Methodical Approaches to Strategic Analysis of Costs Agricultural Enterprises

Abstract. One of the most important elements of strategic management analysis and one of the most significant management functions is a strategic cost analysis. With its help, quantitative and qualitative assessments of all occurring changes in the managed object are provided. In the conditions of development of agrarian business, the primary task is to create indicators and methods for strategic cost analysis. As directions of the strategic analysis of expenses can be accepted: analysis of the value chain; analysis of strategic positioning; an analysis of the factors determining costs. In our opinion, the most acceptable for the agricultural industry is the method of analyzing the value chain proposed by Porter. The value chain is the most important tool for strategic cost analysis, which determines the activities, functions and processes for the development, production, marketing, delivery of agricultural products. The chain of values creation is connected with chains of suppliers and distributors, and they, in turn, — with chains of their suppliers and their consumers. In the analysis of the value chain, it is expedient to distinguish the interrelated stages: identification of the agricultural industry value chain and an indication of costs, revenues and assets for economic activities that create value; determination of the value chain at the micro and macro levels of agricultural production; an assessment of the cost-determining factors that regulate each type of activity in the industry chain; creation of competitive advantage of cost management on the basis of comparative characteristics of the value chain of competitors. Differentiation of the firm’s activities into responsibility centers will allow not only a more detailed management cost analysis, but also to identify a specific center of responsibility with the least efficiency and take measures to remedy the situation. The information basis for the analysis of costs by responsibility centers is management accounting by responsibility centers. The indicators characterizing the activity of the responsibility center can be divided into directive and settlement ones. The directives reflect the main tasks in the reporting period and are brought to the centers of responsibility by a higher level of management and can be used as an assessment for material incentives for staff . For the strategic analysis of the costs of the agricultural organization, it is advisable to group the information of management accounting in accordance with the value chain, taking into account macro — and micromodels for separate information blocks: the logistic support unit, the agricultural production unit, the distribution unit. The chain for each agrarian organization is individual. This type of analysis will be an effective tool in developing a strategy for obtaining competitive advantages by reducing costs.