Page 15 - CIMA SCS Workbook November 2018 - Day 2 Tasks

RISK MANAGEMENT (P3) - PRACTICE TASKS

EXERCISE 2

UPDATE
It’s mid-afternoon on a Wednesday and you’ve just settled back down to your desk after making
yourself a mug of tea and chatting to Fiona Dubin about who is going to win this year’s Strictly. As
you unlock your computer the following email appears in your inbox:

TRIGGER

Email

To: Senior Manager
From: Dirk Lepain
Subject: Succession planning and board structure

I have today received a letter from one of our largest shareholders – copy attached.

You will see that they are particularly unhappy with the share price performance and the lack of
new product development we have had in recent times. They have laid the blame squarely at one
of our long serving and loyal directors.

I am not surprised that questions are being asked; indeed, our share price performance has not
been good over the last three years and the shareholders were bound to start pointing fingers at
someone at some point.

We need to draft a response explaining the processes we have in place for reviewing performance
and succession planning. As you know we have committees in place for this kind of thing, it is part
of the Cronland Code of Corporate Governance (which was adopted from The UK Corporate
Governance Code). I haven’t got the time do the full response and I know you’re well-versed on
the contents of the Code. Please could you put together a briefing paper that addresses the
processes we have in place, committees, what they all do, etc. so we can include it as part of our
response.

Secondly, it did get me thinking about how it could be time for us to make some changes to our
Board structure. I know Anton has expressed his frustration at the way technology has changed
the way we do medicine and his dislike for computers. Please could you outline a plan for how we
could improve our Board structure over the next few years to help adjust for the changing needs
of the pharmaceuticals world and how Novak has grown? This part of the briefing paper is just for
me to consider at the moment, I won’t be sharing this at the next Board meeting.

You’ll appreciate that this is all to be treated in the strictest confidence.

KAPLAN PUBLISHING 31