Below is data that a researcher collected on the observed decay of a chemical in water as a function of time. The Researcher used an analytically technique to quantify the chemical that reports relative “peak area” or “response” values. As a result, the researcher analyzed a series of known “standards” of chemical “A” to construct a standard curve, from which the concentrations of “A” in the experimental samples could be calculated. It is known that the chemical decays by a first-order process. (always use the “xy scatter” option under graph type).

Data Table 1)

Find the slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient of the standard curve regressing [A] on the x-axis, and “Peak Area” on the y-axis (Use Excels built-in functions for all three parameters). Plot the data points, and on the same graph, plot the regression line (solve for values on the line on the spreadsheet, including at x=0) (Figure 1).  

Useful table headings:

A(Molarity) Peak Area Line

Data Table 2)

From the standard curve and the peak areas of the samples, calculate the concentrations of “A” in each sample. Find the natural logarithm (ln) of these values. Find the slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient for the least-squares analysis of time (x-axis) versus ln([A]) (y-axis) (use the built-in functions). Using the slope and intercept, calculate points on the regression “line”. Plot the experimental values of ln[A] versus time and the regression line on a graph (Figure 2). From the regression (slope and intercept), calculate [A]_t=0 and k. (note that k is always positive).  

Useful headings:

time(hrs) Peak Area A(Molarity) ln(A)    ln(A)_calculated

Data Table 3)

Use Solver to calculate [A]_t=0 and k without “transforming the data."

Useful table headings:

time(hrs) A_expected (Molarity)         A_calc (Molarity) (A_expected - A_calculated)²

For these data, does the Solver solution agree well with the transformed (i.e., logarithmic) model results? Why or why not.

Table 4) Report the experimental data in units of miliMolar.

Useful table headings:

time(hrs) A(Molarity) A(miliMolar)

Table 5) Calculate the “model" fit at 5 hours or smaller increments, using the values of [A]_t=0 and k calculated both ways, and convert to miliMolar concentrations. Plot the original data (Table 4) and the 2 model lines (solid and dashed) (Table 5) on the same plot (Figure 3).

Useful table headings:

Transformed Solver   

time (hrs) A (Molarity) A(miliMolar) A(M)    A(mM)

Format all Tables and Figures on 2 pages in Excel.

1. Identify three reasons why there may be ethical leadership failures and explain why failed leadership occurs.

What Is Ethical Leadership?

The ethical leader understands that positive relationships built on respect, openness, and trust are critical to creating an ethical organization environment. The underlying principles of ethical leadership are: integrity, honesty, fairness, justice, responsibility, accountability, and empathy. Covey addresses a principle-centered leadership approach to one’s personal life and organization development. He emphasizes that principle-centered leadership occurs when one’s internal values form the basis of external actions. Principle-based leaders influence the ethical actions of those in the organization by transforming their own behavior first. Covey encourages principle-centered leaders to build greater, more trusting and communicative relationships with others in the workplace.

Ethical leaders strive to honor and respect others in the organization and seek to empower others to achieve success by focusing on right action. An ethical organization is a community of people working together in an environment of mutual respect, where they grow personally, feel fulfilled, contribute to a common good, and share in the internal rewards, such as the achievement of a level of excellence common to a practice as well as the rewards of a job well done. By emphasizing community and internal rewards, ethical leaders commit to following a virtue-oriented approach to decision making based on a foundation of values-based leadership.

John Maxwell, the internationally recognized leadership expert, said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”⁴ (Links to an external site.) Leaders lead by example. They set an ethical tone at the top. Page 507They lead with an attitude of “Do what I say as well as what I do.” Ciulla argues that what is distinctive of leadership is the concept of vision: “Visions are not simple goals, but rather ways of seeing the future that implicitly or explicitly entail some notion of the good.”⁵ (Links to an external site.)

Lawton and Paez developed a framework for ethical leadership built on three interlocking questions: First, who are leaders and what are their characteristics? Second, how do ethical leaders do what they do? Third, why do leaders do as they do and what are the outcomes of ethical leadership?⁶ (Links to an external site.) They suggest that the three factors will not necessarily form discrete areas of ethics.

CONCLUSION:

A moral manager serves as a role model for ethical conduct in a way that is visible to employees. A moral manager communicates regularly and persuasively with employees about ethical standards, principles, and values. Moral managers use reward systems to hold employees accountable to ethical standards. They understand that doing the right thing is more than having a code of conduct but also requires carrying through ethical intent with ethical action.

