Sponsored by International Quality and Productivity Center Conference on THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE INTERNAL AUDITOR March 31-April 2, 2003 * Georgian Terrace Hotel * Atlanta, GA
<See Details at the end of this email> Seats are limited so sign up now at www.iqpc.com! *************************************** * The first thing to do is to get a copy of the advertising contract. See who approved it from your company and ask that person why he accepted this deal when other magazines are charging less for the same service. * He may say this particular magazine has more subscribers and is worth the extra money. Check the circulation of the magazine against similar publications (preferably before you talk to him). Here in the U.S. magazines must have their circulation figures independently verified. Once you know the circulation you can break the advertising cost down to a cost per thousand readers. * Was this deal arranged by an advertising agency? If so, ask the agency why they got you into a deal for more than the industry usually charges. If an agency didn't arrange the deal ask the appropriate manager in your company why the agency wasn't used for this deal. * Get a copy of the written company policies for placing advertising. If there is no policy, recommend that management adopt one. * If you approach this review from the standpoint of cost effectiveness you won't have to accuse anyone of anything. Just from the numbers you presented, it sounds like the advertising in this publication is not cost effective under the current price structure. When you present your findings to management the burden will be on them them to justify the reason for continuing the current arrangement. See who is pushing the hardest to keep the current arrangement and then decide if you want to pursue that person any further. Jim Mahoney -----Original Message----- From: Chotirat Punpokha (Financial&Accounting Brewery) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 11:22 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Control Mechanism for selection of Advertising media Deal all, I have a very tough problem to resolve. I am working for one of the brewery as Internal Auditor. Now, I am approaching the review of sales and marketing expenses and facing with the request from Senior Brand Manager to think about control mechanism to reduce or get rid of or protect the conspiracy between Brand Staff and Media. The situation is assumed as follow: One of the Brand Staff may be a friend or close relationship with the owner of a brand-new magazine which is just issued to the market. Brand Staff may have deals with that brand-new magazine to launch ads on the magazine with the special price. Normal Package for place ads on Magazine: the first 4 times, the price will be discounted for 30% off. The last 2 times, the ads will be placed free of charge. Contract signed between company and that magazine: the first 5 times, the price will be discounted for 30% off. The last times, the ads will be placed free of charge. Remarks: Package that brand-new magazine proposes for each customer or agency is various and non-standard. The different of those above deals is money paid to the pocket of the Brand staff without any doubt from the company. Normally, our company use advertising agency to find media to place ads. Assuming that the above happened when the company assign agency to find a brand new magazine to place ads and the information is leaked from one of Brand Team and he make deal with the owner of that brand-new magazine to cheat money from the company. Please help me to think about control mechanism to protect the above case. Thanks. __________________________________________________ The information contained in this message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately, and delete the original message. This conference provides expert speakers addressing the latest and most topical issues regarding new processes & practices helping internal auditors successfully meet the expectations of BODs & auditing committees, senior executives, clients and external consultants. Includes case studies from Fidelity Investments, Bon Secours Health Systems, Staples, Schwan Food Company, FedEx, Anchor Bancorp, and others. AUDIT-L SUBSCRIBERS WILL SAVE $200 using discount code: A434E. Register by calling 1-800-882-8684, email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or online at www.iqpc.com! Note: This discount cannot be combined with any other offer. Payment in full upon registration. For cancellation and conference policies, please visit www.iqpc.com. If your organization would like to sponsor this discussion list send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for information. To unsubscribe to the Audit-l list send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Leave the subject line blank and include the
