Please follow these instructions to complete this assignment:

1. For this assignment, you are to develop 10 questions that you would ask a management official responsible for the financial planning for the organization you have chosen to research for the week 3 paper.

2. Make sure the questions will give you insight into what the company looks for when preparing their yearly budget, fiscal planning strategies, as well as how they monitor their financial condition throughout the year and make adjustments as needed.

3. By Sunday of this week, you should submit a draft of your Interview Guide for instructor feedback.

4. For this activity include the following:

• A list of all 10 questions you would ask the financial manager of the chosen organization.

Identifying and Analyzing Financial Statement Effects of Share-Based Compensation
Weaver Industries implements a new share-based compensation plan in 2014. Under the plan, the company's CEO and CFO each will receive non-qualified stock options to purchase 100,000, no par shares. The options vest ratably (1/3 of the options each year) over three years, expire in 10 years, and have an exercise (strike) price of $27 per share. Weaver uses the Black-Scholes model to estimate a fair-value per option of $18.  

(a) Use the financial statement effects template to record the compensation expense related to these options for each year 2014 through 2016.

Use negative signs with answers, when appropriate.

(b) In 2017, the company's stock price is $24. If you were the Weaver Industries CEO, would you exercise your options? Explain.

Because the stock price is per share, the Weaver CEO should exercise the options because she can immediately sell them for that amount.

Because the stock price is per share, the Weaver CEO can immediately recognize a gain of $3 per share by exercising the options.

Because the stock price is per share, no gain or loss would be recognized if the Weaver CEO exercises her options and immediately sold her shares.

Because the stock price is per share, the options are under-water (out of the money) and the Weaver CEO should not exercise the options.

(c) In 2019, the company's stock price is $46 and the CEO exercises all of her options. Use the financial statement effects template to record the exercise.

In the past, 60 % of all undergraduate students enrolled at state university earned their degrees within four years of matriculation. a random sample of 95 students from the class that matriculated in the fall of 2012 was recently selected to test whether there has been a change in the proportion of students who graduate within four years. Administrators found that 40 of these 95 students graduated in the spring of 2016 (i,e. , four academic years after matriculation) .

a . given the sample outcome , calculate a 95 % confidence interval for the relevant population proportion . does this interval estimate suggest that there has been a change in the proportion of students who graduate within four years? why or why not ? Please do in excel

b. suppose now that state university administrators want to test the claim made by faculty that the proportion of students who graduate within four years at state university has fallen below the historical value of 60\% this year. use this sample proportion to test their claim . report a p -value and interpret it . Please do in excel

Miss Socks & Mr. Fore the owners of Jazz Dance Studio have prepared the unadjusted trial balance for Jazz Dance Studio Limited. They know that before they can prepare their financial statements that adjusting journal entries must be prepared but do not know how to make the adjustments. Knowing that you are taking an accounting course they have come to you for assistance. Miss Socks has provided you with the unadjusted trial balance and has gathered the following information for you:

- depreciation has been calculated for the year but hasn't been recorded Equipment

- $2,500 Furniture

- $600

- on August 1 the company paid $4,500 for the rent for August, September & October

- $625 of interestexpense has been incurred but not paid - the balance of office supplies on August 31, 2020 is $1,900.

-Jazz Dance Studio operates 7 days a week and pays it's employees on Saturday for the week then ended. As August 31 falls on a Friday the company owes its employees for 6 days. The total salary for the week ending September 1, 2020 is $5,250

- On August 1 the company received $1,200 from students for dance fees for August, September & October.