Answer the following discussion question:

1. Identify three reasons why there may be ethical leadership failures and explain why failed leadership occurs.

In 2011, two Brown University seniors, Walker Williams and Evan Stites-Clayton, were sad that their favorite bar in Providence, Rhode Island was closing. To commemorate the closing, the two friends decided to print T-shirts, but they were struck by the upfront costs, and the need to estimate how many of each size they would need to order. Williams built a website to take orders and measure demand, and also posted a link to the site on Facebook. By morning, hundreds of orders were received, along with a few e-mails requesting that he create similar websites for the T-shirt ideas of other people. The Aha Moment arrived for Williams, and he immediately knew that he had hit upon a commercially viable idea. The company Teespring soon followed.

Today Teespring is one of the top T-shirt vendors in the United States, and prints approximately 7 million shirts annually, with annual revenues estimated at $100 million. T-shirts have been shipped to more than eighty countries worldwide. The company has grown to over 300 employees. The business model is that individuals create Internet campaigns to sell custom T-shirts and related clothing on the Teespring website. Campaign creators are required to design and market the product themselves, but they are not required to invest money upfront, paying only when they have secured orders for their T-shirts.

Teespring’s role is to fulfill order for campaigns that have attained their sale goals, and then ships the T-shirts to the buyers. T-shirts are printed on demand, thereby avoiding the problem of inventory accumulation. Teespring does all the T-shirt manufacturing and shipping for the designer, whereas the designer creates the idea and helps market the T-shirt through social media and word-of-mouth. However, the company also contributes to advertising on Facebook.

Tools on the Teespring website enable the T-shirt designer to upload their ideas and slogans. The designers can select which quality and type of shirt (traditional hoodie, or tank top) they choose to print on, and many different fonts and icons are possible. The designer then chooses how many T-shirts he or she aspires to sell, and sets a sales goal. If a minimum of five T-shirts are preordered, Teespring produces the items and ships them directly to customers, charging the designed about $9 per T-shirt. The T-shirt designer sets the retail price per item.

The Teespring model has been so successful that the founders built a printing facility in Kentucky, where all the shirts can be produced and shipped efficiently. An example of a Teespring success story is restaurant manager Benny Hsu, who earned more than $120,000 in one year with a Tee-shirt bearing the slogan, “Keep calm and let the radiation therapist take care of it.”

What is your evaluation of the prospects of Teespring being sustainable in the sense of lasting a long time as a business?

Give a brief summary of each and explain why they are the most important.

Benefit 2 Increasing the minimum wage could reduce poverty. A person working full time at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour earns $15,080 in a year, which is 20% higher than the 2015 federal poverty level of $12,331 for a oneperson household under 65 years of age but 8% below the 2015 federal poverty level of $16,337 for a singleparent family with a child under 18 years of age. [7] [8] According to a 2014 Congressional Budget Office report, increasing the minimum wage to $9 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty, and an increase to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of

Cost 2 Raising the minimum wage could increase poverty. A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that although low-income workers see wage increases when the minimum wage is raised, "their hours and employment decline, and the combined effect of these changes is a decline in earned income... minimum wages increase the proportion of families that are poor or near-poor." [47] As explained by George Reisman, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University, "The higher wages are, the higher costs of production are. The higher costs of production are, the poverty. [5] A 2013 study by University of Massachusetts at Amherst economist Arindrajit Dube, PhD, estimated that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 is "projected to reduce the number of non-elderly living in poverty by around 4.6 million, or by 6.8 million when longer term effects are accounted for." [6] higher prices are. The higher prices are, the smaller the quantities of goods and services demanded and the number of workers employed in producing them." [48]Thomas Grennes, MA, Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University, and Andris Strazds, MSc, Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (Latvia), stated: "the net effect of higher minimum wages would be unfavorable for impoverished households, even if there are no job losses. To the extent that some poor households also lose jobs, their net losses would be greater.

I.

Hakodat Manufacturing Group was organized January 1, 2019. During 2019, it has used in its reports to management the straight-line method of depreciating its plant assets.

On November 8, you are having a conference with Hakodat's officers to discuss the depreciation method to be used for income tax and shareholder reporting. Tao Chen, president of Hakodat, has suggested the use of a new method, which he feels is more suitable than the straight-line method for the needs of the company during the period of rapid expansion of production and capacity that he foresees. Following is an example in which the proposed method is applied to a fixed asset with an original cost of ¥248,000, an estimated useful life of 5 years, and a residual value of approximately ¥8,000 (amounts in thousands).

The president favors the new method because he has heard that:

1. It will increase the funds recovered during the years near the end of the assets' useful lives when maintenance and replacement disbursements are high.

2. It will result in increased write-offs in later years and thereby will reduce taxes.

Instructions

a. What is the purpose of accounting for depreciation?

b. Is the president's proposal within the scope of international financial reporting standards? In making your decision discuss the circumstances, if any, under which use of the method would be reasonable and those, if any, under which it would not be reasonable.

c. The president wants your advice on the following issues.

