A manager at the Bell Institute for Professional Development, has just finished developing the Profit Orientation Seminar and is about to train individuals to deliver it to over 50,000 Bell employees. She must consider the issuers of training and development, managing change and evaluating the success of the training program.
The commercial account manager at the main branch of the Crown Bank of Canada in Chicoutimi, Quebec, received a line of credit request from Materiaux Boisvert, a hardware and building materials company. Materiaux Boisvert was recently purchased by new owners, who were given a maximum line of credit of $1.6 million with the understanding that the loan would be re-evaluated after several months of operation. The commercial account manager was expecting a request of $1.8 million, but was surprised to find a request for $2.2 million. He must now analyze the company's past and future financial position in order to prepare for a meeting with the new owners to discuss the loan request.
A recently appointed store manager at a wholesale food company must make some decisions regarding management and leadership. The store is losing $10,000 per week, sales are spiraling downward, the key people in the company do not want him there and the employee morale is terrible. The supplemental (B) case outlines the change the store manager made.
The manager outlines what he did to change things at his wholesale company. The Food Terminal (A) case 9A92J008, describes the situation. His comments include an outline of his action plan, plus some data to support the improvements.
LaPeux Eau de Toilette focuses on inventory valuation of a merchandising company. It tests students' understanding of LIFO, FIFO, weighted-average cost, lower-of-cost-and-market rule, FOB destination, FOB shipping point, purchase discounts and duty and taxes on importing. The president and owner, Nicolette LaPeux, is the decision-maker faced with the task of assessing how the accounting methods used in the inventory valuation affect the overall financial position of the company.
This exercise reviews depreciaton of fixed assets. It covers double-declining balance method, units-of-output, straight-line depreciation, trade-ins and depreciating pooled assets, and it emphasizes the principle of depreciating assets according to their use.
The president of Vista Foods Inc., was faced with the task of improving Vista's overall poor profitability and decreasing cashflow. Despite tremendous sales growth in the company's current five pasta product lines, the company had sustained losses in both of its first two years of operations. Recently, Vista's management team had suggested the options of expanding its product line into the unflavoured pasta market and/or adding an internal salesforce in Ontario. There were a number of factors the president wanted to consider before making any recommendations regarding the future direction of Vista.
Custom Car Care is an owner-operated company that does custom detailing and cleaning of cars on a part-time basis. The owner would like to quit his current part-time grocery store job and run his business full-time, but he is unsure if it will be profitable enough. He needs to prepare a break-even analysis and a complete marketing plan for the business.
This note provides a series of steps used in the preparation of pro-forma income statements and balance sheets, using the aging of accounts and a plug for cash requirements. A simple example is used for illustration.
Steelway Building Systems manufactures steel buildings. The owner and president, faces tougher American competition and realizes the need for better technology. He has three options for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of his flange and connector plate production process. He must decide which option is best and implement the solution soon so he does not lose ground to encroaching U.S. competition in these tough economic times.
A process engineer for General Motors Truck Assembly Plant in Oshawa was considering the introduction of new technology onto the main assembly line. He believed that an overhead hoist could be used to eliminate one job in a four-person group. The case leads into a discussion on the criteria used in evaluating proposals for new technology as well as the impact of these changes on the employees.
The note describes a short-run operating decision-making model that may be used to evaluate alternate courses of action. The note covers qualitative versus quantitative analysis, relevant costs for the model, and differential investments. As well, cost behaviour, financial charges on new investments and divestments are also covered.
The manager of human resources wonders what disciplinary actions he should recommend to the vice-president of human resources in a case of assault. He learns that a maintenance technician assaulted a fellow technician and the situation is complicated by the fact that the assailant is a mentally challenged employee. The conflict arose as the result of a misunderstanding. Subsequently, the assailant's actions stunned his co-workers as well as the human resources manager.
The human resources manager and the department supervisor interview the individuals involved in the incident described in Johnson & Johnson Company (A). The human resources manager's recommendations are presented.