PERMA23 - PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Learning objectives of the course
The course aims to develop the knowledge and skills needed to design and govern performance management systems explicitly oriented towards the creation of customer value. The focus is not only on “implementing strategy” in the abstract, but on understanding what knowledge truly matters for improving performance and translating it into operational choices consistent with the customer value chain.
The learning path guides students through a clear architecture: clarifying purpose and core values as the identity foundation of the firm; deciding who the primary customer is in the context of precision markets; understanding the “power of focus” by shifting attention from the internal value chain to the customer value chain; rethinking measurement through customer accounting logics and critical indicators that “orbit” around the customer; defining strategic boundaries that prevent the organisation from chasing numbers at the expense of the customer or by distorting the strategy.
The project work plays a central role: students work as “consultants” on real or simulated cases, starting from listening to the customer, reading processes and data through the lens of the customer value chain, and translating insights into concrete proposals for redesigning performance systems (values, customer targets, KPIs, boundaries) that are measurable and open to discussion. In this way, the course is designed to let students personally experience the shift from a logic of competitive warfare to the art of listening and customer-centric design.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students will be able to understand:

how the idea of “knowledge that matters” in strategy has evolved, from classical models (SWOT, BCG, Porter, RBV, Blue Ocean) to a customer-centric perspective, recognising their potential and limitations;
the role of purpose and core values in defining the strategic identity of the firm, clarifying for whom it exists, whose interests it places first, and which limits it is not willing to cross even when doing so would “pay off”;
the centrality of choosing the primary customer and of focusing on specific links in the customer value chain in order to design sustainable business models, avoiding the one-size-fits-all approach typical of “mass markets”;
the logic of customer accounting, distinguishing between product profitability and customer profitability and understanding why not all revenues are “good” and not all costs are “bad”;
the function of critical performance indicators in a customer-centric system and the role of strategic boundaries in preventing the phenomenon of “hitting the target but missing the point”.

Applied knowledge and understanding
Students will be able to:

interpret a business situation in light of the four pillars of customer-centric performance management (core values, primary customer, power of focus, indicators and boundaries), formulating well-argued diagnoses;
apply analytical tools (SWOT, value chain, customer value chain, customer profitability analysis) to identify critical issues and opportunities in the creation of customer value;
design, within the project work, a coherent set of operational proposals (interventions on processes, indicators, and rules of engagement with customers), translating “knowledge that matters” into practical and measurable choices.

Making judgements
The course aims to develop the ability to:

critically assess the coherence between stated values, choices about the primary customer, growth/rationalisation modes and measurement systems, recognising when profit is treated as an ultimate goal rather than as the outcome of a well-designed system;
identify tensions between economic-financial objectives, quality of the customer experience, internal working conditions and ethical constraints, formulating well-grounded judgements on the sustainability of proposed improvement strategies;
distinguish between an enabling use of indicators and a coercive one, taking a reasoned stance on the organisational implications of these two logics.

Communication skills
Students will be able to:

use appropriately the language of customer-centric performance management (purpose, core values, primary customer, customer value chain, customer accounting, critical indicators, strategic boundaries);
present clearly and convincingly the analyses and proposals developed in the project work, making explicit the links between customer diagnosis, process changes, measurement choices and expected performance impacts;
facilitate dialogue among different functions (marketing, operations, finance), acting as a “bridge” between number-oriented and customer-oriented perspectives.

Learning skills
The course will foster:

the ability to independently update one’s knowledge of strategy and performance management models, assessing them critically in light of customer centrality and ongoing competitive transformations;
the attitude to treat frameworks and indicators as tools to be adapted rather than as “eternal” solutions, developing sensitivity to contingency (context, industry, type of customer) and to the need for continuous revision;
the willingness to learn from concrete experience (cases, exercises, project work), viewing errors and tensions not as anomalies to be eliminated but as opportunities to refine the ability to distinguish what is truly relevant for choosing and acting.