The president of Piele S.A., a manufacturer of natural leather products, is reviewing the results of the first half of the year. A team of consultants has been working with the firm to restructure the company's budgeting and reporting systems. The new systems have been in place for six months and the president must analyse the results before meeting with the management team to discuss what actions should be taken for the future.
Kim Tomar has to evaluate bids from potential suppliers for aircraft parts for de Havilland's Dash 8 aircraft. As a financial analyst, Tomar has to make a recommendation to de Havilland's Source Selection Board on the selection of a new supplier. Tomar's recommendation must be based on the prices quoted by the bidders, and her assessment of the firms' ability to be a long-term supplier to de Havilland. This requires a financial analysis of the bidder firms.
The president and owner of a food service business, is concerned about the manner in which his industry prices goods and services. His firm has failed to meet his desired profit margin, and he wonders if there are different pricing options. This is an introductory case in the use of an activity based costing system in the marketing and distribution part of the business.
John Moser is assigned the task of instilling quality thinking throughout the firm. He begins by trying to identify what poor quality is currently costing. Hopefully, he can develop a strategy to improve quality in the firm.
The owner and general manager of the Cedarbrae Volkswagen dealership is concerned about the Kundendienst Index (KI) used by Volkswagen Canada to measure customer satisfaction with new vehicles and service work. The case details Cedarbrae operations and the KI, and focuses on the issues of What is quality of service?, and How do you devise a management control system that reinforces and measures service? From a marketing research perspective, case discussion could center around a technical evaluation of the customer survey process design.
The general manager of a financial services company is examining a request for a loan to finance the completion of a hotel on the ocean shore in Kenya. Projected costs and revenues for the first three years are presented. The manager is trying to assess the validity of these estimates and whether he should recommend the loan.
Bloomfield has to decide what price to charge for fertilizer for the upcoming selling season. He is facing competitive pressure to reduce his price and realizes that if he maintains his price, he will certainly lose volume next year.