(b) What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a balanced scorecard to better assess the overall

performance of Lawson Engineering? (8 marks)

4 Chris Jones is Managing Director of Supaserve, a medium-sized supermarket chain faced with intense competition

from larger competitors in their core food and drink markets. They are also finding it hard to respond to these

competitors moving into the sale of clothing and household goods. Supaserve has a reputation for friendly customer

care and is looking at the feasibility of introducing an online shopping service, from which customers can order goods

from the comfort of their home and have them delivered, for a small charge, to their home.

Chris recognises that the move to develop an online shopping service will require significant investment in new

technology and support systems. He hopes a significant proportion of existing and most importantly, new customers,

will be attracted to the new service.

Required:

(a) What bases for segmenting this new market would you recommend and what criteria will help determine

whether this segment is sufficiently attractive to commit to the necessary investment? (10 marks)

(b) Assess the likely strategic impact of the new customer delivery system on Supaserve’s activities and its ability

to differentiate itself from its competitors. (10 marks)

4 Graham Smith is Operations Director of Catering Food Services (CFS) a ￡1·5 billion UK based distributor of foods to

professional catering organisations. It has 30 trading units spread across the country from which it can supply a

complete range of fresh, chilled and frozen food products. Its customers range from major fast food chains, catering

services for the armed forces down to individual restaurants and cafes. Wholesale food distribution is very much a

price driven service, in which it is very difficult to differentiate CFS’s service from its competitors.

Graham is very aware of the Government’s growing interest in promoting good corporate environmental practices and

encouraging companies to achieve the international quality standard for environmentally responsible operations. CFS

operates a fleet of 1,000 lorries and each lorry produces the equivalent of its own weight in pollutants over the course

of a year without the installation of expensive pollution control systems. Graham is also aware that his larger

customers are looking to their distributors to become more environmentally responsible and the ‘greening’ of their

supply chain is becoming a real issue. Unfortunately his concern with developing a company-wide environmental

management strategy is not shared by his fellow managers responsible for the key distribution functions including

purchasing, logistics, warehousing and transportation. They argued that time spent on corporate responsibility issues

was time wasted and simply added to costs.

Graham has decided to propose the appointment of a project manager to develop and implement a company

environmental strategy including the achievement of the international quality standard. The person appointed must

have the necessary project management skills to see the project through to successful conclusion.

You have been appointed project manager for CFS’s ‘environmentally aware’ project.

Required:

(a) What are the key project management skills that are necessary in achieving company-wide commitment in

CFS to achieve the desired environmental strategy? (15 marks)

(b) Using the information provided in the case scenario, strategically evaluate the performance of the company

up to 2004, indicating any areas of particular concern. (20 marks)

(b) How could pursuing a corporate environmental strategy both add to CFS’s competitive advantage and be

socially responsible? (5 marks)

(b) Explain how the non-payment of contributions and the change in the pension benefits should be treated in

the financial statements of Savage for the year ended 31 October 2005. (4 marks)

Matthew Black is well aware that the achievement of the growth targets for the 2005 to 2007 period will depend on

successful implementation of the strategy, affecting all parts of the company’s activities.

(c) Explain the key issues affecting implementation and the changes necessary to achieve Universal’s ambitious

growth strategy. (15 marks)

(d) What criteria would you use to assess whether Universal is an ‘excellent’ company? (5 marks)

3 The directors of Panel, a public limited company, are reviewing the procedures for the calculation of the deferred tax

provision for their company. They are quite surprised at the impact on the provision caused by changes in accounting

standards such as IFRS1 ‘First time adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards’ and IFRS2 ‘Share-based

Payment’. Panel is adopting International Financial Reporting Standards for the first time as at 31 October 2005 and

the directors are unsure how the deferred tax provision will be calculated in its financial statements ended on that

date including the opening provision at 1 November 2003.

Required:

(a) (i) Explain how changes in accounting standards are likely to have an impact on the provision for deferred

taxation under IAS12 ‘Income Taxes’. (5 marks)