To access the class discussion board, select the link above to go directly to Discussion Board $2.$

You are part of a group of managers of a major cereal company that is directly competing with Post to increase market share. Your strategy is to increase your product range to offer a cereal product in every segment of the market to attract customers, and to begin offering cereals and other associated snack products tailored to the needs of customers in different regions of the country. Currently you have a functional structure. You are tasked with deciding how best to implement your strategy to launch your new products. To what kind of structure should you move?

Read chapter $6$ and refer to other sections of the text as appropriate. The, answer the following questions. Please elaborate on your ideas with evidence from properly cited external research.

Debate the pros and cons of the different possible organizational structures.

Which structure will allow you to best achieve your goal at $($a$)$ the lowest cost; $($b$)$ that will give you the most responsiveness to customers; or $($c$)$ is there a potential solution that accomplishes both? Be sure to answer all three parts of this question.

This Discussion Board is worth $40$ pts and will be graded on both quantity and quality based on this rubric. This will be a post first discussion post; this means you must post your response before you will be able to comment on your classmates' work.

Your initial post is due Monday before $11$:$59$ PM ET and your two responses are due Thursday before $11$:$59$ PM ET$.$ Your participation will be graded according to the Discussion Board rubric. Av