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.

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?

Numbers 12 and 13 On January 1, 2020, an entity sold a new car at a price of P1,300,000 with production cost of P1,170,000. At the time contract signing, the entity received P130,000 cash and old car as down payment. The entity gave a trade-in allowance of P390,000 to the old car although its fair market value on January 1, 2020 is P650,000. The remaining balance is payable in six equal monthly installments starting February 1, 2020. The buyer religiously paid the monthly installments starting February 1, 2020. However, on June 1, 2020, the buyer defaulted on the monthly installment due which is resulted to the cancellation of the contract of sale and repossession of the subject car. At the date of the repossession, the repossessed car was appraised at a fair value of P169,000. It is the policy of the entity to use installment method to account its credit sales.

12. What is the realized gross profit to be recognized by the entity for the year ended December 31, 2020?

13. What is the loss on repossession to be recognized by the entity for the year ended December 31, 2020?

Elements of the Income Statement for Hofstadter Experiments Ltd. follow:

Highlights of the Balance Sheet:

Required: (Round all answers to 2 decimal places).

1. Calculate the gross profit rate for both 2019 and 2020.
2. Did the gross profit rate improve or worsen from 2019 to 2020?
3. What was the Accounts Receivable Turnover ratio for 2020?
4. Explain what Accounts Receivable Turnover is in your own words.
5. What was the Return on Common Shareholders’ Equity for 2020?
6. What was the Current Ratio for 2020?
7. Is the current ratio calculated in f) adequate?

Elements of the Income Statement for Hofstadter Experiments Ltd. follow:

Highlights of the Balance Sheet:

Required:   (Round all answers to 2 decimal places).

1. Calculate the gross profit rate for both 2019 and 2020.
2. Did the gross profit rate improve or worsen from 2019 to 2020?
3. What was the Accounts Receivable Turnover ratio for 2020?
4. Explain what Accounts Receivable Turnover is in your own words.
5. What was the Return on Common Shareholders’ Equity for 2020?
6. What was the Current Ratio for 2020?
7. Is the current ratio calculated in f) adequate?

Bob has been active all of his life. He played soccer from elementary school all the way through college. He even played on a community team but now at age 45, he’s been diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension). At times he ate too much junk food and occasionally drank too much alcohol but he couldn’t get around the fact that the men in his family all had high blood pressure. Dr. Miller, Bob’s primary care physician, had to prescribe two different antihypertensive medications in order to get his blood pressure under control. She also recommended Bob continue his regular soccer workouts but suggested a low-salt diet and more modest alcohol intake. Bob heeded Dr. Miller’s recommendations. His father and his 2 uncles had hypertension at a young ages, and all 3 men ended up on dialysis before dying from complications of kidney failure.Bob began the recommended lifestyle changes at age 45 and even started running regularly to keep his blood pressure under control. Now, 10 years later, he was a marathoner and participated in local marathons, competing with, and outrunning many his own age. However, Bob noticed that during the past several months, he’d experienced more fatigue than normal and some dehydration symptoms after his long runs. After consulting with Dr. Miller, Bob sought the help of Ty, an exercise physiologist, to help him maintain his exercise regime and his health without feeling “old”.Ty worked with Dr. Miller to make sure that Bob was monitored closely since he was still taking his anti-hypertensive medications. Ty suggested a urinalysis to assess Bob’s physical condition before, during and after his workouts. Bob dutifully supplied urine samples to Dr. Miller for evaluation as Ty recommended. Ty explained that Bob’s dehydration symptoms were more difficulty to evaluate since the medication Bob took to control his high blood pressure could affect his renal status or physiologic functioning.Dr. Miller logged the following results of Bob’s urinalysis immediately after, and six hours after, a rigorous 2-hour run.

Ty noted the color changes of Bob’s urine before, immediately after and 6-hours after his workouts. What do the color changes of Bob’s urine indicate?

Ty also noted that Bob’s specific gravity changed with each urine collection. Explain how Bob’s urine color/concentration compare to the urine specific gravity at the same time?