WrightAir is a no-frills airline that services the Midwest. Its mission is to be the only short-haul, low-fare, high-frequency, point-to-point carrier in the Midwest. However, there are several large commercial carriers offering air transportation, and WrightAir knows that it cannot compete with them based on the services those carriers provide. WrightAir has chosen to reduce costs by not offering many inflight services, such as food and entertainment options. Instead, the company is dedicated to providing the highest quality transportation at the lowest fare. WrightAir’s balanced scorecard measures (and actual results) for 2018 follow:

Required: 

1. What is WrightAir’s strategy? Was WrightAir successful in implementing its strategy in 2018? Explain your answer. 

2. For WrightAir, draw a map describing the cause-and-effect relationships among the strategic objectives described in the balanced scorecard. Identify what you believe are any (a) strong ties, (b) focal points, (c) trigger points, and (d) distinctive objectives. Comment on your structural analysis of the strategy map. 

3. Based on the strategy identified in requirement 1 above, what role does the price-recovery component play in explaining the success of WrightAir? 

4. Would you have included customer-service measures in the customer perspective? Why or why not? Explain briefly. 

5. Would you have included some measure of employee satisfaction and employee training in the learning-and-growth perspective? Would you consider this objective critical to WrightAir for implementing its strategy? Why or why not? Explain briefly. 

6. Why do you think Wright Air has introduced environmental measures in its balanced scorecard? Is the company meeting its performance objectives in this area?

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Actual Target performance performance Objectives Measures Financial perspective Increase shareholder value $7 200 000 $8 400 000 Operating-income changes from productivity Operating-income changes from price $2 700 000 $3 600 000 recovery Operating-income changes from growth Cost savings due to reduction in jet fuel consumption $3 000 000 $3 960 000 $900 000 $1 080 000 Customer perspective Increase the number of on-time arrivals FAA on-time arrival 1st in 2nd in industry ranking Percentage of customer 100% survey respondents with greater than 90% approval rating on company's sustainability efforts industry Improve brand image 96% Internal-business-process perspective Reduce turnaround time On-ground time Number of engineering changes that decreased CO, emissions <25 minutes 30 minutes Reduce CO, emissions 10 Learning-and-growth perspective Align ground crews % of ground crew stockholders 70% 68% Acquire new energy management tool Achieve ISO 50001 and technology Acquire certification Acquire certification certification in energy management by Dec. 31 by Dec. 31