• Sales support: The emphasis in this role is essentially reactive. Marketing supports the direct sales force. It may include activities such as telesales or telemarketing, responding to inquiries, co-ordinating diaries, customer database management, organising exhibitions or other sales promotions, and administering agents. These activities usually come under a sales and marketing director or manager.
• Marketing communications: The emphasis in this role is more proactive. Marketing promotes the organisation and its product or service at a tactical level. It typically includes activities such as providing brochures and catalogues to support the sales force.
• Operational marketing: The emphasis in this role is for marketing to support the organisation with a co-ordinated range of marketing activities including marketing research; brand management; product development and management; corporate and marketing communications; and customer relationship management. Given this breadth of activities, planning is also a function usually performed in this role but at an operational or functional level.
• Strategic marketing: The emphasis in this role is for marketing to contribute to the creation of competitive strategy. As such, it is practised in customer-focused and larger organisations. In a large or diversified organisation, it may also be responsible for the coordination of marketing departments or activities in separate business units.

Offshoring
Offshoring is the relocation of some part of an organisation’s activities to another country.
Developments in technology have made offshoring feasible in many situations, such as back office support for banking operations. Offshoring has grown significantly in recent years. South Africa is one popular offshoring country, many banks and other companies now have service centres based in South Africa.
i) Offshoring offers a number of advantages to the AGYASCO Banking Group.

•  Lower overall cost. Labour and other costs (eg premises) will be lower in South Africa than in
• Ghana.
• Able to afford a more qualified workforce. Call centre positions in South Africa are often filled by better qualified individuals than would be the case in Ghana.
• Investment by host government. Infrastructure (for example communication) in emerging economies has often been heavily invested in by the host governments, in order to attract inward investment.
• Economies of scale / centralised operations. The back office operations will now be able to concentrate its back office operation in South Africa, where it already employs 3,000 people.
• Economies of scale are likely to result. Long-term moves such as this also encourage strategic planning.
• Allows specialisation. Offshoring back office operations to South Africa will allow the AGYASCO Banking group to concentrate on the more complex side of its banking operations and grow its international business by allowing other staff to focus on specialised areas of operation. This is necessary in a global economy where competition is increasing.
  On the other side of the discussion, managing operations based in another country will involve a number of challenges for the AGYASCO Banking Group:
• Risks associated with currency exchange rates. As an experienced banking group, this should be manageable. Exchange rates will always be liable to fluctuate and this may erode some of the cost savings.
• Language barriers and cultural differences. This may not be such a significant hurdle to overcome for AGYASCO Group as they already have a large presence in South Africa. There may be some resistance by customers based in Ghana, due to perceived problems dealing with call centres based overseas.
• Technical challenges. Staff in South Africa will need to be properly trained to ensure that service levels in the offshored function do not suffer. Some functions may be retained at the call centres in Ghana, so that customer service and satisfaction levels remain high.
• Exercising control from a distance. Offshoring can lead to a loss of control, particularly over quality.
• Dealing with different time zones. This is a challenge that a multinational company should be able to meet reasonably comfortably, although employees may find themselves inconvenienced occasionally (for example the timing of telephone conference calls).

The 500 employees of The AGYASCO Group that aren’t redeployed following the offshoring will be dismissed through reason of redundancy. The Human Resources Division should have policies governing redundancy and ensure these are followed.
The HR Division’s role should include setting policies that cover areas such as:

• Selection for redundancy – the criteria for selection must be clear and must be communicated as clearly as possible
• Pre-redundancy consultation and clear communication of where and when redundancies are to occur to enable staff to plan their futures.
• Help with developing a CV and clear guidelines covering time off to attend interviews.
• Clear guidelines on redundancy payments, with clear communication of packages and negotiation where appropriate
• Assistance with re-development of skills, re-training to learn new skills for a new career, or re-location of redundant employees.
• Careers advice, counselling and post-redundancy support.
• Redundancy is likely to be an unpleasant experience. The HR Division must ensure affected staff are handled with care and sensitivity.
• HR should also play a part ensuring remaining employees remain motivated, and morale is as high as can be expected in the circumstances.                                                                                                                                                        (Any 4 points)

