Superheroes LLP MCS

Who is SuperHeroes LLP accountable to?
And what is it accountable for?

SuperHeroes LLP is accountable to its customer, Good City. More specifically, SuperHeroes LLP is directly accountable to the mayor of Good City. In addition, the members of SuperHeroes LLP are accountable to each other and to their CEO, Catrix. SuperHeroes LLP is accountable for doing the job they were hired to do, which is lowering crime and keeping the citizens safe while causing minimal damage in the process. What keeps SuperHeroes LLP’s CEO, Catrix, awake at night? In other words, what can get in the way of SuperHeroes LLP from successfully executing its strategy of cleaning up Good City and keeping it safe from criminals? If SuperHeroes causes more damage to the city than they prevent, they will no longer be providing value and will lose their contract with the city. The mayor told them that the city “would be lost” without them but that they “cause too much damage” and need to control themselves. One worry for SuperHeroes LLP is that having to be more careful may “tie their hands” and result in the team being less effective. This lack of freedom may prevent them from getting the job done. Another possible worry is that SuperHeros LLP is going through rapid expansion (from 4 to 12 members) at a time when the mayor is complaining about prices and there is disagreement about the compensation within the organization.

This could put extra stress on the company because the payment has to be spread among 12 members now. As a result of possible disagreements about compensation within SuperHeroes LLP there may also be a lack of commitment from the superheroes. If they do not feel they are being paid fairly, they may not work as hard. Another issue that may be on Catrix’s mind is the long term profitability of the company. If SuperHeroes LLP is successful in lowering the crime rate in Good City and have caught the criminals, it is possible that the mayor would end their contract. To avoid this concern of doing too much in reducing crime with the result that they are out of work, consider investigating similar contracts that could be undertaken with surrounding cities to alleviate this concern. What are SuperHeroes LLP’s values? What compass guides its decisions? And more importantly, how should the CEO get the other superheroes to live by these values? SuperHeroes goal is to make a profit by eliminating crime in Good City. Catrix, the CEO stated their strategy was “to clean up and keep Good City safe from criminals while minimizing damages and casualties”. Although their actions are fairly altruistic, the superheroes also listed the ability to feed their family as important. Other things the superheroes seem to want out of a job are to have something to fill their day that they can be proud of and be respected for.

The most basic way to get the superheroes to buy into the values of the organization is through a detailed and thoughtfully executed compensation plan. Since continuing to cause damage to the city is not acceptable, punishing superheroes that are reckless and cause harm while rewarding those who catch criminals in a safe manner is important. What is the best way for SuperHeroes LLP to get paid by the city? As part of your answer, develop a performance measurement system for SuperHeroes LLP. What is the best way to compensate each of the 12 superheroes? The city could pay the company a basic amount for being on duty and a commission type compensation amount based on the type of criminals that are apprehended (a more serious criminal such as a murderer would have a higher payment than a shoplifter). From this compensation a deduction would be made for the amount of damage to the city property done by the super hero. To mitigate the deduction, insurance could be considered by SuperHereos LLP. If superheroes work together to apprehend a particular criminal, they would share in the “commission”. This may allow them to be as effective (or even more effective) working together by using their individual strengths in a team approach and reduce damage that otherwise might be incurred if they worked alone.

Finally an annual bonus could be also negotiated with the Mayor which would provide an additional payment to the company based on a percentage of the increase in the city’s GDP, as a result of reduced crime. In addition to stated incentive system, another way to get rewarded would be job based compensation. Depending on the severity of the job and the danger associated with it, compensation should correlate with it. For instance, if a job requires more than one superhero the job rate should be higher, and vice versa. Sometimes job might require an experienced hero or even require some specific expertise to get it done. Therefore the rates should be reflected upon assessing job criteria. This method also highlights reduced damages, since each unique criminal is being handled by the expert hero. In essence, this portrays an ABC costing method. Furthermore, Superheroes LLP can start developing its own performance measurement system. The organization can do this by following three steps. Firstly, Superheroes LLP should gather the data that is important in measuring their performance. Examples of data can include damage amounts, time and resources used to catch a criminal, productivity rates, and the overall financial profitability of the organization.

The first three types of measurements can be done as an average or per superhero. The second step in implementing the performance measurement system should consist of ways to measure the collected data. External sources of measuring the data can include community complains towards the damage or the superheroes’ work ethic or even surveys that can give critical feedback to the organization. Internally, a cost/benefit analysis could be the most reliable measure of performance in order to keep the organization in good financial health. In addition, the Mayor’s and CEO’s feedback is also an important measure of performance because the superheroes will know specifically what the expectations are. Thirdly, the CEO and the Mayor need to review all the results and learn how to make Superheroes LLP a more effective organization. They can do that through setting a productivity baseline which all superheroes should be able to reach, but they can also set up specific goals for the next period where productivity can improve and damage amounts can decrease. In addition, the organization should plan for regular performance reviews in order to progress.

Do you feel that the control system you have just developed meets the objective of cleaning up Good City and keeping it safe from criminals while minimizing property damage and casualties to its citizens? By charging a flat rate per month plus an additional charge per criminal, and also covering the damages they cause would demonstrate to the mayor that they are “on the same page” as Good City. Paying each superhero a flat rate plus a “commission” for apprehended criminals would encourage hard work. Since the superhero would be responsible for damage costs, team work would also be encouraged to the extent that criminals could be apprehended with less damage (and therefore less cost deductions) by working with each other.