Harvard Business School Mba Program

On an overcast afternoon in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, March 28, 2003, Richard Okumoto intently studied a set of hard-copy accounting documents called “adjusting journal entries” spread out on his desk. He had been appointed chief financial officer (CFO) of Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI), a multi-million dollar equipment manufacturer, just a few weeks earlier. Okumoto was in the midst of closing the company’s books for the third quarter of fiscal year 2003, which ended February 28. An experienced executive who had served as CFO for several other technology firms, Okumoto was familiar with the task, which normally would be routine. But this time, he

Such an intense focus has been placed on quarterly earnings as an indication of a company’s success by everyone from analysts to executives that ethics have for the most part been thrown out the window, sacrificed to the all important number, i.e. earnings per share. This is the theory in Alex Berenson’s book “The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America.” This number has become part of a game to be played, a figure to be manipulated – beat the number and Wall Street all but throws a parade, miss it and a company’s stock may be abandoned. Take into account the incentives that executives have to beat the number and one can find plenty of reasons to manage earnings.

What sparked my interest in accounting and finance were the events such as the Tesco accounting scandal that showed how the importance of accounting had influenced the financial stance of such a large cooperation, and how this accounting blunder had a large domino effect on Tesco’s stock value, the FTSE 100 and Tesco suppliers.

What are your initial reactions after reading the intake interview? What are the themes that interest you the most in this case? Why?

7. Why does Mr. Vohra, an analyst say that "The earnings numbers were meaningless - they were a house of cards"?

Hence it can be seen that still the best option for Ben would be to get an MBA from Wilton University as it has the highest NPV value. However his decision on whether to borrow the money or not might get affected.

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, many commentators attempted to analyze the roots of the conflict from a political or economic perspective. Anthropologist Karen Ho, a veteran of Wall Street as well as an academic, attempted to understand the reason that Wall Street behaves the way it does in her 2009 anthropological study of American finance entitled Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street from a cultural perspective. The central paradox with which Ho begins her book is: " the economy experienced not only record corporate profits and the longest rising stock market ever, but also record downsizings," further concentrating the wealth in America (Ho 2009: 1-2). But how can corporations grow richer as the American public as a whole grows poorer? Corporations no longer view themselves as responsible for taking care of their employees, creating good products, or serving their original mission. Instead, the focus is on generating shareholder wealth (Ho 2009:3). Shareholders, not the larger public, have become the symbolic and real focus of firm strategy. The shareholder "symbolized and 'stood in' for the whole of the corporation and became the sole locus of concern and analysis" during the time Ho conducted her study in the late 1990s and continues to this day (Ho 2009:175)

This paper will research the collapse of the financial conglomerate Countrywide Financial. Angelo Mozilo and David Loed found Countrywide Financial in 1968. By the early 90s, the company was one of the largest mortgage servicers in the United States issuing over 40 billion in mortgages in a single year (Olster, 2010). Countrywide capitalized on changing regulations and low interest to introduce new products into the market, for example, refinancing and subprime loans. Refinancing presented homeowners the opportunity to take advantage of lower interest. Furthermore, Countrywide offered subprime mortgages to new home buyers with less than desirable credit criteria. This paper will discuss the management culture within the organization, the life

1. What are your professional goals and how will an MBA from Saint Leo University assist you in reaching those goals?

Increase in the profits above the actual budget can be attributed to 20% increase in sales in 2009. Although Jean’s profits were above the actual budget, French Division’s earnings were much lower than what it could have been, had they budgeted for the actual volume of sales that they ended up selling. We can partly attribute this decrease in earnings to the fact

House of Cards describes in particular the complicated series of events that led to the downfall of Bear Sterns in March 2008. Its actual appeal, however, deduces from its complete and careful analysis of the history of the firm since its origination as an upstart brokerage firm in 1923 and a gripping account of the demise of Bear Sterns in 2007. This failure prognosticated a lot of issues that would eventually stultify the firm, and the author puts forward that its deviation from various historical operating practices led to its ultimate sale to JPMorgan Chase at $10 per share, down from over $170 just a year earlier.

In June 1995, Tom Dewey, purchasing manager for Builder’s Bank, Inc.’s (BBI) New York office, wanted to resolve a set of problems arising from the purchase of eighty chairs for the executive boardroom. BBI was a large international bank with operations throughout the world. It had recently purchased an office building and had hired the well-known architect Peter Tropper to do

In March 1995, Fred Aldrich, a summer trainee with the First Investments, Inc., was called into the office of the head of investment analysis section of the trust department. The following conversation took place: Fred, here are the 1994, 1993, and 1985 Basic Industries Company’s financials (Exhibit 1) and a 10-year summary (Exhibit 2 ). Our trust department has owned this stock since the early 1980s. As you know, our portfolio people place a lot of emphasis on the quality of a company’s earnings and the return on owners’ equity in making stock selections. Well, they are worried. The 1994 Basic Industries annual report

Ben Bates graduated from college six years ago with a finance undergraduate degree. Although he is satisfied with his current job, his goal is to become an investment banker. He feels that an MBA degree would allow him to achieve his goal. After examining schools, he has narrowed his choice to either Wilton University or Mount Perry College. Although internships are encouraged by both schools, to get class credit for the internship, no salary can be paid. Other than internships, neither school will allow its students to work while enrolled in its MBA program.

This movie explains how crisis in 2008 happened in a financial institution in New York. The company exists since 137 years with John Tuld as the Chief Executive Officer. The leader of trading operation is Sam Rogers. He is in the company since 34 years.