X Corporation appropriately uses the installment-sales method of accounting to recognize income in its financial statements. The following information is available for 2020 and 2021.

Your article should not be longer than 800 words. Please use endnotes for this assignment. Pick only one of the following nice tech giants for your opinion article: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, Baidu, Alibaba, Microsoft, Xiaomi or Tencent. This list, as you can see, only contains US and Chinese tech giants. This will give you an opportunity to showcase your awareness of diversity across global cultures and markets. In your opinion article, you should address the following issues:

(a) Examine the amount of competition faced by your tech giant in order to define the limits of its dominance. If you can show that it faces substantial domestic and/or global competition, you may be able to weaken the case for breaking it up.

(b) Illustrate some of the ambitious innovation initiatives that your tech giant is currently pursuing. If you can show that your tech giant is still innovating aggressively, you may be able to weaken the case for breaking it up.

(c) Develop arguments to show why breaking up your tech giant would limit its efficiency and its ability to pursue bold and aggressive innovation schemes. 25 marks will be awarded for research and writing.

This includes (and not limited to) clarity and coherence, organisation of essay, and proper use of relevant and accurate sources.

Vertical Analysis of Income Statement

Revenue and expense data for Innovation Quarter Inc. for two recent years are as follows:

a. Prepare an income statement in comparative form, stating each item for both years as a percent of sales. If required, round percentages to one decimal place. Enter all amounts as positive numbers.

b. The vertical analysis indicates that the cost of goods sold as a percent of sales increased by 5 percentage points, while selling expenses increased by 2 percentage points, and administrative expenses by 2 percentage points. Thus, net income as a percent of sales by 3 percentage points.

17-3 17-01

Vertical Analysis of Income Statement

Revenue and expense data for Innovation Quarter Inc. for two recent years are as follows:

a. Prepare an income statement in comparative form, stating each item for both years as a percent of sales. If required, round percentages to one decimal place. Enter all amounts as positive numbers.

b. The vertical analysis indicates that the cost of goods sold as a percent of sales (INCREASED/DECREASED)

by 5 percentage points, while selling expenses (INCREASED/DECREASED)

by 2 percentage points, and administrative expenses INCREASED/DECREASED

by 1 percentage points. Thus, net income as a percent of sales (INCREASED/DECREASED)

by 2 percentage points. (INCREASED/DECREASED)

Vertical Analysis of Income Statement Revenue and expense data for Innovation Quarter Inc. for two recent years are as follows: Current Year Previous Year Sales $620,000 $539,000 Cost of goods sold 353,400 274,890 Selling expenses 105,400 107,800 Administrative expenses 117,800 91,630 Income tax expense 18,600 26,950 a. Prepare an income statement in comparative form, stating each item for both years as a percent of sales. If required, round percentages to one decimal place. Enter all amounts as positive numbers. Innovation Quarter Inc. Comparative Income Statement For the Years Ended December 31 Current year Amount Current year Percent Previous year Amount Previous year Percent Sales $620,000 % $539,000 % Cost of goods sold 353,400 % 274,890 % Gross profit $ % $ % Selling expenses 105,400 % 107,800 % Administrative expenses 117,800 % 91,630 % Total operating expenses $ % $ % Income from operations % % Income tax expense 18,600 % 26,950 % Net income $ % $ % b. The vertical analysis indicates that the cost of goods sold as a percent of sales by 6 percentage points, while selling expenses by 3 percentage points, and administrative expenses by 2 percentage points. Thus, net income as a percent of sales by 3 percentage points.

4. Innovation Incorporated had operating income before interest and taxes in 2018 of $350 million. The firm was expected to generate this level of operating income indefinitely. The firm had depreciation expense of $25 million that same year. Capital spending totaled $40 million during 2018. At the end of 2017 and 2018, working capital totaled $90 and $70 million, respectively. The firm’s combined marginal state, local, and federal tax rate was 30% and its debt outstanding had a market value of $0.50 billion. The 10-year Treasury bond rate is 3% and the borrowing rate for companies exhibiting levels of creditworthiness similar to Innovation, Inc. is 8%. The historical risk premium for stocks over the risk-free rate of return is 4.5%. No Growth’s beta was estimated to be 1.2. The firm had 3 million common shares outstanding at the end of 2018. Innovation’s target debt to total capital ratio is 40%.

