Strategic Decisions and the Management Accountant

Learning Objective 2 Understand how management accountants help firms make strategic decisions

• they provide information about the sources of competitive advantage

A company’s strategy specifies how the organization matches its own capabilities with the opportunities in the marketplace. In other words, strategy describes the integrated set of choices an organization makes to create value for its customers while distinguishing itself from its competitors. Businesses follow one of two broad strategies. Some companies, such as Southwest Airlines and Vanguard (the mutual fund company), follow a cost leadership strategy. They profit and grow by providing quality products or services at low prices and by judiciously managing their operations, marketing, customer service, and administration costs. Southwest Airlines, for example, only operates Boeing 737 aircrafts to reduce costs of repairs, maintenance, and spare parts and offers no seat assignments at boarding to reduce the costs of ground staff. Other companies such as Apple and the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson follow a product differentiation strategy. They generate profits and growth by offering differentiated or unique products or services that appeal to their customers and are often priced higher than the less-popular products or services of their competitors.

Deciding between these strategies is a critical part of what managers do. Management accountants work closely with managers in various departments to formulate strategies by providing information about the sources of competitive advantage, such as (1) the company’s cost, productivity, or efficiency advantage relative to competitors or (2) the premium prices a company can charge over its costs from distinctive product or service features. Strategic cost management describes cost management that specifically focuses on strategic issues.

Management accounting information helps managers formulate strategy by answering questions such as the following:

• WHO ARE OUR MOST IMPORTANT CUSTOMERS, AND WHAT CRITICAL CAPABILITY DO WE HAVE TO BE COMPETITIVE AND DELIVER VALUE TO OUR CUSTOMERS? After Amazon.com’s success selling books online, management accountants at Barnes & Noble outlined the costs and benefits of several alternative approaches for enhancing the company’s information technology infrastructure and developing the capability to sell books online. A similar cost–benefit analysis led Toyota to build flexible computer-integrated manufacturing plants that enable it to use the same equipment efficiently to produce a variety of cars in response to changing customer tastes.
• WHAT IS THE BARGAINING POWER OF OUR CUSTOMERS? Kellogg Company, for example, uses the reputation of its brand to reduce the bargaining power of its customers and charge higher prices for its cereals.
• WHAT IS THE BARGAINING POWER OF OUR SUPPLIERS? Management accountants at Dell Computers consider the significant bargaining power of Intel, its supplier of microprocessors, and Microsoft, its supplier of operating system software, when considering how much it must pay to acquire these products.
• WHAT SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS EXIST IN THE MARKETPLACE, AND HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM OUR PRODUCT IN TERMS OF FEATURES, PRICE, COST, AND QUALITY? Hewlett-Packard, for example, designs, costs, and prices new printers after comparing the functionality and quality of its printers to other printers available in the marketplace.
• WILL ADEQUATE CASH BE AVAILABLE TO FUND THE STRATEGY, OR WILL ADDITIONAL FUNDS NEED TO BE RAISED? Procter & Gamble, for example, issued new debt and equity to fund its strategic acquisition of Gillette, a maker of shaving products.

The best-designed strategies and the best-developed capabilities are useless unless they are effectively executed. In the next section, we describe how management accountants help managers take actions that create value for their customers.