2.3 Leadership and management questions for IB Business Management

Jadran Marine Works

[1] Jadran Marine Works (JMW) is a private limited company that repairs and refits yachts in Split, Croatia. It employs 160 people, including 55 highly skilled welders, carpenters and marine electricians. Many of them trained at JMW as apprentices and have worked there for over ten years. In 2024 JMW made a loss for the second year running, mainly because refits were finished late and customers claimed compensation.

[2] In January 2025 the owners appointed Davor Kovač as managing director. Davor holds a short meeting every Monday at which he tells each supervisor which yachts their teams will work on and the deadline for each job. Overtime must now be approved by Davor personally. Supervisors are no longer invited to suggest how jobs should be organized, and Davor walks the yard every afternoon to check progress himself.

[3] By the end of 2025 the average refit time had fallen from 21 days to 16 days and compensation claims had almost stopped. However, nine skilled workers resigned during the year, and several of them joined a competitor in Rijeka. Marija Babić, a supervisor with 18 years at JMW, says: “The yard runs on time, but nobody tells Davor when there is a better way to do a job any more. People just keep their heads down.”

[4] Marija has suggested that Davor should hold monthly team meetings at which workers can propose improvements, and should allow experienced supervisors to plan their own teams’ work. Davor is worried that this would slow decisions down and that late deliveries would return.

Kino Lumen

Kino Lumen is a chain of 11 cinemas in Poland. It plans to open one new multiplex in 2027 and has two possible sites: a retail park on the edge of Wrocław (Site A) or a historic building in the centre of Kraków (Site B).

The finance director, Agnieszka Wójcik, has forecast the net cash flows of each site (Table 1) using footfall counts, local population data and the results of existing cinemas. The chief executive, Tomasz Zieliński, who founded the chain 20 years ago, prefers Site B. He says: “I have walked that street many times. I can feel that a cinema there will become a landmark. The spreadsheets cannot see that.”

Table 1: Forecast cost and net cash flows of the two sites (PLN 000)

Cooperativa Gráfica Riachuelo (CGR)

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Cooperativa Gráfica Riachuelo (CGR) is a printing works in Avellaneda, near Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2002, during an economic crisis, its owners closed the plant and left without paying three months of wages. Forty-six workers occupied the building, restarted the presses and formed a worker co-operative – one of Argentina’s “recovered companies”. Today CGR has 58 members, who all receive the same pay. Every important decision is taken by a monthly assembly of all members, and an elected council of five members handles day-to-day matters. CGR prints books, magazines and packaging.

Image: a large printing press with freshly printed book covers coming off the rollers. Painted on the factory wall above it: “Ocupar, resistir, producir” (occupy, resist, produce) and “Cooperativa Gráfica Riachuelo – since 2002”.

Resource 1 – News article from *Economía Sur*

Recovered factories at 25: still standing, but falling behind?

More than 400 recovered companies still operate in Argentina, and few have closed. But many are losing customers to faster private competitors. At CGR, printers say they lose work because quotes take too long: “By the time the assembly agrees a price, the customer has gone elsewhere – and with inflation the price is already wrong.”

Table 1: CGR’s performance

Resource 2 – Social media posts from two CGR members

Lautaro, 27, machine operator: Four hours of assembly yesterday to choose a paper supplier. We lost the school-diary job last month because nobody could sign the quote. I believe in the co-op, but we need someone who can decide. #CooperativaRiachuelo [1/2]

Norma, 61, founding member (reply): Lautaro, in 2002 the bosses decided everything and then ran away. The assembly is what saved our jobs. Speed is not worth losing our voice. Bring your ideas to the assembly! [2/2]

Resource 3 – Internal email from Héctor Sosa, CGR president, to the members’ council

From: Héctor Sosa, President

To: Members’ council

Subject: Editorial Sur Austral contract – decision needed

Editorial Sur Austral has offered a three-year contract to print school textbooks worth USD 420 000 a year. We would need a new digital press costing USD 280 000, and the publisher wants delivery within ten days of each order. Our accountant expects the contract to give a contribution of about 30 % of its value. The publisher needs our answer in two weeks; the next assembly is in four.

This is not the first time. Two proposals have been made for discussion:

1. Hire an external general manager (about USD 3 000 a month) with authority over daily operations and prices, reporting to the assembly.

2. Give an elected executive committee of five members authority to decide on purchases and contracts up to USD 50 000, while the assembly keeps strategic decisions, pay and admission of members.

CONFIDENTIAL: this email and any attachments are intended only for the named recipients.