1. Estimate free cash flow to the firm in 2018.
2. Estimate the firm’s cost of capital.
3. Estimate the value of the firm (i.e., includes the value of equity and debt) at the end of 2018, assuming that it will generate the value of free cash flow estimated in (a) indefinitely.
4. Estimate the value of the equity of the firm at the end of 2018.

Estimate the value per share at the end of 2018.                                                                  

After completing the reading this week, we reflect on a few key concepts this week:

1. Organizational performance is the fifth aspect of the model, reflect on the question, do certain leadership behaviors improve and sustain performance at the individual, group, and organizational level? Please explain your response.
2. There were two types of innovation addressed this week (product and process innovation), please note your own personal definition of these concepts and offer an example of both.

Please be sure to answer all of the questions above in the initial post.

Please ensure the initial post and two response posts are substantive. Substantive posts will do at least TWO of the following:

• Ask an interesting, thoughtful question pertaining to the topic
• Expand on the topic, by adding additional thoughtful information
• Answer a question posted by another student in detail
• Share an applicable personal experience
• Provide an outside source
• Make an argument

At least one scholarly (peer-reviewed) resource should be used in the initial discussion thread. Please ensure to use information from your readings and other sources from the UC Library. Use APA references and in-text citations.

Please be sure to engage by Wednesday at 11:59pm ET and then engage on two more days throughout the week (for a total of three days of engagement, before Sunday at 11:59pm, ET.  

ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT I BOLD

Chapter 15: Product Development and Supply Chain Management

COVID 19 health crisis that we all are experiencing is giving us a healthy dose of reality to understand the importance of this chapter. Some pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop vaccines and drugs for this epidemic, and others are racing against the clock to produce ventilators and other critical equipment to deal with this public health crisis. Retailers are struggling to move supplies and fill the shelves to meet our needs: food, medicine, toilet papers, sanitizers, and the list can go on. Government agencies at all levels are watching and trying to protect against so-called “entrepreneurs” that are moving supplies to geographies where they can capitalize and earn more dollars.

Again, given the time constraints, we will focus on the following points:

• 15-2 Innovation: A path the grow
• 15-3 The product life cycle and new product development
• 15-4a Branding
• 15-6 The legal environment
• 15-7 Supply chain management

I highly recommend that you read the whole chapter to get the full benefit. Your assignment is to discuss the following:

1. Can you make an argument as to why a solid performing business DOES NOT need innovation to grow? Explain why!

Assume you are the marketing manager of a large electronic equipment manufacturing firm. It is the Spring of the year 2004. Your firm has pioneered an electronic book reader that mimics the reading experience on paper and the test-market results have indicated that the new product will be well received. However, as it is a completely new product on the market, the firm is unsure of adoption rates. You are in charge of a large geographical region in Asia and a third-party market research firm has indicated that the total market size is likely to be 280 million. The task of developing a reliable forecast now rests on your shoulders and you decide to put the learnings from your NPD class to work. As you do not have previous sales information to forecast, you decide to use a bass model based prediction by analogy.

There are two analogous products with their respective precalculated coefficients of innovation (p) and imitation (q). However, you decide to rate the products based on three factors using experts on a 10-point scale in order to use a weighted average technique to determine the final p and q to use. The following table shows the relevant numbers.

Given the information you have, what is the final coefficient of innovation you’d use to compute forecasts using the Bass model by analogy?

What is the final coefficient of imitation you’d use to compute forecasts using the Bass model by analogy?

Using those p and q suggested by the weighted average technique, and market size = 280 million, what will be your forecast of new product adoption for the first year (2004)?

What will be your sales forecast in millions for the year 2006 (third year from launch assuming the same parameters as in previous question)

When will the cumulative sales exceed 50 million units?

In the year 2006, how much of the total annual sales in millions can be attributed to the effect of imitation instead of innovation?