Cola Wars HBR Essay example

In 2007, Mattel a California based toy company shockingly recalled 19 million toys that had been manufactured in China. Mattel was founded in 1944, and has produced iconic toys such as Barbie and Hot Wheels. The company had a long established trust with their consumers that had been forged from decades of reliability. However, when the company recalled 19 million toys due to health and safety violations, consumer confusion and outrage soared. The public wanted to know how such an established company’s safety regulations could fail, how Mattel was addressing the issue, and whether consumers could trust Mattel to produce reliable toys in the future.

The company should report the change in the contingency accrual as a 2009 event due change in estimate. ASC 250-10-45-17 specifies that “a change in accounting estimate shall not be accounted for by restating or retrospectively adjusting amounts reported in financial statements of prior periods.” Additionally, ASC 450-20-25-7 indicates that “all estimated losses for loss contingencies shall be charged to income rather than charging some to income and others to retained earnings as prior period adjustments”.

25-7 If a loss cannot be accrued in the period when ti is probable that an asset had been impaired or a liability had been incurred because the amount of loss cannot be reasonable estimated, the loss shall be charged to the income of the period in which the loss can be reasonably estimated and shall not be charged retroactively to an earlier period. All estimated losses for loss contingencies shall be charged to income rather than charging some to income and others to retained earnings as prior period adjustments.”

Prospective losses are proven as diminished business after the restoration of conforming goods (as everything up to this would be primary or secondary consequential damages)

As we continue to move toward the end our quarterly objectives. I wanted to take the time to explain some of our costs. In our particular field of designing and manufacturing products, we are always engaging in ways that we can mitigate loss and improve our processes. Performing such changes will give a stronger presence in the market by allowing us to remain competitive.

You work in marketing for a company that produces work boots. Quality control has sent you a memo detailing the length of time before the boots wear out under heavy use. They find that the boots wear out in an average of 208 days, but the exact amount of time varies, following a normal distribution with a standard

According to ASC 450-20-30-1, “ If some amount within a range of loss appears at the time to be a better estimate than any other amount within the range, that amount shall be accrued. When no amount within the range is a better estimate than any other amount, however, the minimum amount in the range shall be accrued. Even though the minimum amount in the range is not necessarily the amount of loss that will be ultimately determined, it is not likely that the ultimate loss will be less than the minimum amount.”

As per ASC 450-20-25-2, entities should accrue an estimated loss from a loss contingency by a charge to expense and a liability recorded only if both of the following conditions are met:

If they elect shipment without the whistle and no replacement, credits will be issued reflecting a 12% in overall loss of profit compared to a 36% loss reproducing the whistle.

The biggest challenge that they face as a company is they do not have the room the increase expenditure by such a vast amount. Currently there is $3,675,000 in promotional dollars allocated as follows; sales and administration expense (995,000), cooperative advertising programs with retailers (1,650,000), consumer advertising (562,000) and trade promotion (467,000). adding the $225,000 increase in consumer advertising will not allow the 5% of expected sales for total promo expenditures. John Bott, the vice president of sales disagreed with the budget allocation and noted that sales expenses and administration cost were projected to be $65,000 in 2008. This led him to believe that an additional sales representative would be needed to service company accounts because 50 were being added. Therefore he estimated this addition would cost at least $70,000 including salary and expenses in 2008. Bott also stated that “That's about $135,000 in additional sales expense that have to be added to our promotional budget for 2008”

The purpose of those conditions is to require accrual of losses when they are reasonably estimable and relate to the current or a prior period. Disclosure is preferable to accrual when a reasonable estimate of loss cannot be made. Further, even losses that are reasonably estimable shall not be accrued

Considering real world practices, as well as in accordance with the conceptual framework from the textbook, accrual of a loss from ongoing litigation is rare. Companies usually do not record a loss until after the ultimate settlement has been reached. For example, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, in a recent quarterly report, disclosed but did not accrue damages from a lawsuit it lost, even after the award was affirmed by the trial court, because the company believe that it has valid bases in law and fact to overturn or appeal the verdict. Consequently, M corporation should not accrue the contingency loss but continually disclose the matter even when a judgment was reached against the corporation to pay $18.5 million in 2009, given that the

After closely reviewing the financial and production data, our accounting team has found that your traditional cost allocation is faulty and misleading. The costs of products A and C were over allocated and products B and D were under allocated causing deceptive information on the true profits of the company. Also, product B appears to be

     MGA lawsuit Product Recalls High Dependence on Few Customers Declining Market Share Other litigation and legal

Additionally, the organization was scrutinized for its revenue recognition of an accident on September 30, 2010 rendering the shipment unsalable until analyzed for quality. Said accident resulted in several analysts downgrading the organization’s stock and issuing sell recommendations. Finally, such recommendations resulted in significant declines in stock prices and revocation of stock coverage. As such, questions arose as to the accuracy of revenue loss claims and aggressive accounting practices.