2020年湖南省ACCA考试准考证打印时间考前两周

正确答案：
(iv) Problems with delegation can be overcome by careful selection and training, an open communication system, the establishment of an appropriate control system and a system that rewards effective delegation.

正确答案：
(c) Retirement by rotation.
Definition
Retirement by rotation is an arrangement in a director’s contract that specifies his or her contract to be limited to a specific
period (typically three years) after which he or she must retire from the board or offer himself (being eligible) for re-election.
The director must be actively re-elected back onto the board to serve another term. The default is that the director retires
unless re-elected.
Importance of
Retirement by rotation reduces the cost of contract termination for underperforming directors. They can simply not be
re-elected after their term of office expires and they will be required to leave the service of the board as a retiree (depending
on contract terms).
It encourages directors’ performance (they know they are assessed by shareholders and reconsidered every three years) and
focuses their minds upon the importance of meeting objectives in line with shareholders’ aims.
It is an opportunity, over time, to replace the board membership whilst maintaining medium term stability of membership
(one or two at a time).
Applied to Rosh
Retirement by rotation would enable the board of Rosh to be changed over time. There is evidence that some directors may
have stayed longer than is ideal because of links with other board members going back many years.

正确答案：
4 (a) Stakeholders
Definition
There are a number of definitions of a stakeholder. Freeman (1984), for example, defined a stakeholder in terms of any
organisation or person that can affect or be affected by the policies or activities of an entity. Hence stakeholding can result
from one of two directions: being able to affect and possibly influence an organisation or, conversely, being influenced by it.
Any engagement with an organisation in whom a stake is held may be voluntary or involuntary in nature.
Tutorial note: any definition of a stakeholder that identifies bi-directional influence will be equally valid.
Importance of identifying all stakeholders
Knowledge of the stakeholders in the stadium project is important for a number of reasons. This will involve surveying
stakeholders that can either affect or be affected by the building of the stadium. In some cases, stakeholders will be
bi-directional in their stakeholding (claim) upon the stadium project. Stakeholders in the stadium project include the local
government authority, the local residents, the wildlife centre, the local school and the football club’s fans.
Stakeholder identification is necessary to gain an understanding of the sources of risks and disruption. Some external
stakeholders, such as the local government authority, offer a risk to the project and knowledge of the nature of the claim made
upon the football club by the stakeholder will be important in risk assessment.
Stakeholder identification is important in terms of assessing the sources of influence over the objectives and outcomes for the
project (such as identified in the Mendelow model). In strategic analysis, stakeholder influence is assessed in terms of each
stakeholder’s power and interest, with higher power and higher interest combining to generate the highest influence. In the
case, it is likely that the fans are more influential on the club’s objectives than, say, the local wildlife centre, as they have
more economic power over the club.
It is necessary in order to identify areas of conflict and tension between stakeholders, especially relevant when it is likely that
stakeholders of influence will be in disagreement over the outcomes for the project. In this case, for example, the claims of
the football club board and the local residents are in conflict.
There is a moral case for knowledge of how decisions affect people both inside the organisation or (as is the case with the
stadium project) externally.

正确答案：
(b) The three strategic goals are to become the leading premium ice cream brand in the UK; to increase sales to ￡25 million;
and to achieve a significant entry into the supermarket sector. On the basis of performance to date these goals will certainly
be stretching. All three strategies will involve significant growth in the company. Johnson and Scholes list three success criteria
against which the strategies can be assessed, namely suitability, acceptability and feasibility. Suitability is a test of whether a
strategy addresses the situation in which a company is operating. In Johnson and Scholes’ terms it is the firm’s ‘strategic
position’, an understanding of which comes from the analysis done in the answer to the question above. Acceptability is
concerned with the likely performance outcomes of the strategy and in particular whether the return and risk are in line with
the expectations of the stakeholders. Feasibility is the extent to which the strategy can be made to work and is determined
by the strategic capability of the company reflecting the resources available to implement the strategy. It is interesting to see
that the three growth related goals are compatible in that becoming the leading premium brand will involve increased market
penetration, product development and market development. If achieved it will increase sales and necessitate a successful
entry into the supermarket sector. Time will be an important influence on the success or otherwise of these growth goals –
five years seems to be a reasonable length of time to achieve these ambitious targets.
Suitability – Churchill is currently a small but significant player at the premium end of the market. This segment is becoming
more significant and is attractive because of the high prices and high margins attainable. This is leading to more intense
competition with global companies. One immediate question that springs to mind is what precisely does ‘leading brand’
mean? The most obvious test is that of market share and unless Churchill achieve the access to the supermarkets looked for
in the third strategic goal, seems difficult to achieve. If ‘leading brand’ implies brand recognition this again looks very
ambitious. On the positive side this segment of the ice cream market is showing significant growth and Churchill’s success
in gaining sponsorship rights to major sporting events is a step in the right direction. The combination of high price and high
quality should position the company where it wants to be. Achieving sales of ￡25 million represents a quantum shift in
performance in a company that has to date only achieved modest levels of sales growth.
Acceptability – as a family owned business the balance between risk and return is an important one. The family to date has
been ‘happy’ with a modest rate of growth and modest return in terms of profits. The other significant stakeholder group is
the professional managers headed up by Richard Smith. They seem much more growth orientated and may be happier with
the risks that the growth strategy entails. The family members seem more interested in the manufacturing side than the
retailing side of the business and their bad previous experiences with growing the business through international market
development may mean they are risk averse and less willing to invest the necessary resources.
Feasibility – again this is linked to how ‘leading brand’ is defined. If as seems likely the brand becomes more widely known
through increasing the number of company owned ice cream stores then a significant investment in retail outlets will be
necessary. Increasing the number of franchised outlets will reduce the financial resources required but may be at the expense
of the brand’s reputation. Certainly there would seem to be a need for increased levels of advertising and promotion –
particularly to gain access to the ice cream cabinets in the supermarket chains. This is likely to mean an increase in the
number of sales and marketing staff. Equally important will be the ability to develop and launch new products in a luxury
market shaped by impulse buying and customers looking to indulge themselves.
Overall, becoming the leading brand of premium ice cream may well be the key to achieving the desired presence in the
supermarket ice cream cabinets, which in turn is a pre-requisite for increasing company sales to ￡25 million. So the three
strategic goals may be regarded as consistent and compatible with one another. However each strategic goal will have to be
broken down into its key elements. For example in achieving sales of ￡25 million what proportion of sales will come from its
own ice cream stores and what proportion from other outlets including the supermarkets? Sales to date of Churchill ice cream
are dominated by impulse purchases but in achieving sales of ￡25 million penetrating the take home market will be essential.
Finally, what proportion of these take home sales will be under the supermarkets own label brands? Over reliance on own
label sales will seriously weaken Churchill’s desire to become the leading national brand of premium ice cream. It looks to
be an ambitious but attainable strategy but will require a significant planning effort to develop the necessary resources andcapabilities vital to successful implementation of the strategy.