Harnischfeger Corporation Essay

This case focuses on David Sokol, an executive who has made a “name” for himself in recent years within the energy industries. After becoming recognized as a successful “turnaround” agent for troubled companies, Sokol was hired in 1992 to serve as the chief operating officer of JWP, Inc., a large, New York-based conglomerate. At the time, JWP had an impressive history of sustained profits and revenue growth that was being threatened by the company’s far-flung operations and unwieldy organizational structure. Unknown to Sokol, JWP’s impressive operating results over the prior few years had been embellished by the company’s

Human resource is an appellation used in referring to the workforce of an organization or company. Human resource management is involved in the act of putting together employees in an organized manner to assure the objectives of the organization are achieved in a competent and experienced manner. Human resources are the most important services of any organization since they are the catalysts of non-human resources and the medium for developing competitive advantages and sounds of creativity. No organization can exist without a human resources department (Walsh, 2009). A company without an HR department would be reducing its operations and could collapse within a short amount of time.

Describe clearly the accounting changes Harnischfeger made in 1984 as stated in Note 2 of its financial statements.

This is evidence the company is having problems making profit. Haefren needs to address is the delinquency of their customers’ accounts, from 93 to 95, days sales outstanding have increased to 77 days, which is a lot higher than the 30-day monthly installment terms. The company is not stringent in collection efforts but this can be because of the economic condition in Germany. The company does not manage its assets very well. Its decrease in fix asset turnover from 6.98 in 1993 to 5.39 in 1995 can be because of their decrease in sales, but the low total asset turnover which is also decreasing from 2.1 to 1.5 prove that their assets are not being used very efficiently. Since sales are decreasing and competition increases their inventory days has also increased from 103 to 129 which again could cause low price. The company is already experiencing a loss of revenue due to the fact they lowered price because of economic condition.

I believe that this action was motivated by business considerations, since the accounting practices were not the best. In 1984, Harnischfeger´s reported profits during each of the four quarters, ending the year with a pre-tax operating profit of $5.7 million and a net income after tax and extraordinary credits of $15 million. As such, this made profits look positive.

1. Identify all the accounting policy changes and accounting estimates that Harnischfeger made during 1984. Estimate, as accurately as possible, the effect of these on the company's 1984 reported profits.

10. Summarize all the accounting changes Harnischfeger made in 1984 and their effects on pre-tax profits and cash flows in 1984. Below are the changes that were made in 1984: Change in Sales recognition strategy with Kobe Steel - No net effect on pre-tax profits and cash flows in 1984; Change in reporting period for certain foreign subsidiaries - No net effect on pre-tax profits and cash flows in 1984; Change in Pension plan - Increased pre-tax profits and cash flows in 1984; Change in bad debt allowance ratio - Increased pre-tax profits and cash flows in 1984; Reduction in R&D expenses -

In 1984, Harnischfeger’s reported profits during each of the four quarters, ending the year with a pre-tax operating profit of $5.7 million and a net income after tax and extraordinary credits of $15 million. So I think that this action was motivated by business considerations, since the accounting practices were not the best. These actions made profits look positive.

HCA, after following a conservative financial policy since its establishment, has entered the new decade preparing to make some changes in order to realign their financial strategy and capital structure. Since establishment, HCA has often been used as a measure for the entire proprietary hospital industry. Is it now time for the market to realign their expectations for the industry as a whole? HCA has target goals which need to be met in order to accomplish milestones in the future. The problem arises as to which area holds priority to the company. HCA must decide how the key components of their financial strategy and policy should my approached in order

It is important for stockholders to continuously re-evaluate their investments. Although some investors do this more frequently and thoroughly than others, the majority of shareholders do so at least once each year. Therefore, Torres’ desire to update her analysis in order to determine whether Costco was still operating efficiently makes perfect sense. After thorough examination, my analysis proves that Costco remains one of the industry’s leading competitors and there seems to be no reason for Torres to sell her shares as long as she wishes to retain holdings of a

This is the method to solve the problem at the end result. This will help company get rid of employees who have an unethical attitude. Keeping these people will have negative influence for company in the future as occurring now. In addition, company might lose the most talented person in company as a disadvantage.

Most corporate financing decisions in practice reduce to a choice between debt and equity. The finance manager wishing to fund a new project, but reluctant to cut dividends or to make a rights issue, which leads to the decision of borrowing options. The issue with regards to shareholder objectives being met by the management in making financing decisions has come to become a major issue of recent times. This relates to understanding the concept of the agency problem. It deals with the separation of ownership and control of an organisation within a financial context. The financial manager can raise long-term funds internally, from the company’s cash flow, or externally, via the capital market, the market for funds

3. What restructuring option – Icahn’s spin-off proposal or the company’s targeted stock proposal – will create the most value for shareholders? For creditors? For the firm’s other stakeholders?

Summary – This case looks a decision that George Hausman, the co-founder and CEO of Refresh Organics (RO), makes regarding creating a board of directors. RO is a midsize, steadily growing, privately owned company which is a distributor of organic produce. RO has never had a formal board of directors, but Hausman had several close business advisors who he consulted with regularly and referred to as “the kitchen cabinet.” Hausman considered putting together a true board of directors or if simply making an advisory council would be better suited for the needs of RO. Ultimately, Hausman decided to form a board of directors of ten members, including himself and three out of four members of “the kitchen cabinet,” replacing his wife, an

Brenda Franklin had been serving Allied Tech for the past 8 years. As any other organisations, Brenda used to be a part of the lunch hour conversations with her colleagues. One day when her colleagues were discussing about corruption and politics, something occurred to her. As a result she prepared a list called “Ethically Dubious Conduct” and pasted it on the common notice board. Her colleagues were taken by surprise. Brenda was now anticipating the next lunch where she was expecting her list to be analysed among her colleagues.