Birch Paper Company

Q. Which bid should Mr. Kenton accept?

Ans . The operational control of the Thompson division has been given to James Brunner and

so he decides the transfer price. In this case Mr. Kenton should accept the bid of the

Thompson Division. There are several reasons for this. In this case Kenton can establish

management control. He should ensure that resources are obtained and used effectively and

efficiently in the accomplishment of the company's objectives. However, Thomson Division

has already incurred overhead costs in developing and designing the new box. Since, this cost

has been incurred by an internal division and if a lower price is paid to an outside supplier it

would mean a loss to the Thomson Division. Management  control lies in managers assuring

that the resources are obtained and used efficiently. However, in this case Thomson Division

is not charging more because of inefficiencies but is charging more because it is allocating its

overhead to the cost of production. That overhead that it has actually incurred in the

development and designing of the new box. It is as if the development cost of the product is

being charged to the cost of the product. On the other hand the outside suppliers are already

having the designed and developed sample and they do not have to allocate any cost for

designing the box and so the prices quoted by the outside suppliers are $430 and $432.

Q . Which bid is in the best interests of Birch Paper Company? That is, which course of

action is more profitable for the company as a whole?

Ans: From the perspective of strategic control, it is the duty of the management to support its

own divisions especially in comparison with external companies. Moreover, it is important to

understand the boundaries of the organization. The market quotations have been sought from

market companies but these companies belong to a class of suppliers. If we use Porter's

model these forces represent a competitive force called supplier power. So from the

perspective of Birch Paper Company its own division should be selected over that of an

outside company. Remember if a product is purchased from a division, there is no external

cash flow. No cash flows out of the company. On the other hand if the product is purchased

from an external company there will be a cash outflow from the company. From a purely

arithmetical point of view if the product was purchased from outside the cost would be $430

and in addition per piece Thomson Division would gain $5 per piece and Southern Division

would gain an additional $36. That is a total of $41. If $41 were subtracted from $430 the net

price to Birch would be $389, whereas the cost incurred by Thomson would be $400.

However, the wider issue is that Thomson is trying to recover its overhead costs by quoting a

higher price. This is the gain that is legitimately due to Thomson and Birch would gain by

placing the order with Thompson Division.

Q 3. Should the commercial vice president intervene? Is so, how?

Ans . The commercial vice president should intervene and request Northern Division to

purchase the box from Thomson Division. The rationale is that the Thomson division is a

responsibility center has not quoted a higher figure because of inefficiencies in the production

process; however, it has tried to allocate the legitimate overhead costs to the product cost.

There is a pressure on Thomson Division to show operational profits and in accordance to the

company policy Thompson Division is allocating the legitimate costs to the product it has

helped develop. The Northern Division is also trying to protect its profits by outsourcing.

However, since the development costs have actually been incurred it would be iniquitous to

purchase the boxes from an outside supplier. The commercial vice-president should instruct

Northern Division to make purchases from Thompson Division. Northern is the beneficiary

of the development process and so it must bear the cost of development incurred by

Thomson. Behaviorally, Thompson Division has been displaced because it has incurred the

cost of development but has not been compensated for the development cost. What

Thompson is trying to do is to recover its legitimate overheads by increasing the markup on

the manufacture of the boxes. The commercial manager should take up the role of diffusion

the tension in the organization and if he instructs Northern Division, there will be no

difficulty faced by Northern in placing the order with Thompson division