Strategic Management: A Taiwanese story about strategy and structure Before 2000 the Taiwan-based company Acer had competing strategies. For 15 years one part of the firm had been building computers for other PC sellers who would put their own labels on the machines, while another part sold very similar computers under the company’s own brand. The latter strategy was predicated on direct sales to consumers, which had brought the firm into direct competition with companies such as Dell. However, in 2000 the firm decided to adopt a new business strategy in order to increase its global market share. Acer’s manufacturing division was made an independent company (Wistron) and this enabled a smaller and more nimble sales firm to emerge. The strategy based on direct sales was discarded and replaced with a strategy focused on selling as many low-cost laptops and netbooks as possible to consumers but via a network of partners and retailers. A new logo was adopted to reflect this new strategic direction, which had proved very successful despite the industry downturn. By 2008, Acer had replaced Hewlett-Packard as the market leader in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, partly as a result of Acer’s success in the booming netbook market. This strategy enabled the firm to become the world’s second largest PC vendor. However, in 2011 tensions at board level over the firm’s strategic direction culminated in the resignation of Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci. The difference in opinion appears to be about whether the firm’s future lay in PC’s or mobile devices. Acting CEO J.T Wang announced that the PC would continue to be the firm’s core business. In 2009 the firm entered the smartphone market with the launch of four different smartphones and the promise of more in the pipeline. Unlike Apple, which was focused on developing one phone only, Acer’s strategy is based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment. In march MODULE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TOTAL MARKS 60 MARKS 2011, Acer announced that revenue projections for the first quarter in 2011 will fall short of expectations by about 10% due to weaker demand in the PC market in the US and Europe. (Source: New York Times, 2009, Bloomberg Business Week, The Financial Times, PC Pro)

Questions Discuss the purpose of Strategic Human Resource Management for organisations today. In your discussion, identify which organisational strategies have been employed by ACER over the years, justify your answer using evidence provided in the case study and discuss how these organisational strategies affect the HR strategy. (60) You are encouraged to use at least 5 current and relevant external literary sources to support your discussion on Strategic Human Resource Management.

Background You are an experienced audit manager at Samway Baker Fitzgerald (SBF), an accounting firm with offices in Orange, Wagga Wagga, Tamworth, Port Macquarie and Albury in NSW, Toowoomba in Queensland and Ballarat in Victoria. Although a medium-sized firm by national standards, SBF includes Australia’s largest regionally-based auditing practice. Most of SBF’s audit clients are in the manufacturing and service industries. SBF recently acquired a major new audit client, Dudley Health Limited (DHL), which fully owns:
• St Neville's, a highly regarded private hospital located in Tamworth • Acuity Vision, a network of day surgery clinics across NSW and Queensland • Pellegrino Shores, a retirement village located in Port Macquarie

Its a chilly evening in early July 2019 and you are meeting with your audit senior, Jek Porkins, to discuss the findings of his preliminary work for the 30 June 2019 audit of DHL.
Fraud at Pellegrino Shores Last month a senior staff member at Pellegrino Shores was dismissed after it was discovered that she had worked in collusion with a number of residents to reduce their fees and receive secret payments from them in return. The senior staff member had access to the resident database. Whilst she was only supposed to update room location changes for residents, she was able to reduce the resident's period of stay and the value of other services provided. The fraud was detected by a fellow employee who overheard the senior staff member discussing the 'scam' with a resident.
St Neville's patient revenue system On Sunday 10 March 2019 St Neville's switched from its 'homegrown' patient revenue system to the DHL 'off the shelf' revenue system. The DHL internal audit unit was involved throughout the switchover. DHL was confident that its revenue system would perform all of the functions that the St Neville's patient system had performed. The 'homegrown' St Neville's revenue system consisted of:
1. Billing system: produces the invoice to charge the patient for services provided such as accommodation, medications, and medical services. This software includes a complex formula to calculate the patient bill after allowing for government subsidies, pensioner benefits and private medical insurance benefits. 2. Patient database: a master file containing personal patient details as well as the period of stay, services provided and client medical insurance details. 3. Rates database: a master file that shows all accommodation billing rates, rebate discounts, and government assistance benefits.
Jek Porkins spoke with a number of St Neville's administration staff about the impact of switching to the DHL patient revenue system:
• 'There was some sort of power surge last Friday and we had to re-enter every patient invoice that we processed in the last two weeks'. • 'Lately, we've had an unusually high number of complaints from recently discharged patients that the fee invoice we sent them does not line up with the agreed medical fund and pensioner subsidy rates. We found out that halfway through last month someone from the IT team made a software change to fix a bug in the billing calculation formula'. • 'There were some occasions where we invoiced people that were past patients. This seems to have happened when they shared the same surname as a current patient'. • 'We seem to have some patient fee invoices where for no reason we have billed patients at a lower room rate than we hold on the rates database'.
Acuity Vision sales team During the financial year, Acuity Vision released its own range of medical supplies which are sold via direct marketing by a sales team employed by Acuity. The sales team receive a fairly low base salary plus a bonus based on the dollar value of the sales they generate. Jek Porkins selected a sample of customer payments received by Acuity just after year end and traced them back to the general ledger and customer account balance.

