Kimmo Company manufactures and sells snow skis. It competes and plans to grow by customizing high- quality skis and offering the customer a pleasant experience in their store. Because Kimmo custom fits and designs the skis, customers pay a higher price. Kimmo’s customers also understand that the delivery time will be 2– 3 weeks. There are other ski manufacturers, but few who offer custom fitting and graphics. Kimmo believes that tailoring the experience for the customer is critical to its success in 2013.

Required

1. Is Kimmo’s 2013 strategy one of product differentiation or cost leadership? Explain briefly.

2. Sammi Corporation, a competitor of Kimmo’s, also manufactures quality skis and offers them at a lower price. Sammi does not customize the skis, but customers can pick up their skis the day they are purchased. Draw a simple customer preference map as in Exhibit 14- 1 for Kimmo and Sammi using the attributes of price, delivery time, quality, and design.

3. Draw a strategy map as in Exhibit 14- 2 with two strategic objectives you would expect to see under each balanced scorecard perspective.

4. For each strategic objective indicate a measure you would expect to see in Kimmo’s balanced scorecard for 2013.