• Market growth. Rivalry is intensified when firms are competing for a greater market share in a total market where growth is slow or stagnant. In a matured or declining market rivals would have to battle for the customers of one another if they want to increase market share. Thus, rivals firms resort to a lot of competitive actions such as advertising battles, sales promotion campaigns, price competition, etc. The telecommunication industry in Ghana, for instance, is currently experiencing intensified competition among rival firms due to the slow growth in the market coupled with the increase in participating firms in the industry.
• Cost structure. In an industry which is characterised by high fixed costs, firms will have to sell more of their products in order to breakeven and start making profits. Such high fixed costs are a temptation to rival firms to compete on price, since in the short run any contribution from sales is better than none at all. This seems to be true in the Ghanaian telecommunication industry. Rivals firms have invested heavily in terms of the telecommunication infrastructure such as masts, fibre cable networking, and office spaces across the regions, etc. These are very huge fixed costs that must be catered for. The result is the fierce promotional campaigns and advertising battles in the industry.
• Switching costs. Switching costs come in three different ways – money costs, time costs and inconvenience costs – that customers of a product face when they switch their preference from one product to that of a rival. Higher switching costs tend to lock-in customers to particular products. In an industry which is characterised by lower switching costs of customers – i.e. they can switch easily without incurring significant costs – suppliers will compete intensely in order to win over the customers of rival firms. For instance, the porting system that was introduced into the telecommunication industry by the NCA has significantly reduced the switching costs of customers. This further intensified competitive rivalry among rival firms in the industry.
• Capacity. A supplier might need to achieve a substantial increase in output capacity, in order to obtain reductions in unit costs or enjoy economies of scale.
  In an industry where achieving economies of scale is a strategic objective, competitive rivalry is intensified since each firm focuses on increasing its capacity and to sell more.
• Degree of uncertainty. In an industry where rival firms are unsure what one another is up to, there is a tendency for firms to respond to the uncertainty by formulating a more competitive strategy. Competitive rivalry is intensified if the degree of uncertainty is high as is the case in the telecommunication industry in Ghana. There is high degree of innovation in the industry and thus rival firms are always on the look out to see what competing firms are bringing on board next. This uncertainty spurs firms on to innovate at shorter intervals to appeal more to customers.
• Exit barriers. Exist barriers make it difficult for an existing supplier to leave the industry. Exit barriers come in many forms such as low break-up values of non-current assets, cost of redundancy payments to employees, effect of withdrawal on the other operations within the group, reluctance of managers to admit defeat, their loyalty to employees and their fear for their own jobs and government pressures on major employers not to shut down operations. In an industry where exit barriers are high, competitive rivalry is intensified since competing firms will do everything possible to stay in operation and avoid the difficulties associated with exiting the industry.                                                                                                    (Any 4 point

Differences between unitary and two-tier board structures

• Under a unitary board structure there is a single board of directors, comprising executive and non-executive directors (NEDs). There are two separate boards under the two-tier structure: the management (operating) board which is responsible for the day-today running of the business, consisting of executives only and led by the chief executive. The supervisory (corporate) board with a wider membership, responsible for the strategic oversight of the organisation and led by the chairman.
• Concentrating the role of CEO and chairman in the hands of one person (so called CEO duality) is admitted in a one-tier board in the one-tier board. In the two-tier board, the CEO cannot chair the supervisory board under any circumstances.
• One-tier boards are organized in a unitary way; control and supervision of management are integrated and exercised by one group of directors while the two-tier board adopts a binary approach; the supervisory board exercises the control role, while the formally separated management board exercises the strategy role.
• The two-tier model allows for more stakeholder inclusivity than the one-tier model.
• The non-executive directors (NEDs) on a unitary board will be, largely, classified as independent NEDs, stressing the fact that they will act in the best interests of the wider shareholder population. The supervisory board under a two-tier structure will include representatives of major shareholders, environmental groups, employees (possibly from trade unions) and providers of finance. These individuals, although not holding executive positions within the business, are definitely not considered to be ‘independent’ and will be acting in the interest of their own group.
• Under a two-tier board structure the two boards meet separately, so executive discussion around running the business will not be heard by the higher board members, and vice versa. This is unlike the single board meeting that will be held for a unitary board.

i. Integrating the environment into capital expenditure decisions (by considering environmental opposition to projects which could affect cash flows, for example).
ii. Understanding and managing environmental costs. Environmental costs are often ‘hidden’ in overheads and environmental and energy costs are often not allocated to the relevant budgets.
iii. Introducing waste minimisation schemes
iv. Understanding and managing life cycle costs. For many products, the greatest environmental impact occurs upstream (such as mining raw materials) or downstream from production (such as energy to operate equipment). This has led to producers being made responsible for dealing with the disposal of products such as cars, and government and third party measures to influence raw material choices. Organisations therefore need to identify, control and make provision for environmental life cycle costs and work with suppliers and customers to identify environmental cost reduction opportunities.
v. Measuring environmental performance. Business is under increasing pressure to measure all aspects of environmental performance, both for statutory disclosure reasons and due to demands for more environmental data from customers.
vi. Involving management accountants in a strategic approach to environment-related management accounting and performance evaluation.

i. Proprietary nature of the strategy: The wider the dissemination of information concerning strategic decisions, competitive moves, or shifting emphasis, the greater the likelihood that it will reach a competitor, who could subvert the move, decision, or shift. A strategy which will provide or exploit an unpublicized advantage may be best kept undisclosed. The advantages of organisational commitment would be offset by the loss of surprise. If the strategy will divulge proprietary information, it should be shard only on need-to-know basis.

ii. Political impact of strategy: It is not always possible to achieve consensus concerning the appropriate strategic directions for an organisation. If a number of top level managers participate in the formulation process, it is not unlikely that there will be differences of opinion about the final choice. In an organisation in which relationships are strained, factions may form around strong individuals, and the strategy may be judged and supported according to who is backing it rather than upon its own merits. In such a situation, it may be more efficient to communicate the strategy piecemeal rather than as a whole. Strategy communication that sparks infighting will hinder implementation more than it will help.

