Gibson Insurance Company Essay

As the company continues to grow at a tremendous rate, the organizational structure became more complicated for the managers to maintain. Additionally, the Association is unsure of how to deal with the growth, and continue to preserve their company philosophy of “people supported first” at the same time. When the company was small their informal way managing the support service was a great fit, however, with more people constantly being supported, a more structural way of overseeing the expanding support service infrastructure needed to be established.

What is a “traditional” society? A society based on historical customs, values, morals or beliefs that are handed down from generation to generation? Today’s society is a far cry from the comfort of tradition. It has evolved and is comprised of vastly different demographics, economics, social-cultural influences and household arrangements. Marketing must target these non-traditional sectors to be effective. This process can be challenging, but performing in-depth market research can help a company excel at their marketing efforts.

The following allocation of advertising campaign budget was used to estimate number of new policies sold:

"Insurance is a legal contract that protects people from the financial costs that result from loss of life, loss of health, lawsuits or property damage."(Nielson.) This protection is given to the customer in exchange for a monthly payment to the company. This is a legal contract which is known as a policy, binds the customer to the insurance company for the duration of the policy. Insurance, whether it be life, health or auto, helps customers feel safe from everyday risks that can happen in life. Most insurance is optional, although some states enforce a law that automobile insurance must be purchased in order to register a car. Automobile insurance is very important. It helps the policy holder to protect their car

Under an ABC system, the allocation of costs to products is achieved through at least four analytical steps. Firstly, costs are grouped into activity levels. Secondly, cost drivers are

The costing approach should be based on per Transaction Basis rather than on per kit or per pound basis because of the following reasons:

One of the best aspects of the way the time-driven ABC system was put into place at Kemps was how efficiently and accurately management determined the main issues with the current cost system and responded with appropriate and relevant solutions. For example, one of the greatest problems the company was facing was that many of its operating costs were spread out equally over a customer base that was growing more diverse and demanding more personalized and varied service, effectively cutting or potentially eliminating entirely Kemps’ profit margins for a product. Therefore,

The operation manager for JBI suggested considering that Saver Superstore is an easy to deal with partner unlike some other customers that make the business spent a lot of time on their rush orders .This comment brought Johnson to wonder about the customer service costs structure and allocation system. The current system allocates these costs based the revenue generated by each customer which assign a large share to Saver Superstore the biggest one.

The cost of implementation of the options: It is found in the survey that 20% customers had had repeat work. Considering 5% as redundant, the customer erosion could be as large as $4.37 million (Exhibit 2). Thus making the investment of $75000 is completely justified.

1. What is the competitive situation faced by Wilkerson? The critical product in term of market competition is the pumps of Wilkerson Company. The pumps are Wilkersons major product line with a production of about 12,500 units per month. Pumps currently have the lowest gross margin among all products, because competitors had been reducing prices on pumps and Wilkerson adopted its prices in order to remain competitive and to maintain the volume. 2. Given some apparent problems with Wilkersons cost system, should executives abandon overhead assignment to products entirely by adopting a contribution margin approach in which manufacturing overhead is treated as a period expense? Our conclusion is, that they should not adopt

Q3. How were the limitations of the existing cost system overcome by the ABC Cost System? What are the implications of the ABC system?

An organization costing system is a system that helps the management with the strategy planning while the system plays an important role in providing accurate cost information about the products and customers (Curtin, 2006). UPS utilizes the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) system. ABC assumes that activities cause costs and that cost objects create the demand for activities (Marx,

INTRODUCTION Businesses – from manufacturing, merchandising and service industries alike – take careful consideration in the analysis of their costing systems in order to be able to set up competitive prices in the market. Misallocation of costs may lead to incorrect price estimates, continuous production of unprofitable products, and ineffective processing schedules. In this case study, we will discuss the costing methods which Zauner Ornaments have used or is currently using and, in conclusion, be able to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of each costing method. CASE CONTEXT The case seeks to assist Zauner’s comptroller, Yu Chia-yi, in determining the best costing method for their overhead costs. In addition we also aim to

Device an implementation strategy that would guarantee the support of the divisions presidents for the shared customer service center.

Third, they can redivide the support services to individual business units. This will help eliminate the simple allocation issue. Only the cost incurred in each department of the business entity will be attributed to the operations of the business entity. Fourth, Gibson can separate the individual product lines support. They can have have four separate departments for new and in-force insurance and annuities. This will dial in the cost not only to individual product cost but what status these products use the most resources. It can turn much of the indirect cost into direct costs. Lastly, Gibson can choose to do nothing. It can continue to use current method of allocation and make educated guess on what costs are incorrect and what prices are set correct. This option is not an ideal one because Gibson is currently losing money. After choosing and implementing one of the above options, Gibson can begin to work on underlying issues. They can use the new cost allocation analysis to see if any area of business is in need of adjustment. It can then decide if price meets the cost demands of division and product line.