DHL accounts payable Whilst on site at DHL's Head Office in early July, Jek Porkins undertook two accounts payable tests: Test Result Conclusion
1
15 suppliers were selected from the list of trade creditors at year-end. Balances were traced to supplier invoices and goods received notes to ensure goods were received prior to year-end. For two creditors out of 15 tested the balance was only marginally overstated.
Accepted as no material errors were located.
2
Selected 20 suppliers' invoices and checked that the pricing and discount terms have been reviewed and authorised by the purchase manager. Three out of the 20 invoices tested had not been authorised and incorrect discounts had been applied to them. A follow up of the three samples with deviations did not highlight a pattern or specific reason for the errors.
Accepted as the errors in discounts claimed were immaterial.
Pellegrino Shores payroll
In addition to full-time staff, Pellegrino Shores employs a significant number of casual nursing, cleaning and administrative staff. Overtime is often worked on weekends and night shifts due to a shortage of staff. Payment at overtime rates for standard weekend and night shifts has been a common occurrence.
Required
Write a memo to Jek Porkins, the audit senior on the DHL assignment, that advises him on: Question 1 (4%) The business risk impactandthe accounts (as well as related audit assertions) most likely affected by the fraud atPellegrino Shores.
Question 2 (6%)
Additional audit work to be undertaken in relation to the switchover of the new patient revenue system atSt Neville's. Specifically:
a. the associated audit risks b. two key questions to ask internal audit c. a justification for the audit strategy to be adopted for the audit of patient revenue at St Neville's

Question 3 (6%)
Additional information required in relation toAcuity Vison'ssale of medical supplies. Specifically:
a. the key account balance(s) and associated assertions at risk due to Acuity Vision's arrangements for paying its sales team b. the implications for the control environment within DHL, including specific issues management would need to consider c. the effectiveness of his customer payments testing
Question 4 (5%)
Both accounts payable tests he has undertaken. Specifically:
a. whether each is a test of control or substantive test b. the key assertion addressed by each test c. the reasonableness of the conclusion reached for each test d. additional audit procedures, if any, that need to be performed.
Answer this question using the following table: Test type of test keyassertion reasonableness of conclusion additional audit procedures 1 2
Question 5 (4%)
The key assertion at risk in relation to the payment of overtime atPellegrino Shores, a preventative internal controlanda detective internal control that would directly address the risk.

25. Revenue recognition is a major accounting challenge. Most industrial and retail firms recognize revenue as earned at the point of sale. More generally, according to IAS 18, revenue from the sale of goods should be recognized when the significant risks and rewards of ownership have been transferred to the buyer, the seller loses control over the items, the revenue and related costs can be measured reliably, and collection is reasonably assured. Revenue from services and long-term contracts can be recognized as the work progresses.

It is often not clear just when these general criteria are met. For example, revenue recognition at point of sale may be a reasonable tradeoff between relevance and reliability in most cases. However, relevance is increased (and reliability decreased) if revenue is recognized earlier than point of sale.

