Page 17 - CIMA May 18 - MCS Day Tasks

PROJECT AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (E2) ‐ PRACTICE TASKS

TASK 2 – INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

Trigger and task

To: Financial Manager
From: CFO
Date: Today
Subject: International Expansion

Menta is already dominant in Centralia and in its neighbouring countries. One of the key
overriding objectives for Menta is to continue to expand, with the growth being targeted
overseas.

As you know, the figures for 2017 show an overall increase in both revenue and operating profit.
Closer examination however does indicate some potentially alarming trends with the segmental
analysis revealing revenue and profits falling over the year in both the Rest of Central Eurozone
and North and Central America.

The Board has for some time been considering the opportunities for further international
expansion. We do believe that there is scope for further expansion in Centralia, but there is a
strong possibility that we could do well by also having a stronger presence in neighbouring
Country X and perhaps even farther afield.

We recently launched a trial city service with four depots located in Country X, managed by one of
our most experienced regional managers to secure market presence. Feedback has not been good
and we have heard that the local team have felt isolated and unsupported in their endeavours.
We are unsure whether this performance is because the market is not receptive to Menta, or
because of poor leadership on behalf of the manager.

In the light of this feedback and recent financial results, the board is reviewing current strategy;
we may need to consider different approaches to our growth objectives:

Please can you draft some briefing notes on the following?

 What are the challenges in predicting market demand for Menta?
 How might we overcome these challenges?

Thanks

Sebastian

Prepare the work requested by the CFO (45 minutes)

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