STAGE 3 - Balanced Scorecard for Skills

CASE STUDY - Stemler Communications

This case study is designed to provide you with an example of how a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle can be used to align workplace education efforts with the objectives of a Balanced Scorecard. It is also intended to stimulate your thinking about how such an approach could be used in your own organization. Throughout the case study, you will be asked to reflect upon certain questions and challenges facing Jack Ferney, the Director of Human Resources at Stemler Communications, a fictitious wireless communications organization.

The Context

Stemler Communications is a 20 year-old private, family-owned business that designs, manufactures and markets text- and voiced-based pagers. It is based in Evanston, Illinois and employs 150 people and has annual sales of $25 million.

The organization experienced tremendous growth throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. This growth was driven by their easy-to-use, and fairly inexpensive EveryWhere text and voice pager product used by people "on the go"…..e.g. sales people, repair people, business people, and people who need to be reached at critical times…e.g. physicians, emergency workers, on-call service people, etc.