Stage 2 (Management)

Having gained experience of the Scaters company and core processes you are now well placed to apply management theory to practice and determine where you may make the company more efficient and effective. Decisions about improvements are investment decisions and need to be made in the context of available capital and strategic priorities and targets/ goals.

Stage 2 (automatically) follows on from stage 1.

Whereas stage 1 enables users to gain familiarity with operations (executing core business processes), stage 2 is more about Managing for improvement and the attainment of goals.

The task requirements of stage two will vary from course to course and will be predetermined by your tutor. Examples of stage 2 tasks include: (1) strategic tasks: environmental analysis (PESTLE, SWOT etc.), target and goal setting and the identification of improvement projects. In some cases you may be required to conduct investment appraisal of such projects; and (2) Budget tasks: forecasting sales, expenses and labour costs.

You may also be allocated a specific (individual) role such as secretary, budget or strategic and may be given a department to manage (specifying the departmental mission and goals etc.).

Finally, you may be informed of a Budget date and possibly an MD presentation date.

The main outcomes of stage 2 are as follows:

1. Creation of a master budget for Scaters
   this provides a context for investment decisions
2. Presentation (verbally and/or in writing) to the MD of ideas to improve the company.