ACC & ACF 3200
Group Assignment
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a well-established Christian charity that has operated in Australia for
over 140 years. Internationally they offer programs and services in more than 130 countries –
bringing hope, Helpance and compassion to people facing hardship and injustice. They are a
large and complex organisation that provide very valuable services to the community,
particularly in the areas of aged care, homelessness, employment, drug and alcohol, disaster
recovery and emergency relief, youth services, and family and domestic violence.
The Salvation Army rely on various sources of income in order to provide their myriad of
community services. One significant source of such income is Salvos Stores which operates a
national network of opportunity shops (op shops) or thrift stores, that sell new and secondhand donated items to the public. These are physical stores and there are 352 currently in
Australia.
Challenge:
Before COVID-19 hit in early 2020, The Salvation Army were already seeing the need to
consider ecommerce opportunities for their thrift stores. The advent of COVID-19 in
Australia led to many changes to this key revenue-generating area of the organisation, where
in several states, lockdowns were imposed and other restrictions which impacted stores and
their operations. This also led to a greater urgency in the need to implement an ecommerce
strategy in this area.
In 2020, The Salvation Army released an updated eCommerce strategy to fast track
eCommerce growth (see below and on Moodle). This recognised additional revenue
opportunities for Salvos Stores as they could capitalise off the increase in Australians
engaging in online shopping during this time and beyond. Another benefit of this approach is
that it would allow for greater customer reach, in that customers in less resourced or remote
areas of Australia would have better access to quality second hand items through the
opportunity to purchase items online for the first time – where postage for items are charged
at a flat rate and heavily subsidised for these areas. A further motivation for this initiative
relates to getting more people into jobs – job creation – and providing their people with better
digital skills. Salvos Stores currently have 1,500 employees and 10,000 volunteers.
This project will focus specifically on Salvos Stores, and in particular, on the adoption of this
eCommerce strategy. We will focus on their online initiatives, as per their eCommerce
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strategy and the opportunities that an online sales channel can offer in addition to their
bricks-and-mortar stores. Lucas Ferrier is the eCommerce Manager for The Salvation Army
has been involved in the development of this authentic student project, and he has indicated
that a key challenge they face, is in determining their ‘performance’ in these initiatives.
Particularly in working out ways to measure, report and communicate on their social and
environmental impact to their stakeholders.
As third year accounting students at Monash Business School, you have the opportunity to
help The Salvation Army. You can do this by analysing their business and developing for
them a performance measurement system (balanced scorecard) that can communicate their
key non-financial and financial performance metrics to their stakeholders on measures that
are important to the success of their eCommerce strategy in relation to Salvos Stores. In
addition to this, as per their Impact Report, The Salvation Army recognise the importance of
communicating their performance in ways that are both effective and sophisticated. Your
group is asked to think of two creative ways that Salvos Stores can effectively communicate
their ecommerce performance and impact to their stakeholders.
Your group have been tasked with preparing a report for the eCommerce Manager, Lucas
Ferrier and the Board of Directors of The Salvation Army and Senior Managers of Salvos
Stores. The following information will be a useful basis of your report as they provide you
with the foundational knowledge of the organisation.
o The Salvation Army website: https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us/
o Annual Report 2021: See Moodle
o Impact Report 2021: See Moodle
o eCommerce strategy (Confidential Internal Document)*
o Case study video providing an overview of Salvos Stores online solution:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iqjyuKaA-jzut1-
JAGx1v9UQrDvMffNO/view?usp=sharing
These documents can be accessed through the assignment tab on Moodle.
The confidential internal documents above need to be treated with the same
professionalism and confidentiality as expected of a professional accountant. They
are not to be shared or uploaded to any site under any circumstance. * Please
also note that the eCommerce strategy shows several key activities and initiatives,
given this it is ok for each group to focus on what they feel are the key (most
important) initiatives for the development their BSC and other requirements.
The aim of this project is to use your knowledge of management accounting to Help
Salvos Stores in the development of their performance management system
incorporating their new eCommerce strategy.