1. Do depreciation charges recover or create funds? Explain.

2. Assume that the taxing authorities accept the proposed depreciation method in this case. If the proposed method were used for shareholder and tax reporting purposes, how would it affect the availability of cash flows generated by operations?

1. Why do companies want to vertically integrate in order to control assets or inputs that are specialized to a particular transaction?

2. An airline company is considering backward integration into oil refinery to avoid high fluctuations in petroleum price. The argument has been made in favor of vertical integration: “Airplane that operates at full capacity is more efficiently used and lead to much lower cost per unit than an airplane that operates at less than full capacity. Owning our own source of petroleum insulates us from short-run supply-demand imbalances and therefore will give us a competitive advantage over rival airline companies.” Do you agree with this argument? Why?

3. Is a firm size determining factor in the vertical integration decision? That is, are large firms more likely to outsource production of inputs than are small firms? Why?

4. Do firms adopting related diversification strategy necessarily produce similar products? Thoroughly justify your argument.

5. A large American bank conducted an analysis of the external environment and reached the conclusion that 3D Printing & Rapid Prototyping Services is one of the fastest growing businesses. The bank decided to diversify into the 3D Printing & Rapid Prototyping Services through the acquisition of America’s biggest 3D Printing & Rapid Prototyping Services company. In justifying and defending this diversification move, the CEO of the bank argued that this diversification would help his financial institution and the 3D Printing & Rapid Prototyping Services company achieves several operational economies of scope? Do you agree with the reasoning that the CEO used to justify the diversification? Why?

6. Ale-8-One, known colloquially as Ale-8, is a regional ginger and citrus flavored soft drink, bottled by the Ale-8-One Bottling Company, a family-owned enterprise in the small town of Winchester, Kentucky, near Lexington, where the beverage is especially popular. Do online research on this company. Discuss the company business level strategy? What is the company corporate level strategy? What is the type of corporate of diversification that the company follows? You must justify and explain your answers.

Have anyone worked with case study
Continental Carriers, Inc

Problem info: In may 1988 Elizabeth thorp treasurer of CCI was considering advantages and disadvantages of several alternative methods of financing CCI’s acquisition of Midland Freight Inc. At a recent meeting of the board of directors there had been substantial disagreement as to the best method of financing the acquisition. After the meeting Ms. Thorp was asked by John Evans president of CCI to assess the arguments presented by the various directors and to outline a position to be taken by management at the June directors meeting. Owners of midland agree to sell for $50 mil in cash. Midland would add $8.4 mil EBIT to CCI annually. One idea to raise funds, barring major market decline, new common stock could be sold at $17.75 per share and after fees net proceeds would be $16.75. If common stock was used, it would require issuance of 3 million new shares. CCI also sell $50 million in bonds to insurance company at 10% maturing in 15 years. An annual sinking fund of $2.5 mil would be required, leaving $12.5 million outstanding at maturity. Given tax deductibility of bond interest and CCI current marginal tax rate of 40% (34% federal corp income tax, 9% deductible state and local corp income tax) the 10% rate was equivalent to 6% on after tax basis. In contrast she felt 16.75 share and a dividend of $1.50 a share would cost CCI nearly 9%. Director 1 pointed out that this doesn’t include annual payment to sinking fund and argued that it represented 8% of average size of bond issue over 15 year life and felt the stock issue had a smaller cost than the bonds. Director 2 argue for issuance of common stock because CCI would net 10% or $5 million a year after tax from acquisition. Yet if an additional 3 million shares of common stock were issued the additional dividend requirement at $1.50 a share would be only $4.5 million a year. Director 3 argues stock was a steal at $17.75 a share. CCI policy of retained earnings had built book value of firm to $45 a share as of Dec 1987. Felt book value of assets was also understated because current value of CCI assets was below replacement cost. Dilution in of stocks value measured in terms of EPS not book or replacement value. Post acquisition earnings would be $34 mil before tax and interest. If common stock sold, EPS diluted to $2.72. Sole use of debt would increase earnings to $3.87. Sinking fund equaled $0.56 share each year. Director 4 said could also sell preferred stock. 50,000 shares bearing dividend of $10.50 per share and a par value of $100 per share.

Thank you.

Could help with this answer.

Assume CCI already had $80 million of debt outstanding at the time of the case situation. How would the interest expense and sinking fund on the $20 million of outstanding debt be incorporated into the EBIT analysis, if at all?

You are a team of financial analysts of the Gadget Division of The FGM Corporation, the largest

multinational automobile manufacturer in the world. You are asked to evaluate a project

proposal regarding the production of a new voice-activated electronic device – Universal

Direction Assistance (UDA). This upgradeable device, which incorporates the most advanced

computer and satellite wireless technology, provides directions and real time traffic reports that

guide automobile drivers in choosing the preferred route to their destinations. This device can be

used in any country with specialized software that contains local geographical information and

real time traffic report (where technology is available) that are translated into the chosen

language of the driver. UDA will be sold as an option for the FGM cars and trucks. A

comprehensive market analysis on the potential demand for this device was conducted last year

at a cost of $10M.

