個案總覽

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 101111

Welcome Pharmaceuticals was a joint venture between North China Pharmaceutical Corp. and Hong Kong Triple Well International and is a leading producer of vitamin C in China. The company's general manager had just returned from an industry wide meeting, and was disturbed by what he had learned: there was a worldwide oversupply of vitamin C and already sagging prices had not yet hit rock bottom. The general manager knew the only way for Welcome to survive was to reduce costs, and because Welcome's material costs were already among the lowest in the industry, the only area left to trim was labor costs. The management team was called together to decide whether this was, in fact, the company's only option. If so, the management team had to quickly decide how to go about effecting what was bound to be an unpopular change among several tiers of workers.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 101045.

An analyst's critique of Amazon's prospectus from the perspective of its bond holders.

Quarterly earnings numbers dominate the decisions of executives, analysts, investors, and auditors. Yet for all the attention paid to these numbers, they're not much use in predicting a company's future performance and cash flows. Even economists are unanimous in their view that these numbers say next to nothing about a company's prospects beyond the next quarter. Nonetheless, meeting analysts' expectations that earnings will rise in a smooth, steady, unbroken line has become, at many corporations, a game whose imperatives override even the imperative to deliver the highest possible return to shareholders. The fetishistic attention paid to this almost meaningless indicator might be cause for amusement, except for one thing: the earnings game does real harm. It distorts corporate decision making. It reduces securities analysis and investing to a guessing contest. It compromises the integrity of corporate audits. Ultimately, it undermines the capital markets. In this article, HBR senior editor Harris Collingwood takes an in-depth look at these effects, examining the intricacies of the earnings game and why companies believe they have no choice but to play it. Until more corporate executives change their practices, he explains, the earnings game will never lack for players.

Discusses the components of the statement of cash flow and its direct and indirect format of presentation. Also briefly explains the difference between cash and accrual accounting and provides examples of Standard Microsystems Corp. and Intel Corp.

Discusses the accounting equation and defines common terms found in the statement. Also provides an example of the balance sheets of Coca-Cola Co., Ariba, Inc., and Safeway, Inc.

Includes a description of the common components of the income statement. Includes examples of the income statements of Home Depot, Inc., Lucent Technology, Inc., Gap, Inc., and McDonald's Corp. and lends itself to a brief discussion regarding these companies.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 101109.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 101108

An investor planning changes to her investment portfolio, looked at Sleeman Breweries Limited (SBL) as a potential investment opportunity. The company had experienced strong growth, primarily through mergers and acquisitions, and had achieved success within the very competitive beer industry. She needed to evaluate the risks and opportunities of investing in SBL. Using qualitative and quantitative information she had to: size-up the current and future management direction of the company; analyse SBL's financial data using the calculation and interpretation of ratios as an analytic tool; and prepare a statement of changes in financial position.

Livent Inc. is the only publicly traded theatrical production firm in North America. A member of the audit committee at Livent is preparing to address the company's board of directors regarding issues contained in a letter published by a leading business magazine. The letter, written by a securities analyst, suggests the company's accounting policies are very aggressive, in particular the approach taken to capitalize and amortize its pre-production costs. In order to address this issue, the audit committee member wants to review the company's current capitalization and amortization policies and to compare its approach with the accounting policies used by other industries which also incur significant development costs.

In spite of making substantial investments in information technology planning systems, retailers are struggling with two execution problems--inventory record inaccuracy and misplaced stock keeping units (SKUs)--that are hurting their performance and ability to satisfy customers. At one leading retailer, 65% of inventory records were inaccurate (i.e., recorded inventory levels did not reflect actual inventory levels). Misplaced SKUs at another leading retailer prevented one in six customers who requested help from a sales associate from finding the products that were available in a store. These execution problems reduce profits by more than 10%. Moreover, performance along these two dimensions of execution varies substantially among stores within the same chain that use identical information technology. By examining the systematic differences that exist among stores, this article identifies the drivers of inventory record inaccuracy and misplaced SKUs and recommends steps retailers can take to improve operational execution in their chains.

Cisco's CFO Larry Carter explains how the company has made real-time accounting a reality. The key, he says, lies more in the process than the technology.

An abstract is not available for this product.

A large urban medical center implements the Balanced Scorecard management tool. Elaine Brennan, senior VP of operations, has reorganized a highly functional health care organization into decentralized patient care centers and support units. Having recently endured the pain of a major downsizing, she wants the various constituents--senior managers, physicians, nurses, technicians, and the work force--to explore implementing a new strategy focused on growth and patient care. But the existing measurement and management system reports only on costs and financial results. She introduces the Balanced Scorecard as a mechanism to increase attention to and accountability for quality, service, work environment, and employee outcomes, as well as revenues and costs.

Supplements the (A) case.

This case goes well with the A case (UV1702) in a module on budgeting and strategic-profitability analysis or flexible expense budgeting.

The company acquires RentaVision, Inc. and writes inventory down as part of acquisition accounting.

The president of Wilkerson, faced with declining profits, is struggling to understand why the company is encountering severe price competition on one product line while able to raise prices without competitive response on another product line. The controller proposes that the company develop an activity-based cost model to understand better the different demands that each product line makes on the organization's indirect and support resources. A rewritten version of an earlier case.