Projects that are of high quality, produce useful and relevant strategic advice, make
a unique contribution and Help in the communication of relevant and creative ideas
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will be shared with The Salvation Army in the aim of Helping their organisation
enhance their performance management. Groups will be asked for permission to
share their work and those whose work is shared will receive formal
acknowledgement from the CE and/or The Salvation Army on their high
achievement of the provision of this strategic advice. Up to 4 excellent quality
assignments will be chosen for this purpose.
Task:
Using the information provided by The Salvation Army’s eCommerce strategy and other
documents, your group is asked to produce a report where you design a Balanced Scorecard
(BSC) for Salvos Stores incorporating their eCommerce strategy.
In your report clearly complete each of the requirements below:
a. Briefly describe to the eCommerce Manager, Board of Directors and Senior
Managers why and how a BSC can help Salvos Stores realise their eCommerce
strategy (include relevant references to the BSC literature).
b. In designing the BSC for Salvos Stores, indicate 4 or 5 relevant scorecard
Perspectives.
In each Perspective indicate two main objectives for each and at least two
associated financial and/or non-financial performance measures for each
objective (therefore, each perspective of the BSC should have at least 4
performance measures). In doing this, pay particular attention to the
development of relevant social and environmental measures, the importance of
which are discussed above.
In this process also think about the division of lag (output measures) and lead
(predictive measures/drivers of performance) indicators while devising your
scorecard.
This BSC should be presented as a creative visual illustration (1 page).
c. Following this, provide a written description of the BSC that you have
developed for the eCommerce Manager, Board of Directors and Senior
Managers including a justification for each of your chosen performance
measures and an indication as to whether they are lag or lead measures (ensure
you provide a very brief definition of lag and lead for the benefit of board
members).
d. Organisations often find it challenging to effectively communicate their
performance and impact to the public and their stakeholders. We can see that
The Salvation Army already adopt some effective ways to communicate what
they do through story telling and through their Impact Report.
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Think about the measures that you developed in your scorecard and provide
two examples of ways in which the non-financial measures you have developed
can be presented in an effective and creative way to stakeholders to convey the
outcomes, or performance of their eCommerce initiatives.
Important Notes:
There is one opportunity to ask for more information or clarification from Lucas Ferrier
who is the eCommerce Manager for the Salvation Army
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasferrier/ to answer any questions to Help your
project. There will be a link on Moodle to post any questions for Lucas. These
questions need to be posted prior to Thursday 8th of September on Moodle and
the Chief Examiner of the unit (Associate Professor Carly Moulang) will forward
all relevant questions to Lucas to answer in a live Zoom on Friday 9th September
– further details and confirmation of time will be posted on Moodle closer to this
date. During this Zoom students are also encouraged to ask Lucas any further
questions during this time. This is an opportunity to ask any specific questions that
cannot be answered by a detailed review of the materials provided. These questions
should Help groups with providing relevant reports. I highly encourage all students
to attend this special Zoom.
You are highly encouraged to do some research on BSC and not-for-profit and social
performance measures, however, be careful to use this research to inform your own
thoughts and group work and not to plagiarise the work of others.
Be sure to reference appropriately throughout your report. Harvard referencing is
required. If you are not sure you may like to refer to:
https://www.monash.edu/rlo/home and https://www.monash.edu/rlo/research-writingassignments/referencing-and-academic-integrity/citing-and-referencing and Harvard –
Citing and referencing – Subject guides at Monash University
It is important that you provide original visual illustrations within your report. It is
not acceptable to copy and paste any Google images etc. into your report as this will
demonstrate that you have not understood the context of the organisation and its
operating environment. Remember this project is asking you to act as strategic advisers
to an external client, your professional reputation is an important component of your
work.
All projects will be run through Turnitin software that will indicate the same or similar
pieces of work.
For report formatting refer to : https://www.monash.edu/rlo/assignmentsamples/business-and-economics/business-and-economics-report-writing You need
to format your project in the form of a Business Report.
