Stage-2 exercise: Lakeshore Print Co.

What a full-marks stage 2 looks like

Below is the stage-2 response for Grand River Family Dental, with each R-psp-2 line labelled in brackets where it is earned. Read it for shape: issues first, each in one sentence with a fact; the problem-cause separation made explicit; a ranking with reasons; the link to whose objective; the assumptions; and one external fact with its source. Then write Lakeshore's.

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Issues. [each issue stated in one sentence with a fact] (1) About 12 % of booked appointments — roughly one slot in eight — are not kept, across both dentists' books (Tomas's estimate; not yet counted). (2) Two double-bookings occurred last month, each costing a patient's trust and a second visit. (3) The front desk cannot answer the phone and check the book at once, so the eleven-year-old process has reached the limit of two receptionists.

Problem, cause, symptom. [problem separated from cause and symptom] The symptom is what Tomas noticed: missed appointments and the two double-bookings. The problem is the gap: unkept slots at about 12 % against the dentists' objective of full clinical days, and a schedule that is no longer always correct. The cause, chosen among rivals (patients forget; the book is shared; demand has grown), is the paper book and phone line — it explains every fact, including the double-bookings that "patients forget" cannot.

Ranking. [issues ranked by impact on objectives] No-shows first — impact on revenue every clinical day; double-bookings second — rarer, but each is a patient harmed and urgent to stop; the capacity of the front desk third — a cause of both, not a loss in itself.

Relevance to stakeholder goals. [relevance to stakeholder goals stated] The dentists' goal of full days is issue 1 directly; patients' goal of a reliable appointment is issue 2; Tomas's goal of a schedule he can trust and receptionists' goal of a manageable desk are issue 3.

Assumptions. [assumptions written down] The 12 % is close to right until counted; an unkept slot is not refilled; patients who miss would attend if reminded (an inference — the external fact below tests it).

External fact, with source. Reminder systems reduce non-attendance in outpatient settings by a range the literature reports as material — cite the specific figure from a peer-reviewed review article (author, journal, year, page or DOI), scored use on R-source, and quote the range rather than one number. Do not cite the booking vendor's blog.

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Where an A&F case's external facts come from

In accounting and finance cases the facts about a company or an industry that the brief does not give live in a small number of places. For a Canadian public company: its financial statements and continuous-disclosure filings, which live on SEDAR+ (operated by the Canadian Securities Administrators; at time of writing, 2026) — not its press releases, which are written to be quoted, and not a news article that quotes the CEO, which is an opinion at one remove. For an industry: Statistics Canada tables (printing is NAICS 323), and the industry body's published surveys. For a private company like Lakeshore: its own records, the bank, and the vendors' written quotes. What a financial statement tells you — revenue, margin, debt, cash — is the subject of module 11 and AFM 112; for stage 2 it is enough to know where to look and to write the locator beside the fact.

Now Lakeshore

You have every piece: the symptom-problem-cause split (L5.1), the issue in standard form with the $75,600 arithmetic (L5.2), the bounded definition (L5.3), the rival causes scored (L5.4), the four sentences classified and the three issues ranked (L5.5), and the shape of an external fact with its source (L5.6–5.7). Assemble them into one stage-2 response in the shape above. Two reminders: the tickets are an issue and belong on the ranked list, not in an aside; and the external fact must carry a locator — a source you have actually scored, cited so that Priya could open it.