iii. Expectation aroused by strategy: The announcement of a strategy gives all organisational stakeholders a means of evaluating operations and performance. It also raises and defines expectation about the future of the organisations which may prove embarrassing to management if unforeseen circumstances arise and diminish performance. For this reason, many public announcements of strategy are retrospective, indicating what has been attempted and how well the objectives have been met. An organisation which announces strategy prospectively is subject to criticism from security analysts, to fluctuation in share prices, to government scrutiny, and to buyer and supplier moves, as well as union responses that may be generated by stakeholders.

iv. Motivational impact of strategy: A clear statement of strategy may either inspire or demoralize. The effect of a given communication must be considered in light of the personal implications for the individuals required to implement it. Growth strategies have enjoyed popularity because, among other things, the rewards – both financial and career – are perceived as greater for all concerned. Retrenchment strategies are full of financial and personal unpleasantness even though they may be necessary to maintain long-term viability. Unfortunately, good managers may be tempted to leave at the time they are most needed. At the corporate levels, considerable differences may exist among the strategies of various business units. These differences may make some units much more attractive than others. The use of the term “dog” with the attendant divestiture strategy is likely to have negative effects on unit morale. If communicating strategy is more likely to reduce morale or drive away good managers than to inspire action, a comprehensive strategy announcement is usually undesirable.

v. Decisional impact of strategy: Strategy is often an evolving understanding of where the organization is going and of how to get there. An announced strategy brings closure to the formulation question and focuses on implementation. This closure is not always desirable, because lower levels of management can make significant contributions to the strategy as they work through the implementation process. Therefore, before top management announces a strategy, it should be certain that closure of formulation is desired.                                                                                                                                                 (Any 4 points)

To ensure the loyalty of its customers – i.e. to generate lifetime loyalty the following CSFs should be addressed:

• Stocking the goods that customers most want to buy
• Making the shopping experience as pleasant as possible/differentiating the shopping experience from that of other supermarkets to lock in customers.
• Making the supermarket more accessible to customers by establishing out-of-town outlets
• Etc.
  To ensure its prices are at least 2 percent cheaper than the average of rival supermarkets – i.e. to create value for customers the following CSFs should be addressed:
• Refining internal processes to operate the business on a cost-effective basis – e.g. building close partnerships with suppliers to implement a JIT system (in order to eliminate or reduce warehousing costs)
• Using economies of scale to source appropriate goods as cheaply as possible.
• Etc.

In order to measure how well Addie management is performing against the above CSFs, the supermarket needs to set the following KPIs: The first three KPIs are in respect of the first two CSFs above and the last three are in respect of the remaining CSFs.

• The proportion of goods taking more than a week to sell
• Results of customers feedback surveys
• Percentage of customers who are repeat customers
• Market share
• Cost measures and progress against savings targets
• Cost savings in procurement
• results of benchmarking prices or costs against that of rivals

• Proactive strategy– strategy which a business follows where it is prepared to take full responsibility for its actions. A company which discovers a fault in a product and recalls the product without being forced to, before any injury or damage is caused, acts in a proactive way.
• Reactive strategy – This involves allowing a situation to continue unresolved until the public, government or consumer groups find out about it. The reactive strategy refuses all kind of CSR and then does not implement what the stakeholders expect.
• Defence strategy – This involves minimising or attempting to avoid additional obligations arising from a particular problem. The defensive strategy accepts the idea of some CSR but defines and implements only the minimum of what stakeholders expect.
• Accommodation strategy – This approach involves taking responsibility for actions, probably when one of the following happens: Encouragement from special interest groups; Perception that a failure to act will result in government intervention. The accommodating strategy integrates CSR and tries to implement what the stakeholders expect. The proactive strategy anticipates the requirements and expectations of the stakeholders, it defines objectives and implements actions going beyond what stakeholders require (this is the case of the linked and integrated CSR).

• Conflict of interest
• Deception
• Unprofessional behaviour
• First, you have a conflict of interest as the finance director wants you to keep the takeover a secret, but you probably feel that you should tell a friend what is happening as it may affect their job.
• Secondly, the finance director is asking you to deceive your friend. Deception is unprofessional behaviour and will break your ethical guidelines. Therefore, the situation is presenting you with two conflicting demands. It is worth remembering that no employer can ask you to break your ethical rules.
• Finally, the request to break your own ethical guidelines constitutes unprofessional behaviour by the finance director. You should consider reporting him to their relevant body

• Determining that the company internal controls are effective and formally reporting on the status of those controls on an annual basis with quarterly updates.
• Taking action, where appropriate, on significant control weaknesses reported by internal audit, the external auditors, and others.
• Reviewing and distributing the audited financial statements submitted by the outside auditor. This includes initiating appropriate actions based on any recommendations by the outside auditor or the Director of Internal Audit.
• Circulating a Code of Ethics to senior officers and obtaining their assent on a quarterly basis.
• More clearly demonstrate the effectiveness and value of its oversight of the selection, independence, performance and quality of the audit and the auditor to shareholders and other stakeholders.