One group member is to submit the group assignment only on behalf of the group.
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Word limit: 2,500 words for groups of 3 and 2,900 words for groups of 4*. All students are
to form groups of 3 in their tutorial class and groups of 4 will only occur in the instances of
1 or 2 remaining students without a group in each class.
Word count also excludes the cover page, table of contents, one-page BSC illustration and
reference list.
Penalties will apply if reports go over the word limit (there is no 10% leniency etc).
Every submission needs to write their final word count on the cover page of their report
(less the BSC illustration, cover page, table of contents and reference section). Failure to
do so will result in a penalty as indicated in the marking guide.
The following guide provides an indication of how your report will be marked:
Excellent Good Weak Not
Satisfactory
a. BSC Discussion: Consideration will be
given to the fluency of the argument for
a BSC for Salvos Stores and the extent to
which it is convincing, consistent, wellwritten and references appropriate
sources and how it will help to achieve
their eCommerce strategy.
10 6 4 0
b. Illustration of BSC – the illustration is
clear, comprehensive and creative.
10 6 4 0
c. Identification of 4 – 5 relevant BSC
Perspectives and identification of 2
relevant objectives for each
perspective ensuring the inclusion of
some social and environmental
objectives (8 – 10 objectives in total).
These perspectives and objectives can
be identified in your BSC illustration as
per requirement b) or form part of
requirement c) of your report.
12 8 5 0
d. For each objective provide a
description and justification for each of
the performance measures developed
in the BSC (16 – 20 measures in total).
20 12 8 0
e. Consideration will be given to the
quality and creativity of the examples
generated in the ways in which to
effectively present non-financial
measures to key stakeholders
indicating the outcomes or success of
their eCommerce strategy.
10 6 4 0
Other Requirements:
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General report appearance, spelling
etc., quality list of references,
adherence to word limit. Word limit
shown on first page of report.
8 5 3 0
Group Assignment Total Marks / 70
Scaled to a mark / 20
Comments: (optional)
Reflection and teamwork Peer
Assessment (Individual):
Completion and submission of
Teamwork Peer assessment and
individual reflection document.
(Marking guide below)
/ 5
Teamwork assessment for group assignment*
Personal
Reflection
Marks Exemplary
5 – 6
Satisfactory
3 – 4
Unsatisfactory
0 – 2
Comments
relating to
learnings from
group work
including
discussion of
strengths and
weaknesses and
what can be
improved on in
the future;
Cohesion e.g.
accurate, concise
language.
Discussion flows
logically
and is of
appropriate
length
/ 6 Addressed the
three main queues
with ideas
relevant and
clearly stated.
Work is easy to
read, logical and
flows smoothly.
Work
presentation of a
high quality and
spelling
and/or
grammatical
errors virtually
non-existent.
Addresses some
of the three
main queues.
Ideas are
mostly relevant
and clearly
stated.
Work generally
flows smoothly
but was a bit
brief (or
‘wordy’) in
places. Work
presentation is
satisfactory.
Only minor
spelling and/or
grammatical
errors.
Ideas are
inadequate with
logical
inconsistencies,
writing is
disjointed and
does
not flow
smoothly. Work
suffers from
frequent
grammatical and
spelling errors.
Not presented
in a professional
way.
Self and Peer
reviews
/4
Total
Scaled
/10
/5
*The document for this is on Moodle – it is called ‘Teamwork assessment document’; in
this document you will see the three questions this marking rubric is referring to.
Each group member needs to complete this task and submit this document separately to
their assignment via an individual teamwork assessment link in Moodle. It is due at the same
time as the group assignment.
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Copyright Warning:
All materials produced for teaching this course of study, including all lectures and any supplementary materials are protected by
copyright. You are permitted to use these materials only for your personal study and research. Use of the materials for any other
purposes, including sale of lecture notes, without the express permission of the copyright owner, may infringe copyright. The
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