Gruppeeksamensoppgavene i "Styring og Organisasjon" (BUS312)

"Seattle Coffee Company
...
Seattle Coffee Company, founded in 1910 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, sold
its own brands of coffee throughout the Western and Mountain states. In 1994, the sales revenues
of the company were $150 million. The company's stock was closely held by members of the
founder's family. The president and the secretary-treasurer were part of the family and the only
members of the management team to have equity stakes.
...
For the past several years, the plant managers had been dissatisfied with the method of computing
gross margin (as evident from the quote earlier in this case). Their complaints finally motivated the
president to request a consulting firm that specializes in strategy execution to study the whole method
of reporting the results of plant operations, sales and marketing, and the purchasing groups.
...
Questions
1. Evaluate the company’s current organizational set up. Support the discussion with a drawing.
Also evaluate the current control systems for the manufacturing, marketing, and purchasing
departments of Seattle Coffee Company.
What seems to be the challenge?
2. Considering the company's competitive strategy, what changes, if any, would you make to the
control systems for the three departments? Why?

Det handler altså om styring og organisering. :p Divisjoner, styring, kontroll, system, ansvar, incentiver, suboptimalisering, med masse mer. Denne er veldig utfordrende! Men etter å ha jobbet en del med den har oppgaven modnet litt - og løsningen virker stadig mindre kaotisk.

"REC, Inc.Leonard Bland, president and general manager of REC, Inc., was confused. Linda Barry, the firm's
recently hired controller and financial manager, had instituted the preparation of a new,
summarized income statement. This statement was to be issued on a monthly basis. Mr. Bland had
just received a copy of the statement for January 2004 (see Exhibit 1).
...
Questions1. Why are the reported results for January so poor, particularly in light of the expected, average
monthly profit of $60 000? Explain why the result for January is $76 800 lower than expected.
Do a comprehensive analysis of this variance.
2. Compute the company’s break even sales in dollars and equivalent units."

Her skal det regnes! På standarder, faste kostnader og variable, direkte og indirekte, tilvirkningskost og fortjeneste. Og masse mer. Denne har vi ikke jobbet så mye med enda og løsningen både føles og er å være langt unna - enda.

På tirsdag (27.10) skal vi  etter planen være ferdig. Innleveringsfristen er først en uke senere, men vi kan av forskjellige grunner ikke jobbe sammen noe mer før det. Som voksen student er det mer enn bare oppgavene som er utfordrende - de andre på gruppa jobber (60% og 100%), så her stå vi på så mye vi kan når vi kan. :) Og jeg er sikker på at resultatet blir knallbra - as always. :-D