are of a secondary nature, but in practice their implementation is hampered by a number of circumstances.

Let us list the most significant of these principles.

The principle of the tree structure of the indicator system.

It assumes that most often the system should have private and generalizing indicators, and the most optimal is to ensure the logical deployment of partial indicators into general ones. This kind of logic is not something fundamentally new. In particular, the resources of an enterprise can be summarized into three groups - material, labor and financial; Moreover, the ratio between these types of resources, firstly, may depend on the type of activity (for example, in companies operating in the field of high technologies, the importance of costs associated with labor resources may be relatively less; in financial companies the importance of financial resources is high, etc. .p.) and, secondly, it is certainly controllable. The effectiveness of each type of resource is assessed by its own indicators (capital productivity, labor productivity, turnover), which play the role of private indicators of the system; At the same time, these indicators can quite logically be supplemented with a small number of general indicators, for example, resource productivity. This approach is quite widely used in financial analysis.

Visibility principle

It assumes the presence of a certain set of indicators that is optimal for a given enterprise. As a result of qualitative analysis, it is necessary to build a system that would cover all the essential aspects of the phenomenon being studied. At the same time, the system indicators should complement each other, and not duplicate each other, be significant and, if possible, slightly correlated with each other. The latter, in addition, means that the system of indicators must also meet the principle of acceptable multicollinearity. Failure to comply with this principle leads to information overload of the selected set of indicators, since correlating indicators behave in the same way over time, and therefore the usefulness of their simultaneous inclusion in the system may be questionable. Of course, we are not talking about the fact that, when forming a set of indicators, it is always necessary to calculate correlation coefficients; this circumstance should simply be kept in mind and, if possible, taken into account.

The principle of a reasonable combination of absolute and relative indicators

The main purpose of any system is that

indicators consists in comparing and analyzing certain characteristics in a spatiotemporal context. Relative values are most suitable for this purpose; with their help, it is possible to identify and evaluate the influence of extensive and intensive factors in the development of a phenomenon, to eliminate spatiotemporal incomparability of indicators due to reasons such as inflation, economies of scale, organizational changes, etc. For example, profit, being an absolute indicator, cannot always serve a criterion for comparative assessment of the efficiency of enterprises; profitability indicators are another matter. Thus, the prevalence of relative and specific indicators is determined by the fact that they have certain advantages over absolute ones - they allow one to compare objects that are not comparable in absolute values, make it possible to eliminate the influence of certain general economic factors (for example, inflation), are more stable in space and time, i.e. .e. characterize more homogeneous variation series, make it possible to “improve” the statistical properties of indicators (in the sense of their belonging to a distribution law close to normal), which is an important factor for correct data processing using statistical methods, etc.

Without dwelling in detail on the principles of construction and types of relative indicators, we only note that the relative indicator is most often calculated by comparing two absolute indicators; it is recommended to monitor their logical comparability. In particular, if one of the compared indicators is a moment (interval) value, then the other must be as well. Thus, the capital productivity indicator is the ratio of turnover (volume of products sold) to the cost of fixed assets; Since turnover is, by definition, an interval indicator, and fixed assets can be characterized by both interval and momentary indicators, when calculating capital productivity it is more reasonable to use the average (for the corresponding period) cost of fixed assets.

The principle of informality.

This means that the system must have the maximum degree of analyticality, provide the ability to assess the current state of the enterprise and the prospects for its development, and also be suitable for making management decisions. Compliance with this principle is achieved: a) by the primary inclusion in the system of indicators used in traditional analysis; b) providing unambiguously interpreted algorithms for their calculation; c) primary use as an information database for accounting and reporting.

In conclusion, we note that the development of a system of indicators for the purposes of a specific analysis is always creative.

The completeness and integrity of any analysis with an economic focus is largely determined by the validity of the set of criteria used. As a rule, this set includes quality And quantitative markdowns, and its basis is usually quantifiable indicators that have a clear interpretation and, if possible, some guidelines (limits, standards, trends).

Indicators – These are elementary models with the help of which the quantitative and qualitative characteristics or other processes in economic activity are described. Each indicator reveals only part of the real activity. To characterize the activities of an enterprise, a huge number of indicators are needed.

