General Information
Weighting – 100% of the marks for this module
This is an individual assignment of about 3,000 words, excluding appendices and bibliography. The word count MUST be shown on the front of the assignment.
All of the learning outcomes for the module are being assessed in this assignment. The learning outcomes are shown in the section entitled “Marking Guide”, which is further on in this document.
The University’s policy on cheating collusion and plagiarism will be applied to this piece of work.
The submission date is: Monday 4th October 2010
Requirements:
You have recently been appointed as the senior management accountant in a large listed company, Rada plc which has divisions in a number of countries and trades globally. Although the market for the company’s products appears strong Rada plc is going through a difficult time.
You have conducted a review of the company and have identified three key areas which need to be addressed:
1. There are no accurate budgets to guide the company’s managers nor is there an effective system of communicating such information.
2. There appears to be few management control systems and little performance management in the company.
3. The transfer pricing system in the company is poor and does not encourage efficient decision making.
You are required to produce a report to the board of directors outlining the dangers in failing to effectively manage the above areas and set out a strategic plan which would regain control and improve performance. The report should include critical evaluation of the models and concepts proposed outlining their merits and limitations. You may incorporate logical assumptions with regard to the company and use numerical examples to illustrate the models and concepts that you propose to adopt.
The University policy on cheating collusion and plagiarism will be applied to this piece of work.
Guidance:
Students are encouraged to be inquisitive and innovative in their approach as to what should be included in this report the following may be of some use in providing guidance as to what could possibly be included, although this is in no way meant to be prescriptive.
The aim of the assignment is to help you understand how key areas of strategic management accounting are demonstrated in practice by a large, international company. This will include investigating topics from throughout the course linked to the above issues. Some of the principles, concepts ad models will be more relevant to your chosen approach than others and so it is likely that different students will formulate different approaches to the problems. This is normal, it is not expected that all of the course content will be used in the analysis, concentrate on that which you feel is most important.
As part of your work you might find it helpful to briefly explore the underlying theory behind the key areas of investigation that you identify before applying them to report.
With 3,000 words you do not have a lot of room for long introductions so assume you are writing to a sophisticated audience who has a working knowledge of strategic management accounting and is well versed in business theory. Numerical example for illustrative purposes may be of use but should not be the main thrust of the work. If used they should be to provide evidence to support your findings from your other analysis of position and policies. If other sources are used remember to reference everything!
Please avoid relying too heavily on descriptive sections reproducing information available from course material or the set text. It is your own logical, evaluation of the situation, the interpretation of course material and presentation, with critical analysis, of a coherent strategic plan that will attract high marks.