According to the results of the market analysis, the expected annual sale volumes of UDA are

1.8M units for the first two years, and drop to 1.5M units for the final two years of this 4-year

project. Unit prices are expected to be $600 for the first two years, and then fall to $450, due to

the introduction of similar devices by competitors, afterwards. Unit production costs are

estimated at $500 in the first year of the project. The growth rate for unit production costs are

expected to be 4% per year over the remaining life of the project.

In addition, the implementation of the project demands current assets to be set at 12% of the

annual sale revenues, and current liabilities to be set at 8% of the annual production costs.

Besides, the introduction of UDA will increase the sales volume of cars and trucks that leads to

an increase in the annual after-tax cash flow of FGM by $21M.

The production line for UDA will be set up in a vacant plant that was built by FGM at a cost of

$30M twenty years ago. This fully depreciated plant has a current market value of $20M, and is

expected to be sold at the termination of this project for $12M in four years. The machinery for

producing UDA has an invoice price of $120M, and its modification costs another $15M. The

machinery has an economic life of 4 years, and is classified in the MACR 3-year class for

depreciation purpose. The machinery is expected to have zero salvage value at the termination

of the project.

The cost of capital (or discount rate) for this project is assumed to be 15%. The estimated

marginal tax rate of The FGM Corporation is 30%.

Questions:

A.

In light of the appropriate objective of a firm, what would you recommend on the UDA

Project basing on the (base) scenario described above? Why?

B.

Would your recommendation be changed if the unit price of the UDA only falls to $550

2

upon the entrance of competitive products after two years into this project? What would

be your recommendation if the unit price falls to $350 after two years? Why?

C.

What would be your recommendation on this UDA Project if there is 75% chance that the

base scenario (i.e., unit price falls to $450 after two years) will occur, 20% chance that

the optimistic scenario (i.e., unit price only falls to $550 after two years) will occur, and

5% chance that the pessimistic scenario (i.e., unit price falls to $350 after two years) will

occur? Why?

Jacob Swimming School

Business Background

Jacob Swimming School provides swimming courses around Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia. The business began in 2000 with the intention of bringing swimming into the lives of as many people as possible. Both Jacob Teelan and Kiren Goodman had swum around the ocean beaches of Surfers Paradise since they were small children. After finishing school both became professional swimming instructors. After working for a number of years for another company, they decided to take a risk and open up their own business.

The swimming Course

The swimming course offered by Jacob Swimming School is a 3-day intensive program that allows beginner to develop their swimming skills. The swim course is divided into three segments.

Academic training – Giving students the basic principles and knowledge needed for safe and enjoyable swimming in the sea.

Pool training – Which will teach students the basic skills of swimming.

Open Water training – Allows students to demonstrate their mastery of these skills and practice them in an open water environment.

Jacob is considering to build up a swimming pool near the beach to create a tourist attraction like the swimming pool in Bondi Beach in Sydney. He believes the project could be quite profitable. The local council is also interested in this project. They believe it could boost number of tourist, hence energies small businesses and land value. The local council advised Jacob he will receive the approval for this project. However, an environment group is strongly against this idea and claim this project would ruin the eco-system. Flyers explaining the negative impact to environment from this project have been delivery to every premise. If sufficient local residents signed up against the project, the local council would have to change their mind. So, the future is not very clear.

The operation information is displayed below:

According to the agreement, Jacob would have full control of this project and would receive all the profit generated within the first 5 years. However, after 5 years of operation, he has to transfer the full ownership of the swimming pool to the local council. In return, the local council will pay Jacob a bonus valued at $100,000 for his entrepreneurship.

The initial investment to build up the pool is $1,000,000. Which will be fully depreciated after 5 years.

Estimated customer for the first 2 years are 210,000 per year. As the new pool become famous, estimated customer for year 3, 4 and 5 would be increased to 350,000.

Jacob plans to charge each visit $3 for the first 2 years and $4 for the last 3 years

Each visitor is provided with a complementary towel which cost $0.5 in year 1 and year 2. The cost will increase to $1 per towel for the last 3 years

Total operational cost is $250,000 per year for all five years

Major maintenance will be conducted in year 2 and year 4. The cost for each maintenance is $15,000

Tax rate is 30%

Discount rate (10%) table

Required:

a) Advise Jacob whether he should take this project based on your NPV calculation.

b) What are the limitations for only using NPV analysis to evaluation a strategic project?

c) Do you believe Jacob should invest on this project? Justify your answer by considering qualitative factors.