Resource 4 – Survey of CGR members (52 replies)

Resource 5 – Extract from an interview with a co-operative business adviser

“Democratic control does not mean that everybody decides everything. Successful co-operatives separate governance – the assembly sets strategy and elects leaders – from management, which must act quickly. The danger of hiring an outside manager is that members start to see him as a new boss. The danger of doing nothing is that, with inflation, a quote that takes nine days is a quote at a loss.”

Resource 6 – Notes from CGR’s accountant

• Paper suppliers now change prices every week and hold quotes for only 48 hours.

• Two of CGR’s three presses are more than 25 years old; spare parts must be imported.

• CGR has USD 95 000 in savings. A co-operative bank would lend the rest of the cost of a press over four years.

• Ten members will reach retirement age in the next three years; four of them are the only people who can repair the old presses.

Amara Tea Estate

Grace Wanjiru owns Amara Tea Estate near Kericho, Kenya, which employs 210 tea pluckers and factory workers. Grace provides free housing on the estate, pays the school fees of workers’ children and visits sick employees at home. She meets the supervisors every week to hear their views, but she alone decides on wages, working hours and which fields are plucked. She often says: “I know what is best for my workers and their families.”

Younger workers, many of whom have finished secondary school, have begun asking for a say in how the estate is run, for example in the choice of new plucking machines.

Brightwell Schools is a private company that runs two international schools in Malaysia. The principal of the Kuala Lumpur campus, Mr Tan, makes all major decisions himself and expects teachers to follow school policies closely. The principal of the Penang campus, Dr Nair, sets up teacher working groups to decide on timetables, assessment and school events. In June 2026 all teachers completed the same staff survey. Each statement was scored from 1 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree).

Table 1: Mean scores for each survey statement, by campus

Tearmann Cafés and Ladder Youth Skills

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Tearmann Cafés (TC) is a social enterprise that runs five cafés in Cork and Limerick, Ireland. It was founded in 2011 by Úna Doherty, who had herself recovered from addiction. About 30 % of its 46 staff are in recovery from addiction or have left prison. Tearmann is the Irish word for sanctuary. Ladder Youth Skills (LYS) is a larger non-governmental organization (NGO) in Dublin that trains unemployed young people aged 16–24, mainly through contracts with the state. In 2026 the two organizations agreed to merge into one company, the Ladder Tearmann Group (LTG). LYS’s chief executive, Declan Fitzgerald, will lead LTG, and Úna will become Director of Social Enterprise.

Image: a busy café counter with a chalkboard menu; a barista in a green apron smiles as she hands a coffee to a customer. Above the counter a hand-painted sign reads “Tearmann – everyone deserves a second cup”.

Resource 1 – News article from *Munster Business Weekly*

Café with a heart joins forces with training charity

Supporters say the merger is a natural fit: LYS trainees will gain work experience in TC’s cafés, and both organizations will save money by sharing finance, HR and IT. LYS’s strong relationships with government funders could help TC open more cafés. But some TC staff are nervous. “It’s like a family business being bought by a government department,” said one.

Table 1: The two organizations in 2025

Resource 2 – Social media posts from Ciarán, a TC barista

When I got out of prison, nobody would hire me. Úna sat me down, made me a coffee and said “you start Monday”. Five years later I train the new lads. Tearmann is my family. [1/2]

Since the merger we have a 40-page staff handbook, timesheets on an app and “performance reviews”. Head office emails us in words I don’t understand. It feels like a government office now, not a café. Three of my friends have already left. [2/2]

Resource 3 – Internal email from Declan Fitzgerald to LTG’s board

From: Declan Fitzgerald, CEO, LTG

To: Board of directors

Subject: Integration: the next steps

To keep our state training contracts, which are 78 % of LYS’s income, every LTG workplace where trainees aged under 18 are placed must meet the funder’s rules by next September:

• all staff must be vetted by the police;

• a drug and alcohol policy with random testing for staff who supervise trainees;

• one set of HR procedures and pay scales across the group.

I know some of this will be difficult in the cafés. But if we have two cultures we will have two organizations, and we will lose the savings that justified the merger. I propose that the cafés adopt LYS’s procedures in full within six months.

CONFIDENTIAL: this email and any attachments are intended only for the named recipients.

Resource 4 – Staff culture survey, 2026 (TC: 41 replies; LYS: 76 replies)

Resource 5 – Interview with Úna Doherty

“I agreed to the merger because I can’t keep doing everything myself, and our people need the training and security a bigger organization can give. But our staff are not trainees, they are adults rebuilding their lives. Random drug tests would tell people in recovery that we don’t trust them – and some have criminal records that vetting will show. If we lose them, we lose what Tearmann is. Declan is a good manager, but he manages by spreadsheet. Our cafés run on relationships.”

Resource 6 – Finance director’s summary of the merger