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Instructor spreadsheet for teaching note product 8B13B025.

Student spreadsheet for product 9B13B025.

In May 2011, the managing partner of the Modern Agricultural Farm in rural Pakistan was reviewing the set of performance reports for the previous month sent by the farm accountant. These reports had been designed by a management analysis and research consultant to convert the farm system to that used by the head office of the Alamgir Group of businesses, of which the farm was a part. There were two concerns: how to handle the fluctuations in the farm’s monthly cash flow and how to plan the right combination of plantings and crops to ensure a profit. A computer-based accounting software program had been purchased to help expedite accounting and reporting, and an annual master budget plan had been established to control operations. Given the special risks faced in agriculture where the portfolio of crops was dependent on uncontrollable factors, such as the weather, the managing director wondered how he could develop a workable budget for the coming year.<br><br>Student spreadsheet 7B13B025 with data is available.

Pak Elektron Limited was a prominent manufacturer of consumer home appliances, large distribution and power transformers, and switch gears for power companies in Pakistan. From 2007, the company had started the process of changing the information systems of the company. These systems had become outdated as Microsoft withdrew its support of Visual FoxPro, the platform on which all systems had been developed. The company decided that a Tier 1 ERP (enterprise resource planning) system with strength in manufacturing modules would be suitable. An ERP system was then selected and a firm was appointed as implementer in December 2009. The case describes the issues surrounding the implementation, including many unexpected events. It presents the situation as of the fourth quarter of 2011, after Phase 1 of the implementation had finished in December 2010 and the company had decided in March 2011 to dispense with the services of the consulting firm supporting the implementation. Pak Elektron Limited was facing a liquidity crisis and had to save costs even though there was insufficient corporate knowledge of ERP procedures. The staff was not comfortable with the ERP system and would not let go of the legacy systems and, as such, the project was in trouble.

Spreadsheet for product 9B11M047.

This case describes how significant debt was built up in Pakistan among the private- and public-sector energy and power-generation companies, which were some of the country’s largest organizations. An unexpected slowdown in recovery of payments created debt that affected corporate business operations and the Pakistani economy as a whole. The case discusses the energy and power sectors, along with the reasons for the circular debt. The Pakistani government was heavily involved in regulating the energy and power sectors; to respond to high oil prices, a subsidy was provided in 2008 to keep the price of diesel low. The government, however, had not created an effective plan to recover these funds, and when large public-sector enterprises such as Pakistan International Airlines did not pay their bills, no action was taken. The focus of this case is on resolving the very large amounts of debt that had accumulated in various energy companies. A secondary analysis can explore the impact of regulation on the operations of oil companies.

Engro Chemicals Pakistan Limited (Engro) was a very large manufacturer and marketer of fertilizer in Pakistan. It had a number of subsidiaries and joint ventures in a variety of businesses. The company was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and was among the top companies as ranked by the KSE. In August 2007, the company's head office was completely destroyed by a fire. The office was located in Karachi and the fire destroyed all the equipment as well as the hardcopies of the accounting records. The company was suddenly faced with a catastrophic loss as the records were critical to Engro's day to day operations. The information technology (IT) department had developed a disaster recovery plan (DRP) in 2005 that was exclusively related to reestablishing the IT facilities after any event that could make the business systems inoperable. The company invoked the DRP as soon as the news of the complete destruction of the office facilities was received. The IT and finance staff had to use the backup equipment and data files to restart the transaction processing.The case includes a description of various business systems used by Engro and the data security processes that had enabled the company to restore the accounting and other systems needed at its head office. The main teaching objective is to focus on minimizing the business risks arising due to the destruction of the IT facilities. The case also has details of the DRP, which can be analysed as to its contents, and details of the management processes of Engro, which allows for a discussion on corporate governance within the company.

Orix Investment Bank Pakistan Limited (OIBPL) was a non-bank financial institution (NBFI) providing corporate finance, brokerage and other services to large enterprises and was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. The annual financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2008 revealed that, as a result of default by one customer, the bank had incurred an enormous loss of over half a billion rupees, which had seriously eroded the bank's capital base. As a consequence, the bank had to seek new capital through a rights issue and this had required support of the Japanese sponsor, Orix Japan, to underwrite the issue. The customer in default was Callmate Telips Telecom Limited (CTTL); details are in Callmate Telips (A) - Choice of Accounting Policy case, No. 9B08N028. The case includes the instance of share price volatility that had been faced by the stock market in Pakistan. Two investigations had been done into the abnormal rise of the market. One of these investigation reports had identified OIBPL as a key player in the speculative dealings that were financed through the overnight financing system known as badla. Another investigation by the NBFI regulator, Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), had examined the abnormally large volume of CTTL share trades on the KSE and found the directors of Callmate involved in manipulating the company share price. The directors were prosecuted and the judge had issued warrants for their arrests. The directors, faced with a difficult situation of a very large loss, decided to delay disclosing the loss by six months. There was circumstantial evidence in the case that would suggest that the directors should have known about the conviction of the directors of Callmate and that this would have an adverse affect on the share price of the company. The auditor's report also was the standard clean report, in spite of the seriousness of the court decision, as it made the shares of Callmate worthless. The case can be used to examine corporate governance by analyzing a) the decisions of the directors b) the report of the external auditor c) the composition of the board of directors. If Case A is also being used, the dealings of CTTL with the regulator of publicly listed companies can also be included. There is an ethical dimension of governance and this viewpoint can also be discussed especially where both cases are being used.

Callmate Telips Telecom Limited (Callmate) was in the telecommunications business, an industry in which the regulatory controls were gradually being undone by the government of Pakistan as part of an economic deregulation program. Callmate was the pioneer in the payphones and prepaid calling card industries in Pakistan. The events in the case demonstrate that the company strategy, as well as aggressive share price management, could be dangerous if there were no checks on the directors. All the directors of Callmate were close family members and the audit committee consisted of three of the directors. The external audit firm that audited Callmate was A.F. Ferguson & Co. (Ferguson), an affiliate of Price Waterhouse Coopers International. As Callmate was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange, it was required to publish its financials quarterly after these had been reviewed by Ferguson. The company had received permission during early 1995 to enter into the long distance international market. A disagreement arose between the auditors and the company on the accounting policy related to revenue recognition. This dispute, along with the company trying to manage its share price, led to a number of problems that became public knowledge as the company tried to malign the auditors. The case examines corporate governance by examining the role of the external auditor, the conduct of the board of directors and the regulator of publicly listed companies.

The Crescent Standard Investment Bank Limited (CSIBL) was the largest investment bank quoted on all the stock exchanges in Pakistan, so when it declared a huge loss of Rs2.1 billion (US$35.5 million) for the year December 31, 2005, the market was taken by surprise. There had been some rumours that all was not well and that the investment banking regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), had sent a team to investigate the affairs of the bank. Since the main shareholders were individuals or companies of the well-known business group known as the Crescent Group, there was enormous interest in the CSIBL affairs by financial and political circles.The case describes the various types of entities that were merged to form the CSIBL, principally to protect the stakeholders by creating an entity with a large capitalization. The bank had reported in its annual reports that all the internal control mechanisms for good governance stipulated by the SECP were in place and the auditors (internal and external) had reported that these were satisfactory. Yet, when subjected to an investigation, it was revealed that the internal management was involved in a variety of acts of misrepresentation and concealment. The case focuses on the weaknesses in the structure of the corporate governance regime in Pakistan. The fact remains that no amount of internal or external checks can stop internal management from colluding to perpetrate fraud.