Imagine you are applying to become a trainee in a management consulting company, Solutions Inc., which claims to deliver innovative solutions. They are looking for innovative employees who engage with their work. The selection process will be rigorous. You know you will be asked to submit reports based on questions regarding your knowledge of management accounting practice and strategic management accounting. To provide a context for the reports, you have been provided with a scenario in the form a case study on which the questions are based. To answer the questions you are going to have to do some research in the library. Giving you the questions is a method to test your information literacy skills. Submitting your answers in the form of reports is a way of testing your aptitude as an analyst and communicator.
Scenario on which to base your report submissions
Assume you have been appointed as a consulting Management Accountant to an organization with rapidly growing sales and expanding customer acceptance in the surf wear clothing target market 18-30 years. The clothing is sold under an increasingly recognized brand name worldwide. Sales are made online -both internationally and locally, as well as through franchised outlets. The accounting system has not kept pace with the growth and complexity of the company. It is even more critical for the company to take control of its finances in the current slow recovery of the U.S. and European markets.
You have been given a list of issues listed below by the management of the company. In analysing the issues, the management of the company is concerned that the accounting system does not provide tight cost control, measure quality control, and does not provide a good basis for the budgeting system. No cost analysis has been done within the company to date.
The management of the company wishes you to investigate the following issues; given that management