Following a strategy of product differentiation, Westwood Corporation makes a high-end kitchen range hood, KE8. Westwoods data
Question:
Following a strategy of product differentiation, Westwood Corporation makes a high-end kitchen range hood, KE8. Westwood’s data for 2016 and 2017 are:
In 2017, Westwood reduced direct material usage per unit of KE8. Conversion costs in each year are tied to manufacturing capacity. Selling and customer-service costs are related to the number of customers that the selling and customer-service functions are designed to support.
Westwood had 23 customers (wholesalers) in 2016 and 25 customers in 2017.
Required 1. Describe briefly the key elements you would include in Westwood’s balanced scorecard.
2. Calculate the growth, price-recovery, and productivity components that explain the change in operating income from 2016 to 2017.
3. Suppose during 2017, the market size for high-end kitchen range hoods grew 3% in terms of number of units and all increases in market share (that is, increases in the number of units sold greater than 3%) are due to Westwood’s product-differentiation strategy. Calculate how much of the change in operating income from 2016 to 2017 is due to the industrymarket-
size factor, cost leadership, and product differentiation.
4. How successful has Westwood been in implementing its strategy? Explain.
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