3000 words paper

MG5605 Business Performance Management

3000 Words (not including references)

Main Objective of the assessment

The main objective of this assignment is to examine the ability of the students to critically evaluate the theoretical and practical knowledge of the more specialised decision-making techniques that are used in cost and management accounting. It also provides opportunities to demonstrate skills such as critical thinking, solving complex problems and making decisions, using information and knowledge effectively

Description of the Assessment

This individual assignment consists of 3 parts:

Part A

This part is an essay.

Cadez and Guilding (2008) have outlined 16 Strategic Management Techniques in their paper (2008, Table 1, p.839). Select any one (1) of these SMA techniques and write a critical literature review about the technique, tracing its origin in the traditional domain of Management Accounting (or Strategic Management) and discuss its recent development. Would such technique be helpful in creating or sustaining a firm's competitive advantages? Why and why not? (40 marks)

Reference:

Cadez, S. and Guilding, C. (2008) An exploratory investigation of an integrated contingency model of strategic management accounting, Accounting, Organizations and Society,33, p. 836-863.

Part B

John has recently been appointed as the Managing Director to Alderley Ltd, a small company manufacturing a single product, product Y for the automotive industry. The company accountant has historically used a ‘traditional’ incremental system for building their budgets. However, the company accountant has suddenly resigned leaving them without an accountant at a time of significant economic uncertainty. As a result, John has approached you to prepare the functional budgets for the forthcoming financial quarter.

Each of the departmental managers has provided John with the following information in respect of the forthcoming 3-month period:

Sales information

Sales in units are forecast as follows:

Sales in units are forecast as follows:

Average selling price per unit: £25

January 4,000

February	4,500
March	4,600
April	4,800
May	4,500

Production information

Opening stocks of finished goods at 1st January are 4,400.

Closing stocks at the end of each month should equal 1.5 times the following month’s sales level.

Raw materials information

Each unit produced requires 3 kgs of material at a cost of £4 per kg.

Opening stocks of raw materials at 1st January are 3,200kgs.

The company also has a long standing policy of increasing closing stock levels by 5% each month.

Labour information

Each unit produced requires 3 labour hours which costs £8 per hour.

Production overheads information

Absorbed on the basis of £2.20 per direct labour hour.

Administration overheads information

Administration overheads are forecast at £10,000 for January, but expected to rise by 4% each month.

Selling overheads information

Selling overheads have historically run at 8% of sales revenue for each month.

The sales manager believes that the current average selling price per unit of £25 per unit is as high as the firm’s customers can bear at this time.

Required:

· Prepare the functional budgets for the financial quarter January to March from the above information.

· Briefly comment on your findings.

· Briefly discuss the drawbacks of the incremental approach, and

· Briefly discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of adopting a ‘beyond budgeting’ approach instead

(30 marks)

Part C

This part is a case analysis.

Coors: balanced scorecard

This case demonstrates the importance of supply chain management, and the comparison of various strategies through the use of EVA®. The case also requires the creation of a balanced scorecard to highlight the impact of any changes in strategy.

You are required to analyze the attached case on an individual basis and answer the following questions:

1- Provide possible explanations for the performance gaps identified by Coors benchmarking analysis.

2- Answer the FAQs already raised by employees about the Coors BSC project.

3- Considering the prior gap and benchmarking analyses, design specific performance measures with benchmarked targets (where feasible) and reporting frequency to create an operational and acceptable BSC for Coors.

4- Perform an economic value added (EVA•) analysis to assess its potential as a BSC financial performance measure for Coors.

(30 marks)

Total: 100 marks

Notes:

1. You should show the calculation in sufficient detail to enable your workings to be followed.

2. Use of research papers are encouraged in your report to support your analysis/discussion.

3. Avoid copying information from internet sites or other sources. If unacknowledged, this constitutes plagiarism. Please see below ‘Academic Misconduct, Plagiarism and Collusion’ for more detail.

Target length 3 000 words including calculations. Any report longer than 10% of 3 000 words will be penalised. Please use Harvard style referencing.

Please enter here the marking scheme relevant for the coursework and provide an illustration of each assessment criterion achieved at each of the grade descriptor for UG/PG levels.

PG grades and grade point bands [Senate Regulation 3 (2013 starters onwards)] are: A++ (17), A+ (16), A (15), A- (14), B+ (13), B (12), B- (11), C+ (10), C (9),

C- (8), D+ (7), D (6), D- (5), E+ (4), E (3), E- (2), F (1)

Approved BBS Coursework Brief Template 2019/20 1 of 5

Approved BBS Coursework Brief Template 2019/20 1 of 5

Approved BBS Coursework Brief Template 2019/20 1 of 5