AGENDA ITEM 1 HALF YEAR 1

FOREVER SUN
You have been invited to submit a tender for the provision of a range of executive
furniture to fit out the office area on a new cruise ship. The ship, Forever Sun, has been
built to cater for a particular market segment and will operate on the Southampton to
Singapore route. The 48-day cruise from Southampton will stop at a number of ports in
and around the Mediterranean travelling on through the Suez Canal visiting Oman, Sri
Lanka and Bali before arriving in Singapore.
The ship is part of a new venture for the company Regal Enterprise, moving away from
the 40-50’s age group towards an older age group with more disposable income. The
company believe there is a gap in the market for this particular group. People who are
still working but who have a degree of flexibility in their working life. This group of people
are interested in combining a holiday feel with the ability to keep on top of their work and
their voluntary commitments. Market research has indicated that there are many cruise
ships that offer the right type of cabin, dining and leisure facilities but that none currently
offer the right facilities to combine a vacation with work. To fill this gap the company has
modified their standard ship layout removing some of the child focused facilities and
replacing them with a business suite.
The area that has been allocated for the business suite will have seven small offices,
suitable for two people to sit and work undisturbed, with access to their own printers,
scanners and standard office equipment. The rooms will be available for booking, free of
charge. They will enable people to make and receive calls and work in an area with
limited noise, free from interruptions. There will also be a bookable, chargeable service,
enabling a guest to give access to their diary and calendar to a nominated person for
the duration of their voyage. The nominated person will act as their PA providing a daily
update of anything, they feel the person needs to action. These facilities mirror the land-
based bureau facilities that many non-office based or small business people use on a
regular basis.
You know that at least three other companies have been invited to submit a tender, all of
them having previous experience in the provision of furniture for cruise ships, although
they are not specialists in office furniture. Your company has been invited to tender
because you recently provided a range of furniture for StarHub Ltd. The project was
sponsored by one of their senior executives, who is also a non-executive director of
Regal Enterprise.
There is a lot of work involved in submitting a tender of this nature and although you have
been included on the list through a recommendation you cannot be sure whether you have
been asked to tender just to ensure sufficient tenders are received. You estimate it will be a
week’s work to prepare the document using resources from the sales, marketing, finance and
operational teams. If you do not submit a tender it could be seen as a sign of rudeness and
might result in future opportunities being missed.
The contract is only for one vessel with a maximum capacity of 1,900 guests each
trip. Of these guests possibly only 10% will use the business suite and become
familiar with your products. However, the profile of these guests has the potential for
great influence. Many of them will have extensive business contracts of their own and
may have a number of positions across geographic boundaries and industries.

WHAT ACTION DO YOU WISH TO TAKE?

1. Contact the relevant department at Regal Enterprises and explain you will not
be submitting a tender.

2. Request that your Chairman has an informal conversation with Mr Lee Chong,
the Non-Executive Director who recommended your company for the tender, to
see if he can find out the likelihood of your tender being given due
consideration and gather any background information not in the tender
document.

3. Submit the tender as requested in the format and timeframe required. Ask for
any clarification through the official channels.
AGENDA ITEM 2
HALF YEAR 1

CONSOLIDATION

Your company has a subsidiary: Hotel Interiors Ltd (‘Hotel’). Hotel’s business is the
design of hotel interiors including the supply of furniture and fittings as part of a
design brief.

You have conducted a strategic review and concluded that Hotel’s business does not
fit your company’s long-term strategy, Your company has decided to sell Hotel. After
a marketing exercise terms have been agreed for Swish Designs Ltd (‘Swish’) to
purchase the entire issued share capital of Hotel from the company for £2m. For
accountancy reasons Swish must complete the purchase within the next 24 hours.
As part of the marketing process the company has made available to Swish
information about Hotel’s business. The information includes a breakdown of historic
sales and forecasts about future sales by customer. The information noted that Mega
Hotel Group (‘Mega’) was Hotels longest standing and biggest customer and
forecasted that Mega would account for 43% of Hotel’s trade in the next financial
year.
Last month your board became aware that Mega intended to terminate its relationship
with Hotel if control of Hotel changed. Mega’s directors told this to your company’s
board on a number of occasions.
This morning Mega’s MD e-mailed the company stating that if ownership of Hotel
changed control Mega would terminate all business with Hotel.
Swish has signed the sale and purchase contract. It is now with you to sign.

