# Business Brief and Proposed Requirements

## Scenario and purpose

Mara Consumer Distribution Ltd. is a fictional consumer-goods distributor. This brief prioritises investigation into profitable growth and revenue performance against plan.

This brief was derived from a synthetic learning scenario. No real requirements workshop, stakeholder interview, signed approval, or implementation is implied.

## Intended stakeholder needs

- **Commercial leadership:** understand growth alongside margin, choose areas for review, and avoid celebrating revenue alone.
- **Finance:** compare actual performance with budget and matching prior-year periods using consistent calculations.
- **Category managers:** identify product-category contributions, gaps, and evidence needed for a focused investigation.
- **Regional sales managers:** locate regional pressure and distinguish scale from profitability.
- **A reader new to the meeting:** understand the company, terms, comparison period, findings, and requested decision without a verbal briefing.

## Scope

Included: net revenue, cost of goods sold, gross profit, gross margin, sales-line discounts, monthly revenue budget, and category/region/channel comparisons. Main reporting window: January–August 2026 against January–August 2025.

Excluded: net profit, inventory availability, cash collection, delivery economics, causal claims, forecasts, and implementation of recommendations. These would require additional evidence.

## Requirements and acceptance criteria

### BR-01 :  Assess profitable growth

**Question:** Are sales and gross profit growing together?

**Deliverable:** Revenue, gross profit, gross margin, and year-on-year comparisons.

**Acceptance criteria:** The periods contain matching months. Gross margin is total gross profit divided by total revenue, not the average of transaction margins. Gross profit is distinguished from net profit.

**Evidence:** Revenue +21.9%; gross profit +8.1%; gross margin 21.2% → 18.8%. Case-study finding 1 and stakeholder briefing.

### BR-02 :  Assess performance against plan

**Question:** Are we meeting revenue targets, and when did gaps appear?

**Deliverable:** Monthly actual-versus-budget chart and total budget variance.

**Acceptance criteria:** Actuals and budget are independently aggregated at compatible grain before comparison. Missing actual groups must not erase planned revenue. Budget comparisons use whole months. No channel-level budget is fabricated.

**Evidence:** KES 24.02M actual vs KES 26.13M budget; -8.0%. Case-study finding 2 and reproducible script. Power BI budget measures return blank for channel selections.

### BR-03 :  Prioritise investigation

**Question:** Where should management focus first?

**Deliverable:** Category, region, and channel comparisons linked to proposed next steps.

**Acceptance criteria:** Segment totals reconcile with the total. Favorable offsets are included when explaining contributions to a net gap. Hypotheses are separated from observed results.

**Evidence:** Household contributes 69.6% of the net shortfall; Personal Care contributes 58.1% of gross profit. Findings 3–4 and recommendations.

### BR-04 :  Make the work understandable and accessible

**Question:** Can a reader unfamiliar with the project follow the argument?

**Deliverable:** Business introduction, definitions, plain-language explanations, public evidence charts, and supporting files.

**Acceptance criteria:** Every main finding explains its implication. Currency and periods are labelled. The case study remains readable without JavaScript or a Power BI login. Charts include explanatory text or accessible figures, and information is not conveyed by colour alone.

## Proposed decision and follow-up

Propose priority investigations, owners, evidence to collect and a 30-day review. No commitment has been approved.

- Household review: category team, Sales, and Finance; collect account/product demand, availability, and actual selling prices.
- Margin review: Commercial, Finance, and Procurement; compare product costs, mix, realised prices, and discount exceptions.
- Personal Care review: category team and Operations; check availability and service levels.

Proposed scorecard: revenue, gross profit, gross margin, and budget variance. Numerical intervention targets require evidence and stakeholder agreement; none is invented here.

## Open questions for a real engagement

- How was the budget set, and did its assumptions change?
- Do reported sales include returns and rebates consistently?
- Are price changes, supplier cost changes, and stock availability recorded?
- What delivery costs and payment terms affect account profitability?
- Who can approve discount exceptions and pricing changes?
- What trade-offs between volume, margin, and service would management accept?

## How success would be assessed

Portfolio success means accurate, reproducible comparisons and traceable proposed actions. Real business outcomes would require an intervention and a suitable comparison period; none is claimed here.