4.14 A survey conducted by the Northwestern University Lindquist-Endicott Report asked 320 companies about the procedures they use in hiring. Only 54% of the responding companies review the applicant’s college transcript as part of the hiring process, and only 44% consider faculty references.Assume that these percentages are true for the population of companies in the United States and that 35% of all companies use both the applicant’s college transcript and faculty references. a. What is the probability that a randomly selected company uses either faculty references or college transcript as part of the hiring process? b. What is the probability that a randomly selected company uses either faculty references or college transcript but not both as part of the hiring process? c. What is the probability that a randomly selected company uses neither faculty references nor college transcript as part of the hiring process? d. Construct a probability matrix for this problem and indicate the locations of your answers for parts (a), (b), and (c) on the matrix.

4.18 A survey conducted by the Northwestern University Lindquist-Endicott Report asked 320 companies about the procedures they use in hiring. Only 54% of the responding companies review the applicant’s college transcript as part of the hiring process, and only 44% consider faculty references. Assume that these percentages are true for the population of companies in the United States and that 35% of all companies use both the applicant’s college transcript and faculty references. a. What is the probability that a randomly selected company uses either faculty references or college transcript as part of the hiring process? b. What is the probability that a randomly selected company uses either faculty references or college transcript but not both as part of the hiring process? c. What is the probability that a randomly selected company uses neither faculty references nor college transcript as part of the hiring process? d. Construct a probability matrix for this problem and indicate the locations of your answers for parts (a), (b), and (c) on the matrix.

The Midland Corporation (MC) was established in 1994. Glenn Jones founded the corporation, which was privately owned at the time.

MC was originally formed to provide ship repair services and quickly earned a Department of Defense (DOD) certified Alteration Boat Repair (ABR) designation. Among its specialties were structural welding, piping system installation and repairs, electrical, painting, rigging, machinery and dry-lock work, as well as custom sheet metal fabrication. Other divisions of MC included Habitability Installation, Industrial Contracting, and Alteration/Installation Teams (AIT).

In 1998, the company went public and its initial public offering was very successful. The stock price had risen from its initial value of $10 to its current level of $30 per share. There were currently five million shares outstanding. In 1999, the company issued 30-year annual bonds at par, with a face value of $1,000 and a coupon rate of 10% per year, and managed to raise $40 million for expansion. Currently the AA-rated bonds had 25 years left until maturity and were being quoted at 92.5% of par.

Over the past year, MC utilized a new method for fabricating composite materials that the firm’s engineers had developed. In June of last year, management established the Advanced Materials Group (AM Group), which was dedicated to pursuing this technology. The firm recruited Barry Rock, a senior engineer, to head the AM Group. Barry also had an MBA from a prestigious university under his belt.

Upon joining MC, Barry realized that most projects were being approved on a “gut feel” approach. There were no formal acceptance criteria in place. Up until then, the company had been lucky in that most of its projects had been well selected and it had benefited from good relationships with clients and suppliers.

Barry stopped into your cubicle and said, “This has to change. We can’t possibly be this lucky forever. We need to calculate the firm’s hurdle rate.” Having recently joined the company after graduating from Northwood University, you jump at the opportunity to assist. “Great, we are receiving bids for a new project in two weeks, have a report on my desk by then” Barry said.

You begin your project by researching and gathering your data. You contact the Finance Department and they indicate the company has maintained its bond rating since it issued debt and ironically the yield on new debt the same as it was then. The Finance Department also tells you that the 1-year Treasury bill yield is 4%, the expected return on the market is 10%, and MC’s beta is 1.5. You then contact the Accounting Department and they tell you that MC’s corporate tax rate is 34% and that they don’t see any reason dividends won’t continue to grow at the same rate they have the past six to seven years. They also provide you with the copy of the most recent balance sheet and a summary of the company’s sales, EPS, and DPS for the last seven years (see Table 1& 2). You decide to use the existing capital structure using market values instead of book values (do not include current liabilities in this calculation).

Table 1

Table 2

Once you got back to your desk you had an email from Barry asking you several questions to make sure are covered in your report:

1. Why do you think we need to estimate the firm’s hurdle rate and how can we use it to our advantage? Is it justifiable to use the firm’s weighted average cost of capital as the divisional cost of capital? Be sure to provide a thorough explanation.
2. What did you determine the firm’s cost of debt to be? Can you walk me through how you calculated it?
3. Will you explain to me why there is a cost associated with our retained earnings? Isn’t this our money?
4. I’m not sure which approach we should use to calculate the firm’s cost of retained earnings, will you use two of them (hint: CAPM and DCF) and take the average of them? Can you explain to me how you determined each of these? Do we need to make an adjustment for taxes?
5. I heard Jim Cramer talk about “Flotation Costs”, what are they? How are they going to impact our analysis?
6. What did you determine our WACC to be? Will you explain to me the steps so I can present it to our Board?
7. Can we safely assume that the hurdle rate will remain constant? Please explain and if not, how often should we adjust our analysis?