Jazz Dance Studio Limited Unadjusted Trial Balance

August 31, 2020

Debit Credit

Cash 75,700

Accounts receivable 1,850

Prepaid rent 4,500

Office supplies 3,600

Equipment 12,500

Accumulated depreciation - equipment 5,000

Furniture 3,600

Accumulated depreciation - furniture 1,800

Accounts payable 4,950

Salary payable -

Interest payable -

Unearned revenue 1,200

Note payable 25,000

Share capital 10,000

Retained earnings 18,600

Revenue 195,000

Advertising expense    9,750

Bank charges expense 1,080

Depreciation expense -

Interest expense -

Office supplies expense 4,900

Repairs expense 6,270

Rent expense 16,500

Salary expense 121,300

261,550 261,550

A lawsuit has been filed against XYZ Company. As year-end, the company’s attorney believes that there is an 85% likelihood that the company will be found liable. The attorney believes that the estimated range of the liability is between $50,000 and $150,000 and that all amounts within the range are equally likely. In addition, the company has announced a restructuring plan prior to year-end that has created a valid expectation on the part of the employees to be terminated with an estimated liability of $500,000. As of year-end, there is currently no legal obligation to make any payments to the terminated employees. Lastly, the Company issued stock options with a fair value of $200,000 on January 1st with a 2 year vesting schedule.   

1. What would be the amount, if any, that XYZ would record on the balance sheet related to the lawsuit under IFRS and US GAAP?
2. What would be the amount, if any, that XYZ would record on the balance sheet related to the restructuring under IFRS and US GAAP?

Critical Leadership Competencies Needed in 2020

Comment these answer :

What are the key leadership competencies that will be needed in leaders by 2020?

            The key leadership competency that will be needed in leaders by 2020 is the ability to be an effective communicator.   This competency is necessary because technology allows for organizations to be networked and outsourced. Therefore teams will not be in the same office building or even from the same country.

            What are the most significant leadership trends that require a change in leadership approaches by 2020?

            The most significant leadership trend that requires a change in leadership approach by 2020 is authenticity and caring.   Leaders must be real and leaders must care. Authenticity includes credibility and trust. Caring is important because if an employee doesn’t feel that a leader cares about them as a person or individual morale will be low and therefore productivity will decrease.

            What are some of the external trends (e.g., increased globalization, increased diversity, and increased use of technology) that will influence the leadership changes?

            External trends that will influence the leadership change are the use of technology. No longer are face-to-face meetings the norm. Conference calls, video conferencing and email have all transformed meetings. Technology is essential today and will be even more important in 2020.

            What will the employee of 2020 look like in terms of expectations, skills, and experience?

            The 2020 employee will have higher expectations, stronger skills and more work experiences. These terms are all required in order for stakeholder expectations to be met in 2020

The following commentary by Robert B. Reich was published on PROJECT SYNDICATE on April 23, 2020. Read the commentary and answer the questions that follow in your own words. Make sure that you answer each question in one paragraph, not exceeding 100 words.

Resurrect Antitrust

America’s Gilded Age in the late nineteenth century began with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts owned by “robber barons” who used their wealth and power to drive out competitors, and then to corrupt American politics.

We are now in a second Gilded Age – ushered in by semiconductors, software, and the Internet – and a handful of technology giants are the new robber barons. Facebook and Google now dominate the online advertising market, while the advertising revenue going to newspapers, network television, and other newsgathering agencies continues to decline.

Google also hosts two-thirds of all Internet searches in the United States, and is so dominant that “to google” has long since become a commonly used verb. In 2006, Google acquired the world’s largest video-hosting site, YouTube. And Facebook, for its part, has acquired more than 70 companies over roughly 15 years, including potential competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp.

Amazon, meanwhile, has become the first stop for one-third of all US consumers seeking to buy anything, including more than half of new books. Amazon’s scale translates into bargains for consumers, but it undermines supplier industries, including author royalties and publisher earnings.

This consolidation at the leading edge of the US economy has created three big problems. The first concerns economic power. Here, the issue is not the classic one of consumer prices being higher than they’d be under competitive conditions; it is that Big Tech is inhibiting innovation. The incumbents’ size, must-use platforms (owing to network effects), wall-to-wall patents and copyrights, and fleets of lawyers to litigate potential rivals into submission have allowed them to create formidable barriers to new entrants.

