Performance Gaps and Root Cause Analysis: The Ferguson Case

Analysis and evaluation stage is a single channel, interest rate multi channel, loan terms single channel, and final issuing a multichannel. (Exhibit A)The current structure of the analysis and evaluation stage does not maximize staff time effectively and as a consequence creates a bottleneck in the process. With the single channel structure loan applications are unevenly distributed among teams and create higher idle time for teams with less volume of loan applications to process. Utilization among regions varies greatly between 73% - 95%. The following observation of the current structure was achieved using the MMK model (See exhibit B):

Financial ratios are important in assessing the two companies’ performances. Referring to Exhibit A and B, we see that Sears relied heavily on debt financing. Although its 1997 ROE was high, it had a 300 days cash conversion cycle and a slow A/R turnover ratio. After evaluating various ratios, we concluded that the driving force behind Sears’ profitability was its proprietary card business. For a retailer, a strategy of using flexible payment options to boost sales is not a viable long term solution. The slow A/R turnover and negative operating cash flow cause concerns. On the other hand, Wal-Mart had a quick cash conversion cycle of 91 days, and a working capital turnover of 24/yr (vs.10/yr for Sears). These ratios represent a retail company with sound fundamental strategies, as well as the implementation and execution of those strategies. The financial ratios gave us insights into the companies’ operating and financing strategies, putting the two companies’ annual results into

Bank of America and Wells Fargo are separate banks, however; both of these institutions share many similarities when reporting their financial statements. The inter-relationships of the data provided in the statements seem to exemplify the correlation of accounting practices between these two banks. As large as these two banks have become, and as complex, one can see that the banks’ roots are still tied firmly to the basic accounting equation. While both banks use organizational control techniques, their financial statements clearly indicate that each bank wishes to discuss a specific type of organizational control used by their company. To better understand the similarities

The internal analysis of the company paints a picture of a firm that is well endowed with resources, both human and capital. The company boasts of an asset base of $11.4 billion according to the financial reports for the year 2012. This is huge, and it shows that the company is well grounded and has the capacity to gain a competitive edge in the highly competitive retail market in which it operates (Britton & Jorissen, 2007).

However, some criminologist state that these statistics reveal very little about the cause of the increase in violent crime. On the other hand there are some people such as Heather MacDonald author of “Are Cops Racist?”, in the Wall Street Journal who believe that “the most plausible explanation of the current surge in lawlessness is the intense agitation against American police departments over the past nine months” (Jonsson, 2015). There is a lot of back and forth debate of whether or not The Ferguson Effect is “thing”. Of course by accepting the “Ferguson effect” as a new theory of policing on would have to admit that police officers are no longer doing their jobs out of fear of public scrutiny. What is certain is that there has been a

The event that sparked the Ferguson report was the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9th, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Officer Darren Wilson gunned down an African American 18-year-old. This event ignited an uproar and made national news. This prompted the DOJ to start an investigation. The overall summary of the case is who they interviewed. Personal such as the city major, police chief, city manager, and half of the officer in the Ferguson police department. Researching files, spoke about how the city’s police revenue plan is, how the police department go about performing their duties and exercising their practices. Touched on racial bias in the city of Ferguson, Missouri and the municipal court systems held in place and how they practice

There are two chief participants in this case study, Paul Mackay and Jackie Patrick. Mackay, a sole proprietor of Lawsons (a general merchandising retail site in Riverdale, Ontario), has approached the Commercial Bank of Ontario in order to acquire an additional $194, 000 bank loan and a $26,000 line of Credit. Patrick, a first time loans officer, has been appointed to Mackay’s request. As such

The companies that were chosen for a company analysis include Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Burlington. Since the retail industry has been lagging behind lately, these companies will help determine the prospective financial investment in the retail industry. As Macy’s as our primary company, we chose Kohl’s and Burlington to be the two comparative companies. These companies are comparable due to the same SIC code of 5311 in the subgroup of department stores. These companies offer similar products and services with little differentiation between the three.

John Culbert is given the difficult task of selecting the best approach that will capitalize on opportunities to increase the performance efficiency of the credit function without disrupting its current customer-oriented culture. His main challenge is the lack of a comprehensive system to evaluate the gains from centralization and the problems it could potentially create vis-à-vis the current status quo. Hence, we suggest a basic framework for him to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with changing the structure of the credit function. Given that the change is mandated by his managers, there are high potential cost-savings, and low risks associated with

Currently the Brown’s pay back suppliers in the first 10 days, averaging 9.9 days, to receive a 2% discount. This is nearly three times as fast as the industry average of 26.9 days. This doesn’t work well with their current credit terms offered to customers, as their receivable days are averaging at 51 days, which is double the industry average.

So it is also attractive for Jules Kroll to take this opportunity to enter the credit rating industry. In addition, the “issuer pays” model, which used by the big three rating agencies, lets companies shop around for the best ratings, putting pressure on the agencies to inflate their grades. As a result, it is very difficult to argue that they can adequately represent the users’ side. Therefore, Jules Kroll wants to use another model that can assign unbiased and reliable ratings.

On the other, although the majority of the information shown in the case study presents arguments for the fact that it was inevitable that Woolworths would fail as a business, it is also shown that the company was once a reputable company and generated high levels of consumer demand through the customer being able to buy “pick-n-mix sweets, a DVD, a magnifying headlight and a cheese grater “ in the same store. The revenue generated within the first six months of 2008 was £1107 million, which suggested that the firm was able to sell efficiently to an extent. If the financial department at Woolworth’s had evaluated the balance sheet and income statement from previous years, they would have potentially been able to minimize the risk of the high expenses, reduced profit margins and overall prevent the administration of the company that occurred in 2008. This point therefore indicates that it was not entirely inevitable that Woolworths would fail as a business, as measures could have been carried

Lending evaluations by Santander are based on credit background of the person (or company) who wants borrow. Through the development of a credit-approval system, Santander Consumer Finance increased an understanding into these clients on an online database which allowed for the use of real time analysis in determining interest rates for the business interactions.

Based on the Time Interest Earned Ratio Landry’s ability to pay interest bills from profit earned decreased. In 2002 Landry’s could pay their interest bill just over 13 times from earnings before interest tax. In 2003 Landry’s ability to pay interest bills was almost cut in-half to 7 times. We think that as a result of the decrease in ability to pay interest bills, creditors could be concerned about these findings.

Another measure of a company’s ability to pay back loans, this time over a long period, measures solvency. Coca-Cola’s debt to total assets ratio is 35% in 2004 and 33% in 2005 compared to PepsiCo’s less attractive ratio of 52% in 2004 to 55% in 2005. Coca-Cola’s debts represent a healthy percentage of assets and in this case the lower the number the better. Coca-Cola’s debt to total assets ratio decreased by 2% from 2004 to 2005 while PepsiCo’s ratio increased by 3%. Were a potential lender or investor to look at these numbers alone they would prefer the performance of Coca-Cola over PepsiCo but there are still many calculations to be made and factors to consider.