When selecting indicators, it is necessary to formulate the logic of their combination into a given set so that the role of each of them is visible and does not create the impression that some aspect remains uncovered or, on the contrary, does not fit into the scheme under consideration. In other words, a set of indicators, which in this case can be interpreted as a system, must have some internal core, some basis that explains the logic of its construction.

The term “scorecard” is widely used in economic research. The analyst, in accordance with the selected criteria, selects indicators, forms a system from them, and analyzes it. The complexity of the analysis requires the use of entire systems, rather than individual indicators.

A system of indicators characterizing a certain economic object or phenomenon is understood as a set of interrelated values that comprehensively reflect the state and development of a given object or phenomenon.

The most important requirements, which the system of indicators must satisfy are: the necessary breadth of coverage by the indicators of the system of all aspects of the object or phenomenon being studied, the relationship of these indicators and the systematic deployment of some indicators from others.

In addition, when constructing indicator systems, it is necessary to be guided by the following principles:

tree structure principle indicator systems. It assumes the presence in the system of private and generalized indicators of varying degrees of integration, and private and generalized indicators must be connected both logically and formally, i.e. a set of partial indicators through some simple mathematical operations must be reduced (integrated) into one or more reporting indicators;

principle of visibility the presence of a certain set of indicators that is optimal for a given enterprise and covers all the essential aspects of the phenomenon being studied. At the same time, the system indicators should complement each other, and not duplicate each other, be significant and slightly correlated with each other. The latter means that the system of indicators must also meet the principle of acceptable multicollinearity;

the principle of a reasonable combination of absolute and relative indicators involves the use in systems, along with absolute values, of a sufficiently large number of relative and specific values;

the indicator system should provide adequacy analytical information on the current state of affairs at the enterprise;

system indicators should be informal nature, those. the system must have the maximum degree of analyticality, and the system’s indicators must be unambiguously measurable.

Any system of indicators consists of two types of quantities:

economic indicators (turnover, financial results, etc.)

statistical indicators (growth rates, coefficients, etc.)

Four types of connections can be distinguished between indicators:

brain teaser

Semantic

Functional

Stochastic

The system of performance indicators of an enterprise (organization) must perform the following main functions:

reliably reflect the objective economic essence;

take into account the organizational and specific features of the industry;

sufficiently fully reflect the activities of the enterprise as a whole and take into account the characteristics of each economic level;

serve as a reliable tool for a comprehensive study of the financial and economic activities of an enterprise and its management;

act as a tool for unlocking reserves and developing a further strategy for the development of the enterprise;

be comparable in dynamics and commensurate with accounting data, provide feedback in accounting.

Indicators– these are elementary models with the help of which the quantitative and qualitative characteristics or other processes in economic activity are described. Each indicator reveals only part of the real activity. To characterize the activities of an enterprise, a huge number of indicators are needed.

In addition, when constructing indicator systems, it is necessary to be guided by the following principles:

· the principle of a tree structure of the system of indicators. It assumes the presence in the system of private and generalized indicators of varying degrees of integration, and private and generalized indicators must be connected both logically and formally, i.e. a set of partial indicators through some simple mathematical operations must be reduced (integrated) into one or more reporting indicators;

· the principle of visibility - the presence of a certain set of indicators that is optimal for a given enterprise and covers all the essential aspects of the phenomenon being studied. At the same time, the system indicators should complement each other, and not duplicate each other, be significant and slightly correlated with each other. The latter means that the system of indicators must also meet the principle of acceptable multicollinearity;

· the principle of a reasonable combination of absolute and relative indicators involves the use in systems, along with absolute values, of a sufficiently large number of relative and specific values;

· the system of indicators must ensure the adequacy of analytical information to the existing state of affairs at the enterprise;

· system indicators should be informal, i.e. the system must have the maximum degree of analyticality, and the system’s indicators must be unambiguously measurable.

Any system of indicators consists of two types of quantities:

Economic indicators (turnover, financial results, etc.)

Statistical indicators (growth rates, coefficients, etc.)

Four types of connections can be distinguished between indicators:

brain teaser

Semantic

Functional

Stochastic

The system of performance indicators of an enterprise (organization) must perform the following main functions:

· reliably reflect the objective economic essence;

· take into account the organizational and specific features of the industry;

· sufficiently fully reflect the activities of the enterprise as a whole and take into account the characteristics of each economic level;

· serve as a reliable tool for a comprehensive study of the financial and economic activities of an enterprise and its management;

· act as a tool for unlocking reserves and developing a further strategy for the development of the enterprise;

· be comparable in dynamics and commensurate with accounting data, provide feedback in accounting.