Furthermore, revenue recognition policy may be used by firms to impress investors. For example, firms with no earnings history (e.g., startup firms) and firms that are incurring significant losses or declines in earnings have an incentive to record revenue as early as possible, so as to improve, at least temporarily, the appearance of their financial statements.

Consider the case of Lucent Technologies Inc. (now called Alcatel-Lucent). In December 2000, Lucent restated its revenue for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2000, reducing the amounts (in millions) originally reported as follows:

The vendor financing component of the restatement represents previously unrecorded credits granted by Lucent to customers, to help them finance purchases of Lucent products. That is, the customer sales were originally recorded gross, rather than net, of the credits. The distribution partners’ component represents product

shipped to firms with which Lucent did not deal at arm’s length, but which was not resold by these firms at year-end. These firms included certain distributors in which Lucent had an ownership interest. The practice of over shipping to distributors is called “stuffing the channels.”

In its 2000 annual report, Lucent reported net income of $1,219 million, compared to $4,789 million for 1999 and $1,065 million for 1998.

Despite these December, 2000 adjustments, on May 17, 2004, the SEC announced charges against Lucent and several of its officers for overstating revenues by $1,148 million in 2000 in order to meet sales targets. The company’s share price fell by 5.5% on that day. Tactics used, the SEC claimed, included the granting of improper credits to customers to encourage them to buy company products, and invoicing sales to customers that were subject to renegotiation in subsequent periods.

Subsequently, Lucent paid a fine of $25 million for “lack of cooperation.” In addition, the company, and some of the executives charged, settled the allegations by paying penalties, without admitting or denying guilt.

Required

a. What is the most relevant point of revenue recognition? The most reliable? Explain. In your answer, consider manufacturing firms, oil and gas exploration firms, retail firms, and firms with long-term contracts.

b. Explain whether or not you feel that Lucent’s original recognition of the $679 million of items listed above as revenue was consistent with revenue recognition criteria? While Lucent was a U.S. company, assume that U.S. revenue recognition criteria are similar to the IASB criteria given in the question. In your answer, consider the tradeoff between relevance and reliability.

c. What additional revenue recognition questions arise when the vendor has an ownership interest in the customer?

On March 1, 2017, Oriole Company sold 24,600 of its 7%, 20-year, $1,000 face value bonds at 97. Interest payment dates are March 1 and September 1, and the company uses the straight-line method of bond discount amortization. On February 1, 2018, Oriole took advantage of favorable prices of its stock to extinguish 2,850 of the bonds by issuing 150,700 shares of its $1 par value common stock. At this time, the accrued interest was paid in cash. The company’s stock was selling for $19.25 per share on February 1, 2018.

Prepare the journal entries needed on the books of Oriole Company to record the following. (Credit account titles are automatically indented when the amount is entered. Do not indent manually. If no entry is required, select "No Entry" for the account titles and enter 0 for the amounts. Round answers to 0 decimal places, e.g. 38,548.)

Bug-Off Exterminators provides pest control services and sells extermination products manufactured by other companies. The following six-column table contains the company’s unadjusted trial balance as of December 31, 2018.

The following information in a through h applies to the company at the end of the current year.

a. The bank reconciliation as of December 31, 2018, includes the following facts.

Reported on the bank statement is a canceled check that the company failed to record. (Information from the bank reconciliation allows you to determine the amount of this check, which is a payment on an account payable.)

b. An examination of customers’ accounts shows that accounts totaling $679 should be written off as uncollectible. Using an aging of receivables, the company determines that the ending balance of the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts should be $700.

c. A truck is purchased and placed in service on January 1, 2018. Its cost is being depreciated with the straight-line method using the following facts and estimates.

d. Two items of equipment (a sprayer and an injector) were purchased and put into service in early January 2016. They are being depreciated with the straight-line method using these facts and estimates.

e. On August 1, 2018, the company is paid $3,840 cash in advance to provide monthly service for an apartment complex for one year. The company began providing the services in August. When the cash was received, the full amount was credited to the Extermination Services Revenue account.

f. The company offers a warranty for the services it sells. The expected cost of providing warranty service is 2.5% of the extermination services revenue of $42,760 for 2018. No warranty expense has been recorded for 2018. All costs of servicing warranties in 2018 were properly debited to the Estimated Warranty Liability account.

g. The $15,000 long-term note is an 8%, five-year, interest-bearing note with interest payable annually on December 31. The note was signed with First National Bank on December 31, 2018.

h. The ending inventory of merchandise is counted and determined to have a cost of $11,700. Bug-Off uses a perpetual inventory system.

e. The adjusted 2018 ending balances of the Extermination Services Revenue and Unearned Services Revenue accounts.

f. The adjusted 2018 ending balances of the Warranty Expense and the Estimated Warranty Liability accounts.

g. The adjusted 2018 ending balances of the Interest Expense and the Interest Payable accounts.