WHICH ACTION DO YOU WISH TO TAKE?

1. Go ahead and sign the contract without disclosing anything to Swish.
2. Pull the deal completely.
3. Tell Swish about Mega’s stated intentions.
 AGENDA ITEM 3 HALF YEAR 1

CREATING AN INTRAPRENEURIAL CULTURE

In all areas of business, the pace of change has increased. Customers are
demanding new and better products and services, staff are demanding different ways
of working. Technology is transforming the way people communicate and what can
be achieved both in terms of product innovation and process innovation. There is a
widespread call for innovation.

For many organisations that have been around for over 10 years and have enjoyed
good financial results, it has been because of a focus on current fields of activity. This
has meant optimising their existing processes and revenue streams rather than
looking for new markets and new ways of doing things – in a word innovation.

You were recently reminded of the danger associated with failing to innovate at a
seminar where the presenter said that almost 88% of the companies that comprised
the Fortune 500 list in 1955 are no longer listed. In some cases, this is because the
company’s strategy was affected by market forces and was taken over, but in many it
is because the company went bankrupt or its products and services became
obsolescent.

At the conference there was a presentation based on some research done by Deloitte
Digital called “Five insights into Intrapreneurship”. Within this the case for fostering
intrapreneurship was made. It suggested that supporting intrapreneurship:

 Will increase the number of innovations being pursued and adopted, resulting
in new products and services.
 Will reveal internal talent. It will also attract employees wishing to employ such
skills but unwilling to take the associated risks personally.
 Can produce competitive advantage. Intrapreneurs are not fixated on present
goals: they can identify blind spots, opportunities and threats that might
otherwise be missed.
 Can improve teamwork. Intrapreneurs are good at forming highly engaged
teams. This helps to raise motivation across the organisation.
 Ccan be cost-effective because they are less governed by bureaucratic
procedures. They beg, borrow or steal resources and can produce something
marketable without extensive delay.
You recognise that as an organisation you may have been a bit rigid in your thinking
and would like to start developing a more intrapreneurial spirit. This would be one
where people are encouraged to come up with new ideas, test them out on their
manager and their peers and where, perhaps, they can be given some leeway to
pursue them. You do not envisage a 20% rule like the one at Google, but you do want
to be more flexible in the future. To achieve this, you believe there will need to be some
changes to the business strategy and how the company is managed. You are
considering three ideas.
ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT CULTURE AND DESIRED CULTURE

A first step would be to undertake a consultation activity to uncover the unofficial

values held. There is quite clearly a perceived ‘way of working’ in this company and
by asking employees to pick five adjectives to describe the company you would be
able to build a picture of the unofficial values. You could then use this as the basis
for creating a formal Value Statement reflecting the company as it is and the way
you would like it to be.

Research suggests that an open culture is seen as supportive of intrapreneurial

behavior. The expected cost is £75,000.

REVIEW THE CURRENT SUGGESTION BOX SCHEME

Replace the existing suggestion box scheme that currently offers a nominal award
for any suggestion that produces positive results. The focus is on cost saving and
there is no provision for increasing revenue. The idea is presented in a very simple
form and evaluated by the employee's manager. If the idea is put forward for further
review it is taken over by the relevant department and a budgeting team. The
employee who made the suggestion is side-lined and has no feeling of having
contributed.

Under the new rules the employee would need to work up a mini business case
and present this to a panel. If the idea was taken forward the employee would be a
core part of the development team. If any benefit was realised there would be a
payment to the employee.

UNDERTAKE A STRATEGIC REVIEW INCLUDING HOW TO DECENTRALISE

DECISION MAKING AND DELEGATE TO THE LOWEST LEVEL POSSIBLE

Employ an organisational design consultant to look at the current structure and

assess how it could be made more effective and efficient. At the moment the
company is traditionally structured with the core central functions mainly located at
head office, with regional sales and support teams. In comparison to many newer
organisations the company has quite a few levels of management and there is a
very structured approach to communication. Working in functional or regional silos
makes it difficult for staff to be intrapreneurial. A flatter structure with some cross-
discipline projects would foster greater collaboration. The project would cost
£120,000.

WHICH ACTION DO YOU WISH TO TAKE?

1. Assessment of the current culture and desired culture.
2. Review the current suggestion box scheme.
3. Undertake a strategic review including how to decentralise decision making
and delegate to the lowest level possible