The role of indicators in complex analysis, characteristics of the content of subsystems. Relationships between individual subsystems. System of indicators as an element of analysis methodology.

All AHD objects are reflected in the system of indicators of the plan, accounting, reporting and other sources of information.

Each economic phenomenon, each process is often determined not by one isolated indicator, but by a whole complex of interrelated indicators. For example, the efficiency of using fixed assets of production is characterized by the level of capital productivity, capital capacity, profitability, labor productivity, etc. In this regard, the selection and justification of a system of indicators to reflect economic phenomena and processes (research objects) is an important methodological issue in ACD. The results of the analysis depend on how fully and accurately the indicators reflect the essence of the phenomena being studied.

Since the analysis uses a large number of different qualitative indicators, their grouping and systematization is necessary.

According to their content, indicators are divided into quantitative and qualitative.TO quantitative indicators include, for example, the volume of manufactured products, the number of employees, the area of crops, the number of livestock, etc. Qualitative indicators show the essential features and properties of the objects being studied. Examples of quality indicators are labor productivity, cost, profitability, crop yield, etc.

A change in quantitative indicators necessarily leads to a change in qualitative indicators, and vice versa. For example, an increase in production volume leads to a reduction in costs. The growth of labor productivity ensures an increase in the volume of production.

Some indicators are used to analyze the activities of all sectors of the national economy, others - only in certain sectors. On this basis they are divided into general and specific. TO general include indicators of gross output, labor productivity, profit, cost, etc. For example specific indicators for individual industries and enterprises may be the calorific value of coal, peat moisture content, milk fat content, crop yield, etc.

The indicators used in ACD, according to the degree of synthesis, are also divided into generalizing, particular and auxiliary (indirect). The first of them are used for a generalized description of complex economic phenomena. Particular indicators reflect individual aspects and elements of the phenomena and processes being studied. For example, general indicators of labor productivity are the average annual, average daily, and hourly production output per employee. Particular indicators of labor productivity include the cost of working time to produce a unit of product of a certain type or the number of products produced per unit of working time. Auxiliary (indirect) indicators are used to more fully characterize a particular object of analysis. For example, the amount of working time spent per unit of work performed.

Analytical indicators are divided into absolute and relative. Absolute indicators expressed in monetary, natural measures or through labor intensity. Relative indicators show the ratio of any two absolute indicators. They are defined as percentages, coefficients or indices.

Absolute indicators, in turn, are divided into natural, conditionally natural and cost. Natural indicators express the magnitude of a phenomenon in physical units of measurement (mass, length, volume, etc.). Conditionally natural indicators, are used for a generalized description of production volumes and sales of a diverse range of products (for example, standard pairs of shoes in the shoe industry, thousands of standard cans in canning factories, standard feed units in agriculture). Cost indicators show the magnitude of complex phenomena in monetary terms. In conditions of commodity production, the operation of the law of value, they are of great importance.

When studying cause-and-effect relationships, indicators are divided into factorial And effective.

If one or another indicator is considered as a result of the influence of one or more causes and acts as an object of study, then when studying relationships it is called effective.

Indicators that determine the behavior of the performance indicator and act as reasons for changes in its value are called factorial.

According to the method of formation they distinguish normative indicators (rates of consumption of raw materials, materials, fuel, energy, depreciation rates, prices, etc.); planned (data from plans for economic and social development of the enterprise, planned targets for on-farm divisions); accounting (accounting, statistical, operational accounting data);

reporting(accounting, statistical and operational reporting data); analytical (evaluative), which are calculated during the analysis itself to evaluate the results and efficiency of the enterprise.

All indicators used in the analysis are interconnected and interdependent. This follows from the actually existing connections between the economic phenomena that they describe.

A comprehensive study of enterprise economics involves the systematization of indicators, because a set of indicators, no matter how comprehensive it is, without taking into account their relationship and subordination, cannot give a real idea of the effectiveness of economic activity. It is necessary that specific data on different types of activities be organically linked with each other in a single integrated system.

All indicators, depending on the object of analysis, are grouped into the following subsystems (Fig. 3.2).

