1.3 Business objectives questions for IB Business Management

Aguas de Oaxaca is a Mexican company that has made a hibiscus-flavoured soft drink, Jamaica Fresca, since 2003. It is sold in 600 ml plastic bottles in convenience stores across southern Mexico. Sales have been flat for four years. The marketing manager, Rosa Hernández, proposes relaunching the drink in 330 ml aluminium cans with a modern label and the message “100 % recyclable”. A new canning line would cost MXN 9 million.

Pacific Crest Airlines

[1] Pacific Crest Airlines (PCA) is a publicly held Canadian airline based in Vancouver, flying domestic routes and routes to the United States and Mexico. It employs 1 400 cabin crew, who are represented by the Cabin Crew Association (CCA). PCA’s mission statement promises “a West Coast welcome on every flight”, and its cabin crew regularly win customer-service awards.

[2] Rising fuel prices and competition from two low-cost airlines have hit PCA’s profits (Table 1). Chief executive Martin Leclerc has proposed new contracts for all cabin crew: basic pay would fall by 8 % and the maximum number of flying hours per month would rise from 80 to 90. After two months of collective bargaining, the CCA rejected the proposal.

[3] Martin has now told cabin crew that their current contracts will end in 45 days. Crew who do not sign the new contracts by then will be dismissed, although they may reapply for their jobs on the new terms. This approach is sometimes called “fire and rehire”. Several politicians have described it as unethical, and the CCA is balloting its members on strike action during the peak summer season.

Table 1: PCA financial and pay data

Hilos de Sololá

Hilos de Sololá (HdS) is a social enterprise, set up as a private limited company in 2017 by Lucía Xoc in Sololá, a town above Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. HdS sells scarves, table runners and bags woven by Maya Kaqchikel women on traditional backstrap looms. The weavers work at home, part-time, and are paid per piece. Its objectives are to give indigenous women a reliable income, to keep traditional weaving alive, and to be financially self-sustaining. HdS sells online to customers in North America and Europe and in a small shop for tourists.

Resource 1: email from Lucía Xoc to the HdS team

“We now have 110 weavers, almost double the number in 2023, and 40 more women on our waiting list. But each weaver is earning less, because we have more weavers than orders. For many of them this is the only cash income in the family. We made a loss for the first time this year. Something has to change.”

Resource 2: Table 1: HdS key data, 2023–2025

Resource 3: extract from a Guatemalan newspaper article

“Machine-made copies of Maya textiles, many imported from Asia, are now sold in tourist markets for a quarter of the price of hand-woven pieces. Tourists often cannot tell the difference. Several weaving groups around the lake have closed.”

Resource 4: email from a US home-goods retailer to Lucía

“We would like to order 6 000 scarves for delivery within four months, at GTQ 180 each. Your online price is GTQ 420. To meet our price we would need simpler patterns, and synthetic dyes would be acceptable. If this goes well, we could order every year.”

Resource 5: social media post by a customer in Canada

“Bought my third HdS table runner! I love that every piece has the weaver’s name on its tag and that the money goes to the women who made it. Please never become just another factory brand.”

Tindra Outdoor

[1] Tindra Outdoor (TO) is a public limited company in Tromsø, Norway, that makes outdoor clothing. Its product portfolio has three main lines: the Polar fleece jacket (launched 2004), the Ridge waterproof shell (launched 2017) and Loop, a range of jackets made from recycled fishing nets (launched 2024).

[2] The Polar fleece was once TO’s best seller, but its sales have fallen by about 12 % a year since 2021 as customers switch to lighter synthetic jackets. It still makes a small profit because its design and machinery were paid for long ago, and some older customers remain very loyal to it. The Ridge shell is now TO’s main source of profit and cash, with steady sales in a market that has stopped growing.

[3] Loop has received excellent reviews and won a design prize for sustainability. Its sales are growing fast, but it is not yet profitable because TO is spending heavily on promotion and on new machinery to process the recycled nets.

[4] Chief executive Silje Haugen wants to withdraw the Polar fleece in 2026 and move its production staff and factory space to Loop. The marketing director, Anders Lie, disagrees. He wants to keep Polar with a modified design and a lower price, arguing that it is part of TO’s heritage and that its loyal customers might switch to rivals if it disappears.

Saebom Stationery makes notebooks, pens and planners in Seoul, South Korea. In 2025 its sales revenue was ₩4 500m. The finance director reported the following ratios for 2025:

The board has set an objective of achieving a ROCE of 18.00 % in 2026.

Comida Compartida

Comida Compartida (CC) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Mexico City, registered as a non-profit civil association. Its vans collect surplus food from supermarkets, markets and restaurants and deliver it to community kitchens, shelters and schools in low-income neighbourhoods. CC has 14 paid staff and relies on volunteers to sort and deliver food. Its director is Gabriela Torres.

Resource 1: Table 1: CC key data, 2023–2025

Resource 2: email from the sustainability manager of a supermarket chain

“We would like CC to collect from all 40 of our stores twice a day, not once. If you cannot, we will send our surplus to a biogas plant, which will pay us for it. Our lawyers also want CC to accept full responsibility if anyone becomes ill from food you collect from us.”

Resource 3: social media post by a volunteer

“Three years volunteering with CC and I love the mission, but we are exhausted. Two of the three vans broke down last month, and nobody thanks us any more. Half my team has stopped coming.”

Resource 4: extract from a newspaper article

“The city government is preparing a law that would require large food retailers to donate edible surplus food to registered organizations, with fines for wasting it. Food banks say the amount of food available could triple.”

Resource 5: email from the marketing director of a restaurant chain

“We would like to sponsor CC for MXN 2 million a year. In return, our logo would appear on your vans and we would publicize how many meals we have helped provide.” (The chain was criticised in the press last year for paying low wages.)