Use the article excerpt below to determine whether the following 2 statements are correct or incorrect. For incorrect statements, you must use one sentence to explain why or re-write the statement to make it correct.

"U.S. teen students slip in global rankings- U.S. 15-year-olds made no progress on recent international achievement exams and fell further in the rankings. The results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which are being released on Tuesday, show that teenagers in the U.S. slipped from 25th to 31st in math since 2009 and from 11th to 21st in reading."

2) Results of the PISA study support the conclusion that the growth of GDP per capita in the US will decelerate because physical capital per worker has increased.

3) Results of the PISA study support the conclusion that the quality of education in the US relative to other participating countries has declined, and that may come to reduce US relative labor productivity in the future.

Achen and Bartels argue that the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic didn’t really affect the 1918 US election because there was no social consensus about how bad the epidemic was or who’s fault it was. Are either of these conditions present today, especially in the USA? Does the theory of Achen and Bartels tell us anything about the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic?

to answer this question, I feel that both of the conditions mentioned by Achen and Bartel may not be as relevant when speaking on the COVID-19 pandemic. With the rise of social media and public documentation of various crisis', it seems that people are aware of just how bad this problem is. While there are bound to be people who are ignorant of the facts and statistics surrounding COVID, for the most part, I feel the public has been aware and responded according to how severe of a problem it really is. The other condition seems to be answered as well to some extent, given that the cases originated in China and have been linked to various areas and possible means of spreading. What's interesting is to consider it's effect on the American election taking place this year. While a large number of people would argue that the response from the Republican party to the COVID pandemic has been sub-par, there are others that may take Donald Trump's apparent disdain for China as a sign of strength, a political battle cry, if you will. It's still a few months until we will really see the effects of the pandemic on this election, but I'm certain that for the most part, this pandemic has been mostly negative for the ruling party, in contrast to Canada where I feel that support for the Liberal government has grown as a result of their response to the pandemic.

give feedback to this answer.

