Relevant Information for Decision Making - Essay Example

Section/# Decision Making Recently, Arby’s corporate management announced that it would be instituting a franchise wide change with regards to the type of packaging that the brand utilized. Although packaging changes in and of themselves are often done to advertise key events, times of year films etc, the firm stated that it is specifically interested in presenting a more “green” and sustainable image to the customer while being mindful of the environmental impact that product packaging has once utilized and discarded.

The firm further noted that although redesigning the packing with this eventual end in mind would be something that the company would be losing money on in the short run; yet something that it was willing to doing order to both see to the needs of the environment as well as engage the customer with the idea that it was a primary focus of the brand to seek to develop a degree of sustainability. Naturally, as with any key decision, relevant and non-relevant costs both factors into such an implementation.

As such, this brief analysis will consider the relevant and non-relevant costs associated with management’s decision with regards to aforementioned issue. The change mechanism which will be discussed herein took place over a period of two weeks during the beginning of September 2012.Of course the relevant costs associated with such a change will necessarily be those associated with the differential between the cost of continuing to provide the old form of packaging as opposed to the new. With respect to this differential, as has been noted, it will be more expensive for the firm to engage in the new form of packaging due to the fact that it will require new and emergent technology to be utilized in seeking to reduce the overall amount of waste generated as well as seeking to ensure that the waste that is generated is both photosynthetically degradable as well as biodegradable in enhanced ways.

Similarly, the key non-relevant cost associated with this decision is the manner and degree to which the customer will readily embrace the new packaging and/or find themselves unhappy with the changes that have been wrought. This concern is of course highly relevant and important in an industry that is oftentimes subject to the dissatisfaction of consumers based on no other rational than a key component of expected value that they have grown accustomed to has changed or is slightly differentiated than before (Argawal et al 2011).

Implementing such a change was not especially difficult from the employee approach as employees are used to the changing nature of demands from the corporate office. However, as a means to engage the customer with the new environmentally friendlier face that the franchise was attempting to put forward, this shareholder worked to make customers aware of the rational and reason behind the change as a way to gain shareholder support for the change. All in all, it is the belief of this student that such an approach helped to make a difference with both staff and customers with regards to accepting the changes that they were faced within a positive light.

ReferenceAgarwal, V., Taffler, R., & Brown, M. (2011). Is Management Quality Value Relevant?. Journal Of Business Finance & Accounting, 38(9/10), 1184-1208. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5957.2011.02267.x