(Need answers for h-g)

Suppose the inverse demand for a product produced by a single firm is given by P = 200 − 5Q and this firm has a marginal cost of production of MC = 20 + 2Q.

a. If the firm cannot price-discriminate, what is the profit-maximizing price and level of output for this monopolist? What are the levels of producer and consumer surplus in the market? What is the deadweight loss?

b. If the monopolist can practice perfect price discrimination, what output level will it choose? What are the levels of producer and consumer surplus and deadweight loss under perfect price discrimination?

c. Suppose that the monopolist’s marginal cost curve is now MC = 20. If the monopolist cannot perfectly price discriminate but can distinguish between students (with a demand curve of P = 100 − 10Q) and non-students (with a demand curve of P = 300 − 10Q), what will be the price it is charging to students and non-students? What will be the quantity it is selling to students and non-students?

It might be appropriate for a married taxpayer filinga joint return to file an injured spouse claim if:

1 the taxpaer is unable to pay the tax liability because their spouse has suffered some type of injury
2. the joint overpaymnet was applied to a prior tax liability on a joint tax return filed by the taxpayer and their spouse
3 there is an understatement of tax due because of ommitted income of the taxpayer's spouse
4.the joint overpaymnet was applied to their spouse's past-due child support

When the IRS offsets a married couple's joint refund becuase one spouse defaulted on a federally guaranteed student loan the

1.non-defaulting spouse should request innocent spouse relief
2.taxpayers should submit a joint offer in compromise
3.defaulting spouse should requiest a certificate of non attachmnet
4.non defauting spouse should request relief as an injured spouse

1. For each descriptor. Choose a potential group of bacteria. Choose a member of the group you selected, and devise a specific set of NON-GENETIC tests to identify the specific bacteria.
   1. Oxidase negative, motile, glucose fermenter, gram-negative, rod-shaped
      1. Group:
2. 2. Specific example:
3. 3. Lab tests:
4. 2. CAMP positive, tumbling, gram-positive, beta-hemolytic
      1. Group:
5. 2. Specific example:
6. 3. Lab tests:
7. 3. Coliform rod, Non-fermenter, sulfide producing, Gram, negative, Motile
      1. Group:
8. 2. Specific example:
9. 3. Lab tests:
10. 4. Gram-negative, facultative anaerobe, polar flagella, oxidase-positive, fermenter
       1. Group:
11. 2. Specific example:
12. 3. Lab tests:
13. 5. Helical, gram-negative, non-fermenter, coccoid in oxygen, polar flagellum
       1. Group:
14. 2. Specific example:
15. 3. Lab tests:

I believe he wants the group of bacteria that fall under the provided descriptor. I think the first one is Enterobacteriaceae...  

E12-2 Analyze the transactions and indicate whether each transaction is an operating, investing, financing, or non-cash activity. Indicate whether it the item would be added or subtracted in the respective section in the statement of cash flows.

Activity Description: Classify Activity as Operating, Investing, Is the activity Added (inflow), subtracted (outflow),

Financing, or Non-Cash or non-cash?

(a) Payment of interest on notes payable.

(b) Exchange of land for patent.

(c) Sale of building at book value.

(d) Payment of dividends.

(e) Depreciation.

(f) Conversion of bonds into common stock.

(g) Receipt of interest on notes receivable.

(h) Issuance of capital stock.

(i) Amortization of patent.

(j) Issuance of bonds for land.

(k) Purchase of land.

(l) Receipt of dividends on investment in stock.

(m) Loss on disposal of plant assets.

(n) Retirement of bonds.