Choice of Strategic Business Unit Hamilton-Jones, a large consulting firm in Los Angeles, has experienced rapid growth over the last 5 years. To better serve its clients and to better manage its...

Choice of Strategic Business Unit Hamilton-Jones, a large consulting firm in Los Angeles, has experienced rapid growth over the last 5 years. To better serve its clients and to better manage its practice, the firm decided 2 years ago to organize into five strategic business units, each of which serves a significant base of clients: accounting systems, executive recruitment and compensation, client-server office information systems, manufacturing information systems, and real-estate consulting. Each SBU is served by a variety of administrative services within the firm, including payroll and accounting, printing and duplicating, report preparation, and secretarial support. Hamilton-Jones’s management closely watches the trend in the total costs for each administrative support area on a month-to-month basis. Management has noted that the costs in the printing and duplicating area have risen 40% over the last 2 years, a rate that is twice that of any other support area.

Required Should Hamilton-Jones evaluate the five strategic business units as cost, revenue, profit centers? Why? How should the administrative support areas be evaluated?