The director of marketing for Marbud Hardware is responsible for, among other things, identifying new geographic regions for the company to enter. As part of the company's zero-based budgeting process, the director submitted the following funding request as part the process: Project Ranking Funding Request Expand online sales and distribution $1 200,000 Explore Australia and New Zealand market for expansion (2) 350.000 Develop new advertising strategy 1,600,000 Explore Asia for expansion 350,000 Total request $3,500,000 The senior management of Marbud has discussed the entry into Asia with the board of directors and securities analysts extensively. It is considered a logical extension of the current company footprint. The director of marketing is one of the few advocates of an entry into Australia and New Zealand and is sure that such a direction can be shown to be superior. It is not uncommon at Marbud for the company to consider budget requests and then decide to only fund 85-95 percent of the requested amounts. Required a. What do you think the director of marketing is trying to accomplish with the project ranking? Is this ethical? b. Is the marketing director likely to be successful in achieving the goal you identified in requirement (a)