Balanced scorecard La Quinta Corporation manufactures corrugated cardboard boxes. It competes and plans to grow by selling high-quality boxes at a low price and by delivering them to customers quickly after receiving customers’ orders. There are many other manufacturers who produce similar boxes. La Quinta believes that continuously improving its manufacturing processes and having satisfied employees are critical to implementing its strategy in 2009.

1. Is La Quinta’s 2009 strategy one of product differentiation or cost leadership? Explain briefly.

2. Mesa Corporation, a competitor of La Quinta, manufactures corrugated boxes with more designs and color combinations than La Quinta at a higher price. Mesa’s boxes are of high quality but require more time to produce and so have longer delivery times. Draw a simple customer preference map as in Exhibit 13-1 for La Quinta and Mesa using the attributes of price, delivery time, quality, and design.

3. Indicate two measures you would expect to see under each perspective in La Quinta’s balanced scorecard for 2009. Use a strategy map as in Exhibit 13-3 to explain your answer.