Page 8 - CIMA MCS Workbook November 2018 - Day 2 Suggested Solutions

CIMA NOVEMBER 2018 – MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY

Marketing and sales –heavy emphasis on creating the image of quality and product
differentiation. The activities undertaken here can influence the success of GRAPPLE considerably
and we will need to be sure that we have the correct skill set and appropriate information to
make decisions on new products or new markets. In addition GRAPPLE does not have on‐line
sales. It may be appropriate to use social media to market its products to a new and wider
audience, for example, in a recent survey more than a quarter of Britain’s 16 to 24‐year‐olds are
teetotal, meaning that this creates a new market for soft drinks on nights out as younger people
are not enthused about drinking alcohol.

Service ‐ would involve dealing with all after‐sales activities. In our case we would be dealing with
the supermarkets, restaurants and bars, airlines etc. in terms of complaints and any corrective
action taken. This is a sensitive area and one traditionally associated with differentiators. The
customer will expect a high quality product and process, particularly given the existing and
potentially new product options we are offering for customers.

Support Activities, for GRAPPLE these are critical activities, contributing directly to the success of
the business and are inextricably linked to delivering value.

Procurement – for example, purchasing involving the negotiation of the best deals from our
suppliers (of which there are likely to be many) is a key activity for GRAPPLE to ensure quality of
the materials and compliance with environmental policies for example.

HRM – all matters relating to staff from recruitment through to dismissal. This is particularly
relevant for GRAPPLE as the existing incumbent has expressed concerns about overwork and
relies on other function to complete tasks. Despite future technological developments, it will
always be likely that we employ human operators to comply with the nature of our business
model. As the industry is clearly subject to change, GRAPPLE may need to consider hiring
professionals in this sensitive area to deal with issues that may arise with key stakeholders such as
trade unions.

Technology development – essentially how we at GRAPPLE will use technology. This is an area
upon which GRAPPLE will be increasingly reliant for future success with the changes in the
external environment creating almost a constant need for update to sustainability, efficiency,
sourcing of new materials, increased reliance on data for decision making etc. The introduction of
new technology is very much a possibility and GRAPPLE need to be careful that they have the
rights skills in place. This may again be a reason to consider employing HR professionals.

Infrastructure – deals with how we at GRAPPLE are organised to include structure, culture,
finance, location and the policies and processes that GRAPPLE has in place. This is an area that will
need some additional work based on the future strategic growth plans and the increased need for
communication and interaction between management and staff to improve efficiency and lead
the business forward.

Application of the value chain:

Our basic approach should be to work through the elements of the value chain, as identified by
the model and consider which of the activities GRAPPLE undertakes contribute towards our
customer and end‐user experience. The starting point would therefore be to understand what
each link in the value chain contributes, if anything, to the creation of added value.

It will be important to develop “linkages” in the value chain to determine how/if value is being
added. For example, between the primary and support activities. If Technology Development

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