Situation: Ron Abrams, VP Operations for Wilson Bros. has come wandering into your office muttering under his breath (clearly exasperated) after reading the financial statements for one of the plants in Western Europe.After composing himself somewhat he says, "How can a Canadian finance executive sign off on these statements? They look nothing like any statement I've seen in Canada before!I know we paid a translator to present these in English, but I cannot make heads or tails of these.Are we profitable there or not?" Ron is back in your office this week for a regular update on the projects you have been working on.His comment this week is "You know, I've been going through cost centre classifications all week with our accounting team in terms of profit, cost, and investment centres. Do you know what they had the audacity to classify HR as?"

Question to be answered: Can you tell Ron the appropriate answer and explain how you would measure the performance of the type of centre in which HR has been placed? (8 marks)