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Crisis or Contingency Planning
As the MD of Burke Engineering, you have become very concerned about certain safety
and control issues which you became aware of soon after your arrival. Though the
direction of the business has become much clearer during the preparation of the business
plan, with the decision to concentrate on the valve sector, there are still many problems
that the company may have to face. You have some idea about what these issues may be.
You are reviewing a series of documents, some of which you have requested, so that you
can make some decisions on which aspects of the business should be subject to special
fall back planning.
Item one
From A Siddiqui, Finance Director, to Managing Director
Controls on overdue accounts. We do not at present set formal limits on the amount of
credit provided for particular customers. Landers and Belinksi always considered that this
would put too much of a restraint on the effective development of overseas business most
of which is, as you are aware, with foreign governments.
Item two
From Belinski to Managing Director
Dutch competition. It now appears that Sonoven, a subsidiary of a leading engineering
company, has started to sell sophisticated valves. Though they have been showing these
at the main trade shows in Europe, our sales staff have not considered it important over
the last 18 months. I agree that this may affect our plans to exploit the Dutch market.
Item three
From Phelan, Technical Director, to Managing Director
EEC Directives. We do not have a formal system for reviewing the EEC regulations. All our
staff are aware of changes in the design demands in Europe.
Item four
From J Porter, Office Manager, to Managing Director
Shop-floor dissatisfaction. We have no method of formally recording shop-floor views. We
generally cover these issues at the production meeting where we discuss, with Hunion
representatives, all the outstanding matters. These meetings are held normally every
week, though they have been a bit erratic recently. This has been further complicated by
the changes that have taken place amongst union representatives, with two changes in the
last 6 months for the AEU and one for ASTMS.
Item five
From Siddiqui to Managing Director
Recruitment authority. We do not have an immediate replacement for our data processing
manager who has just resigned. I would like your authority to contact Stafforce, our
recruitment agency, to advertise. This matter is urgent as there is no one in the
department with the necessary level of expertise to handle the complex programme that
we have developed for staff wages. We did not consider it necessary to formally appoint a
deputy, because of the costs involved.
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