Delegation & Centralisation
Authority, Accountability & the Structure of Power
GlobalThread Fashion PLC
The Strategic Brief — Board Meeting, Q4
GlobalThread is a mid-market fashion retailer with 200 stores across 15 countries. Headquarters in London employs 50 senior strategists. Each country has a Regional Manager overseeing 5–20 branches.
The board is facing a critical structural question: Should stock decisions be made centrally by HQ, or should regional managers choose their own seasonal ranges?
Complicating this: if the company delegates stock selection, who bears the blame if a regional manager's choices lead to unsold inventory and a £2.4m write-off?
🏪
200
Global Stores
Across 15 countries
💷
£480m
Annual Revenue
FY 2024
👥
12,400
Staff
incl. 200 managers
📌 What You Will Master in This Lesson
Define centralisation, decentralisation, delegation, authority, and accountability with precision.
Apply these concepts to GlobalThread's global retail context — not generic textbook definitions.
Build chains of consequence showing how structural decisions cascade into financial outcomes.
Evaluate the trade-offs and deliver a weighted judgement on the optimal organisational approach.
Cambridge 9609 — Syllabus 2026–2028 — Topic 7.1
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