To be sure, large platforms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook have enabled creators to showcase and introduce new apps, songs, books, videos, and other content. But because of these platforms’ overwhelming bargaining power, they can take a large share of the profits. Partly as a result, the rate at which new job-creating businesses are formed in the US has fallen by half since 2004.

The second problem concerns political influence: massive concentrations of economic power tend to generate political clout that is easily abused. Because of its increasing size, the technology sector provides significant campaign contributions and maintains platoons of lobbyists and lawyers in Washington, DC. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, for example, is the one of the biggest lobbyists in the city.

All this power gets results: tax loopholes, subsidies, regulatory exemptions, and other forms of government largesse that is unavailable to smaller firms. Hence, in 2018, Amazon paid no federal taxes, even as it held an auction to extort billions of dollars from states and cities eager to host its second headquarters. The company has also forced Seattle, its main headquarters, to scrap a plan to tax big corporations. That revenue would have been used to pay for homeless shelters for a growing population that can’t afford sky-high rents caused, in part, by Amazon.

Big Tech’s political power also buys impunity. Facebook executives withheld evidence of malign Russian activity on their platform far longer than previously disclosed, but suffered no consequences. Perhaps more troubling,

they employed a political opposition-research firm to discredit their critics. How long will it be before Facebook uses its own data and platform against its opponents and competitors?

Google, too, has used its power to fend off criticism. It has quietly funded hundreds of university professors to write research papers justifying its market dominance, and it has threatened to cut funding to nonprofit think tanks that have criticized its economic and political power.

The third problem concerns social power: the control over the flows of communications on which people rely to understand the world. The most obvious example is the news itself. By refusing to take responsibility for the accuracy of what appears on their platforms, the Big Tech firms are actively enabling demagogues, hate-mongers, and con artists to exert unprecedented influence over society – perverting political discourse, encouraging bigotry, and even endangering children.

The tech companies’ defense is that they are not publishers, but merely the proprietors of platforms and algorithms. But this claim is belied by their platforms’ powerful network effects. The more people participate, the more necessary the platform becomes for everyone else. If people want to know what’s happening in the world, they increasingly have little choice but to engage with YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.

Another aspect of Big Tech’s social power is its increasing capacity to pool and analyze data about all aspects of our lives, choices, and movements. This not only undermines our privacy; it challenges our very autonomy. Targeted advertising doesn’t merely respond to consumer needs and wants. It shapes our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and of the world.

These three forms of power – economic, political, and social – are rooted in Big Tech’s increasing dominance over markets, information, and communications. And that dominance is a function of these companies’ size and scope.

America responded to abuses of corporate power in the Gilded Age with antitrust laws that allowed the government to break up concentrated economic power. It is time to use antitrust again. Where breaking up Big Tech companies is impractical, those firms should at least be required to make their proprietary technology and data publicly available, and to share their platforms with smaller competitors.

Such measures would impose few costs on the economy, given that these giants rely on scale rather than innovation. Moreover, the benefits of reducing Big Tech’s concentrated power would be significant. More competition would reduce the major platforms’ market leverage and political clout. It would also give people more choice about how to receive reliable information, and greater control over which aspects of their personal lives they share.

In the second Gilded Age, as in the first, giant firms at the center of the US economy are distorting its market and its politics. Just as the problem is the same, so is the solution.

QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways have Google and Facebook become dominant in the technology sector?
2. How have the Big Tech created barriers to entry and consolidated their market power?

3. What has been the impact of the bargaining power of large platforms on new job-creating businesses?

4. Define the network effects and the positive network externalities. [Refer to Chapter 4 of our textbook here.] Explain why people all over the world would rely increasingly on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter to reach the information?

5. What would be the new ways of dealing with the monopoly power attained by the Big Tech? [Refer to Chapter 10 of our textbook here.]