What would you recommend to the board about this customer assistant?

Instruction: Present your decision and a short board memo, compare the future cash paths, and explain what evidence could change your recommendation.

Context:

All figures are fictional. A company proposes an external customer assistant costing $500,000 in its first year. The current business case estimates at most $180,000 of first-year cash benefit, with no demonstrated retention or revenue benefit. A pilot has produced unsupported refund promises. Continuing requires $500,000 of future first-year payments. Cancelling today requires a $200,000 fee and no other payment; nothing has yet been paid. These are mutually exclusive cash paths. A process-improvement alternative has not been evaluated. There is no contractual or operational requirement to launch.

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I would recommend cancelling the delivery commitment and paying the $200,000 cancellation amount. Continuing requires $500,000 in future first-year payments against at most $180,000 in estimated cash benefit: at least $320,000 net outflow. Cancellation costs $200,000, so continuing is at least $120,000 worse on the supplied first-year comparison...

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