INSTRUCTIONS: READ THE FOLLOWING SITUATION AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ARISING FOR THE CASE ANALYSIS.

“STONYFIELD FARM GOES TO THE BLOGS”

The Stonyfield Farm story is a kind of legend. In 1983, friends and social activists Gary Hirschberg and Samuel Kaymen started with a good yogurt recipe, seven cows, and a dream. They established an organic yogurt company in Wilton, New Hampshire, to take advantage of baby boomers' growing concerns about natural foods and health, and to revitalize the dairy industry in New England. Stonyfield Farms has grown to become the third largest organic company in the world, with annual sales of more than $ 50 million in 50 states. It produces more than 18 million glasses of yogurt each month.

Stonyfield Farrn's spectacular growth is attributable in part to its ability to offer a product to a special niche market - people who value healthy food and want to protect the environment. These values ​​have become part of the "personality" of the company. Stonyfleld promises to use only natural ingredients and milk that has not been produced with antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones, or pesticides or toxic fertilizers. The company donates 10 percent of its profits each year to projects that help protect or restore the planet.

As the company expanded, management feared that it might lose touch with its loyal and committed customer base. Advertising based on traditional media was expensive and did not really help the company to "connect" with the kind of people it was trying to reach. This company prefers word-of-mouth techniques that deliver its message to customers in ways more compatible with its popular, organic, and activist-friendly image.

Stonyfield has multiple active email newsletters with more than 500,000 subscribers, and typically posts messages promoting causes that he supports on the tops of his yogurt glasses. Now she's turning to blogging to further personalize her customer relationships and reach even more people. Inspired by Howard Dean's presidential campaign and Dean's blogger tutorials, CEO Hirschberg became convinced that Stonyfield could use blogging to create a more personal relationship with consumers, different from the traditional sales relationship. "Blogs give us what we call a handshake with consumers" and "a little more access to us

Stonyfield now publishes two separate blogs on his website — Baby Babble and Bovine Bugle. At one time Stonyfield was running five blogs, but decided to withdraw three of them because they weren't attracting enough readers. Baby Babble provides a forum for Stonyfield employees and other parents of young children to meet and discuss child development and balance work with the family. Stonyfield created that blog because baby yogurts are one of its most popular product lines, and parenting blogs seem to appeal to a large number of readers. The Bovine Bugle provides reports about Jonathan's Organic Dairy Farm. Gates in Franklin, Vermont, a member of the organic cooperative that supplies milk for Stonyfield products.

This blog sparks a large number of nostalgic comments from readers who remember their childhood on a farm. As organic food grows in importance, these blogs help the company showcase the aspects that make it different from other brands and invite customers to help them in this endeavor. Stonyfield continually posts new content to each of the blogs. Readers can subscribe to any of them and automatically receive updates when available. And of course they can reply to these posts.

The benefits of blogging for Stonyfield have not yet been quantified so far, but management is confident there are real benefits. Blogs have created a positive response for the Stonyfield brand by providing readers with something that inspires them or sparks their interest -If blogs give new information to readers, inspire them to protect the environment or ask them for opinions, the administration believes that They will remember the brand when they are in front of the yogurt shelves in the supermarket or grocery store and that they will take a Stonyfleld product instead of a competitor when it is time to choose. Stonyfield has a fairly large website. Blogs offer a way to highlight some of the content on the Web that would otherwise be lost. This, too, helps drive some blog readers to buy Stonyfield products.

III. Is the strategy of using "blog" one that provides a competitive advantage to the company? Explain your answer. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using blogs for a company like this?

Assume that you are the international trade manager of XYZ Inc. Because your firm exports goods, to Mexico, your job as international trade manger requires you to forecast the value of year, your firm exported one-billion-peso worth of products to Mexico. The exchange rate between US dollar and Mexican peso was $.02/peso. Now, you are expecting that the following changes will take place in the markets. Assume that everything else remains the same.

1. Last year, the inflation rate in the US was 3% and 8% in Mexico. Now, you are expecting that the following change will take place in the markets. Next, year, the inflation in the US is expected to be 2% while it will increase to 9% in Mexico. With each percentage change in the differential inflation, there will be a 5% change in the demand for exports by the Mexican customers. In addition, for each percentage change in the differential inflation, there will be a 1.5% change in the value of the Mexican peso. Explain how the above changes will affect the value of exports of your company to Mexico.