The indicators that form the subsystems can be divided into input and output, general and specific. With the help of incoming and outgoing indicators, the interconnection of subsystems is carried out. The output indicator of one subsystem is an input for other subsystems.

Rice. 3.2. System of indicators of complex AHD

Indicators of initial operating conditions enterprises are characterized by:

a) the availability of the necessary material and financial resources for the normal functioning of the enterprise and the implementation of its production program;

b) organizational and technical level of the enterprise, i.e. production structure of the enterprise, management structure, level of concentration and specialization of production, duration of the production cycle, technical and energy equipment of labor, degree of mechanization and automation, progressiveness of technological processes, etc.;

c) the level of marketing activities to study demand for products, their competitiveness, sales markets, organization of trade, advertising, etc.

The indicators of the given subsystem influence all other economic indicators and, first of all, the volume of production and sales of products, its quality, the degree of use of production resources (labor productivity, capital productivity, material productivity), as well as other indicators of economic efficiency: cost, profit, profitability, etc. Therefore, the analysis of economic activity must begin with the study of this subsystem.

The main indicators of subsystem 2 are capital profitability, capital productivity, capital intensity, average annual cost of fixed assets, depreciation. Along with these indicators, others are of great importance, for example, production output per machine hour, utilization rate of available equipment, etc. The level of capital productivity and capital profitability depends on them.

In subsystem 3 the main indicators are material intensity, material output, and the cost of used items of labor for the analyzed period of time. They are closely related to the indicators of subsystems 5, 6, 7, 8. Product output, cost, and therefore the amount of profit, the level of profitability, and the financial condition of the enterprise depend on the economical use of materials.

Subsystem 4 includes indicators of the enterprise's supply of labor resources, the complete use of the working time fund, the wage fund, indicators of labor productivity, profit per employee and per ruble of wages, etc.

To the fifth block includes indicators of production and sales of products: the volume of gross, marketable and sold products in value, natural and conditionally natural terms, the structure of products, their quality, rhythm of production, volume of shipment and sales of products, balances of finished products in warehouses. They are very closely related to the indicators of all subsequent blocks.

Indicators of the sixth block - this is the total cost of production and sales of products, including by elements, cost items, types of products, centers of responsibility, as well as costs per ruble of marketable products, the cost of individual products, etc. The indicators of the seventh block directly depend on the level of cost of production: profit enterprises, level of profitability.

To the last subsystem (block 8) include indicators that characterize the availability and structure of the enterprise’s capital according to the composition of its sources and forms of placement, the efficiency and intensity of the use of its own and borrowed funds. This subsystem also includes indicators that characterize the use of profit, savings and consumption funds, bank loans, solvency, creditworthiness and investment attractiveness, bankruptcy risk, break-even zone, financial stability of the enterprise, etc. They depend on the indicators of all previous subsystems and, in turn, have a great influence on the indicators of the organizational and technical level of the enterprise, the volume of production, and the efficiency of use of material and labor resources.

Thus, all indicators of the enterprise’s economic activity are closely connected and dependent, which must be taken into account in a comprehensive analysis. The relationship between the main indicators determines the sequence of analysis - from the study of primary indicators to generalizing ones. This sequence corresponds to the objective basis for the formation of economic indicators.

For example, in order to determine the planned volume of production, it is necessary to conduct marketing research of sales markets, study the demand for products, and form a portfolio of orders. It is also necessary to know the conditions and possibilities of production, its provision with the necessary means in the required proportions and the achieved level of use of means of labor, objects of labor and labor resources. Only then can the volume of production be accurately justified. The cost per unit of production can be calculated by knowing the costs of labor, materials, raw materials, the amount of depreciation and other expenses, as well as the volume of production. The financial result can be determined after the sale of products by comparing the amount of revenue with the amount of costs for production and sales of products, etc. The financial condition reflects all aspects of economic activity and depends on all internal and external factors, therefore its analysis is the final stage of ACD.

In this sequence, indicators are formed when drawing up a plan for the social and economic development of an enterprise, and the analysis of economic activity should be carried out in the same sequence. But this does not exclude the reverse sequence of analysis - from general indicators to specific ones. The main thing is that consistency is ensured, the interconnection of individual blocks of analysis with each other is taken into account and unity of analysis results is achieved for each section.