Barnes & Noble Education Provides COVID-19 Update Mar 17, 2020 Update on Full-Year 2020 Outlook BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED), a leading solutions provider for the education industry, today announced various steps it is taking to help address some of the challenges that the schools and students it serves are facing due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 virus. Yesterday, the Company announced that it has joined VitalSource® and other leading publishers in providing free access to eTextbooks for students at BNED campuses that have closed due to COVID-19 through the remainder of the Spring 2020 term. Given the continued transition to online and distance learning programs by colleges and universities nationwide, to help students, BNED is also offering targeted free self-tutoring and writing services through its bartleby® suite of services, which will continue to provide students with 24/7 on-demand access to academic assistance. Michael P. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, BNED, said, “Our top priority remains providing schools and students with solutions during this time of unprecedented disruption, while simultaneously protecting the health and safety of our employees and customers. As an organization, we are closely monitoring the continuing developments and following the guidance of the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control (CDC) and local health authorities. While we cannot predict how long this situation will last, BNED remains committed to actively supporting our students, faculty and the educational institutions we serve during this time. Given the economic uncertainty associated with the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, including the continued closures of educational institutions nationwide, we are limited in our ability to accurately predict what the negative financial impact to BNED will be in fiscal 2020, and therefore believe it is appropriate to withdraw financial guidance for fiscal 2020.” BNED’s fiscal fourth quarter is historically a lower revenue quarter for the company because it does not include the fall and spring back-to-school rush periods; nonetheless, due to the uncertainty regarding the duration and extent of the disruptions caused by COVID-19, BNED is withdrawing its fiscal 2020 outlook. The Company does not intend to provide further updates to its fiscal year 2020 outlook unless deemed appropriate. ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE EDUCATION, INC. Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) is a leading solutions provider for the education industry, driving affordability, access and achievement at hundreds of academic institutions nationwide and ensuring millions of students are equipped for success in the classroom and beyond. Through its family of brands, BNED offers campus retail services and academic solutions, a digital direct-to-student learning ecosystem, wholesale capabilities and more. BNED is a company serving all who work to elevate their lives through education, supporting students, faculty and institutions as they make tomorrow a better, more inclusive and smarter world. For more information, visit www.bned.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and information relating to us and our business that are based on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to our management. When used in this communication, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “forecasts,” “projections,” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management, identify forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our current views with respect to future events, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks, including, among others: general competitive conditions, including actions our competitors and content providers may take to grow their businesses; a decline in college enrollment or decreased funding available for students; decisions by colleges and universities to outsource their physical and/or online bookstore operations or change the operation of their bookstores; implementation of our digital strategy may not result in the expected growth in our digital sales and/or profitability; risk that digital sales growth does not exceed the rate of investment spend; the performance of our online, digital and other initiatives, integration of and deployment of, additional products and services including new digital channels, and enhancements to higher education digital products, and the inability to achieve the expected cost savings; the risk of price reduction or change in format of course materials by publishers, which could negatively impact revenues and margin; the general economic environment and consumer spending patterns; decreased consumer demand for our products, low growth or declining sales; the strategic objectives, successful integration, anticipated synergies, and/or other expected potential benefits of various acquisitions may not be fully realized or may take longer than expected; the integration of the operations of various acquisitions into our own may also increase the risk of our internal controls being found ineffective; changes to purchase or rental terms, payment terms, return policies, the discount or margin on products or other terms with our suppliers; our ability to successfully implement our strategic initiatives including our ability to identify, compete for and execute upon additional acquisitions and strategic investments; risks associated with operation or performance of MBS Textbook Exchange, LLC’s point-of-sales systems that are sold to college bookstore customers; technological changes; risks associated with counterfeit and piracy of digital and print materials; our international operations could result in additional risks; our ability to attract and retain employees; risks associated with data privacy, information security and intellectual property; trends and challenges to our business and in the locations in which we have stores; non-renewal of managed bookstore, physical and/or online store contracts and higher-than-anticipated store closings; disruptions to our information technology systems, infrastructure and data due to computer malware, viruses, hacking and phishing attacks, resulting in harm to our business and results of operations; disruption of or interference with third party web service providers and our own proprietary technology; work stoppages or increases in labor costs; possible increases in shipping rates or interruptions in shipping service; product shortages, including decreases in the used textbook inventory supply associated with the implementation of publishers’ digital offerings and direct to student textbook consignment rental programs, as well as the risks associated with the impacts that public health crises may have on the ability of our suppliers to manufacture or source products, particularly from outside of the United States; changes in domestic and international laws or regulations, including U.S. tax reform, changes in tax rates, laws and regulations, as well as related guidance; enactment of laws or changes in enforcement practices which may restrict or prohibit our use of texts, emails, interest based online advertising, recurring billing or similar marketing and sales activities; the amount of our indebtedness and ability to comply with covenants applicable to any future debt financing; our ability to satisfy future capital and liquidity requirements; our ability to access the credit and capital markets at the times and in the amounts needed and on acceptable terms; adverse results from litigation, governmental investigations, tax-related proceedings, or audits; changes in accounting standards; and the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I - Item 1A in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended April 27, 2019. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those described as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned. Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release.

Please summarize this to one or two paragraph.

Eight people, named Anna, Bob, Chandra, Darlene, Ed, Frank, Gina, and Hank, will be interviewed for a job. The interviewer will choose two at random to interview on the first day. What is the probability that Darlene is interviewed first and Ed is interviewed second? Express your answer as a fraction or a decimal, rounded to four decimal places.

A polling organization is asked to determine the percentage of Americans who exercise at least twice per week. The error tolerance is two and a half percentage points, and the confidence level applied to the result is 95%. Lacking any other information, what is the minimum number of people the pollsters must interview in order to satisfy these constraints?

Q3. Write a note on each of the following topics:

a) What is job analysis and how it impacts various areas in Human Resource and Employee Lifecycle?

b) What are different types of Competency Frameworks and how are they put to effect use?

c) Classify internal and external hiring practices and explain different interview types

Discuss the differences between the accrual basis and the cash basis of accounting ( we did mention it in previous discussion forum)

What's the differences between cash flows and cash forecast?

You might want to interview a banker or small business owner, asking them how they use the particular statement in decision making

3. What are the objectives of a crisis management plan? Why is a crisis management plan integral to protecting the overall image of a sport-focused organization?

4. How should one prepare for a media interview? Why is such preparation instrumental in effective public relations? What is considered best practice during an inter view?