2. Last year, GDP growth rate in the US was 2.5% while it was 3% in Mexico. Next year, you expect that the national income of US will increase by 3% while Mexican national income, will increase by 4.5%. for each percentage change in the differential national income, there will be a 3% change in the differential national income, there will be a 2% change in the value of the peso. Explain how the above changes will affect the value of exports of your company to Mexico.

Please list detailed steps as to how you came up with your answers.

You run a firm called Hammocks ‘R Us (R Us) and are in a duopoly with Hammocks, Hammocks, Hammocks (HHH). You both sell hammocks, but your products are differentiated. You and your competitor compete on price with each firm facing a demand curve: Qrus = 24 − 2Prus + 2Phhh and Qhhh= 24 − 2Phhh + 2Prus You each face a fixed cost of $5 and no variable costs.

A) Explain why own price has a negative sign in the demand equation and why competitor’s price has a positive sign. Use economic terms to explain this.

B)  Solve for R Us’ price reaction curve.

C) What quantity of hammocks does each company produce?

• Aurora and Oscar separated in 2017 and divorced in October 2019. She earned $40,000 in wages and paid more than half the cost of keeping up her home in 2019.
• Aurora and Oscar have a son, Milo, who is 17 years old and unmarried.
• Aurora signed Form 8332 (Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent) allowing Oscar to claim Milo in 2019.
• Milo is a full-time student working towards a degree in computer information systems. Milo lived on campus during the school year and spent the summer at home with his mother.
• Milo does not a have a felony drug conviction and is not a qualifying child for anyone except Aurora.
• Aurora paid $5,000 of Milo's tuition that was not covered by his scholarship.
• Aurora provided more than half of her son's support and all the cost of his room and board on campus.
• Milo's only income was $3,800 in wages and $400 of dividend income. He had no federal or state tax withholding.
• Aurora and Milo are U.S. citizens and have valid Social Security numbers.

12. Milo is Aurora’s qualifying child for the earned income credit.

True or False?

13. Milo is a qualifying person for Oscar to claim Head of Household filing status, credit for other dependents, and the earned income credit

True or False?

Trident is a US company that sells goods to crown, a British firm in March for Sterling pounds 1,000,000. Payments are due in three months that is June. Trident cost of capital is 12%. The following quotes are available:
a. spot exchange rate: $1.7640/pound
b. Three month forward rate: $1.7540/pound
c. UK 3 month borrowing interest rate is 8% p.a (or 2% per quarter)
d. US 3 month rate is 8% p.a (or 2% per quarter)
e. US 3 month investment rate is 6% p.a (1.5 per quarter)
June put options on the stock exchange of 12,500 pounds, strike price is $1.75; 1.5% per pound premium, and brokerage cost $25 per contract.

June put option in the OTC market 1,000,000 pounds; strike price is $1.75; 1.5% premium. Trident foreign exchange adviser forecasts that the spot rate in 3 months will be $1.76/pound.

REQUIRED
i. Remain unhedged position
ii. Hedge in the forward market
iii. Hedge in the money market
iv. Hedge in the capital market

The company, produce in-house in the US; The cost of equipment totals into 32.5 million at the start of the first year. Which will have a salvage value of 3 million at the end of 6 years. After a recent area 51 raid, the company acquired a team of Area 51 aliens with an annual demand of 500,000. The operational costs and software maintenance is 700,000 annually. As the years go by, an inflation of 16% will demand increasing prices for these values. What will be the net present worth?

Suppose the following: You are an HR Director for a US-based company and are preparing to hire a Chinese citizen for a job in the U.S., which will require him to attain H-1B visa in order to be eligible for employment in the U.S. Research and discuss the process of attaining an H-1B visa. What are the requirements of the employee? What are the requirements and committments of the company? When does it make business sense to support an H-1B visa for an employee?

The response should be a minimum of 500 words.

Thank you!

You are an HR Manager for an international company with locations in the US, Australia, UK, Brazil, and China. You have been tasked to develop and implement a new performance appraisal at each of your locations. What do you do?

Recently a large regulated utility which supplied natural gas to residential customers filed for bankruptcy because managers had incorrectly predicted a large increase in the price of natural gas and a large decrease in price occurred. Prior to bankruptcy, they had locked in suppliers to very long contracts, thinking the price would move up. At the time of the filing, this company was still viable but decided to file early to keep from draining the resources of the company. a. Is it ethical to use bankruptcy in this manner? b. Who benefited and who lost? Can you think of other business or personal situations that might result in a rash of bankruptcy filings if rapid inflation or deflation occurs?