Please follow all instructions listed in the document "Where Do We Go Next" and review assignment with case rubric.
BU211 Financial Accounting 2 Week 3: Inventory – Case #2 Assignment BU211 Financial Accounting 2 Case #2 “Where Do We Go Next?” Organizational Situation: Your company is one of four featured in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on August 14, 2018. The article information apparently came from a casual discussion at a product conference during a luncheon break. Apparently, a WSJ reporter was talking with various retail organizations concerning the coming holiday season sales. Your communications officer did conduct a brief interview with a WSJ journalist who called to verify the information. However, he did not approve the article and was quite shocked which two Board members called him two days after the article’s publication, questioning the content. A board meeting was scheduled immediately to approve and release a response. It has now been many months since this article and the company’s original response. For a second time, publicity of your retail industry’s expectations and results are being published. Earnings misses, weaknesses across assets and bruised retailer articles have recently appeared in this popular business and investor publication. Your company is a leader in the retail industry. Your board members want to ensure a response is released quickly, thus another WSJ response is planned. You will need to develop a response with supporting research and documented business projections. Political Environment: Your new senior vice president has recently been transferred into her position from Argentina. She previously ran her own business of over 200 employees, before she was recruited by your company. While she has some retail experience, all of her previous experience has been in human capital management, mainly in the E-commerce space. She is flying off to settle a tax treaty case in Ireland and has assigned you to handle the analysis of this situation and response. You know your annual compensation review by this executive is within the next 2 months. She expects you to ensure each opinion and response is well documented and cited. Expectations: · First, you will select one of the companies discussed in either the August 2018 or May 2019 WSJ articles as your focus corporation or organization (Articles highlighted in red). Justify your selection. · Second, you must determine and identify the economic impacts which your company has had to respond to since the August 2018 article. This could include tariff and tax law changes, consolidations or strategic changes or corporate inventory evaluation changes – like “cost or market” values. . Investigate your company’s inventory levels over the last 5 years, evaluation methods and available asset data. · Third, determine at least 5 ratios you would use to assess your company’s profit and inventory performance since the original WSJ article. Base these ratios on those studied thus far in this course. · Last, your new SVP just called. She wants you to include an expanded comment on the governance that should be initiated to ensure no more publication disclosures like this happen. While on the airplane, she also read a short article on cyber-attacks and unauthorized release of financial data. She wants you to include this aspect in your governance strategy. PAPER REQUIREMENTS: The case paper must be 2 pages long and no longer than 5 pages. It must be presented which clearly demonstrates the expectations. There must be a bulleted executive summary to begin your paper. Your report must be written in APA 6th Edition format, in Times New Roman, 12-point font with one inch margins and single or single/half spaced. Research or statistics must be sourced and cited. Ratios and indexes utilized in the Wall Street Journal article must be included in your analysis and thus, documented in your paper. Comparatives to the other companies are allowed. To assist with your initial research, a listing of possible WSJ research articles follows. Not all articles will apply this this first case study. In order to access these and other business articles within our copyright laws, you have two options: 1. Purchase a student subscription to the periodical 2. Access the online version of the article from the Truett McConnell University’s Cofer Library utilizing GALILEO. Additional resources are available to you through GALILEO including Newspaper Source Plus and West Law. The library staff is willing to assist any online student. Wall Street Journal Options available for your Research Choose the relevant articles 1. The Power Players that Dominate Chapter 11: WSJ 5/25-26/19 2. Earning Offer Next Test of Retailers’ Turnaround, 8/14/18 3. This Earnings Season, A Miss Hurt More, Corrie Driebusch WSJ 4/24/19 4. Bruised Retailers Face More Pain, Michael Wursthorn, WSJ 5/13/19 5. Weakness Across Assets Puts Some on Edge, Amrith Ramkumar, WSJ 5/13/2019 6. Canada’s Free-Market Example for the SEC , John Hartsel and Peter St. Onge, WSJ 5/16/19 7. Former JP Morgan Banker Charged with Bribery in ‘Sons and Daughters’ Program, Joanne Chiu, WSJ 5/17/19 8. CEOs Talk Tech, Scrutiny, Turmoil, Ben Dummett, WSJ 5/15/19 9. The Business Lesson in Tiger’s Big Comeback, John D. Stoll, WSJ 4/19/19 10. EXCHANGE --- Weekend Investor—Tax Report: How to Know if a Roth 401(k) is Right for You---Many workers now have the opportunity to save for retirement in a Roth plan alongside a traditional 401(k), But should they?, Laura Saunders, WSJ 5/18/19 11. Your Caveman Brain Isn’t Built for Investing, Jason Zweig, WSJ 5/18/19 12. Just Leaving: Parting Pay, Patrick Thomas, WSJ 5/18/19 13. Buyback Drop Threatens Stocks, Michael Wursthorn WSJ 7/3/19 14. China to Merge Its Largest Shipbuilders, Trefor Moss and Bingyan Wang, WSJ 7/3/19 2 | Page