Executive management at Cup of Joe coffee shops is very pessimistic about the chain's ability to maintain current sales volume and estimates decreases in sales in each of the next six years. Decrease in the company's profit will be :minimum if management creates a(n) low leverage cost structure. O operating leverage does not affect decrease in profit. O cost structure does not affect decrease in profit. O medium leverage cost structure. high leverage cost structure. O

Executive management at Cup of Joe coffee shops is very pessimistic about the chain's ability to maintain current sales volume and estimates decreases in sales in each of the next six years. Decrease in the company's profit will be :minimum if management creates a(n) low leverage cost structure. O operating leverage does not affect decrease in profit. O cost structure does not affect decrease in profit. O medium leverage cost structure. high leverage cost structure. O

EBK CONTEMPORARY FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

14th Edition

ISBN:9781337514835

Author:MOYER

Publisher:MOYER

Chapter18: The Management Of Accounts Receivable And Inventories

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 12P

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Danna Martin, president of Mays Electronics, was concerned about the end-of-the year marketing report that she had just received. According to Larry Savage, marketing manager, a price decrease for the coming year was again needed to maintain the companys annual sales volume of integrated circuit boards (CBs). This would make a bad situation worse. The current selling price of 18 per unit was producing a 2-per-unit profithalf the customary 4-per-unit profit. Foreign competitors kept reducing their prices. To match the latest reduction would reduce the price from 18 to 14. This would put the price below the cost to produce and sell it. How could these firms sell for such a low price? Determined to find out if there were problems with the companys operations, Danna decided to hire a consultant to evaluate the way in which the CBs were produced and sold. After two weeks, the consultant had identified the following activities and costs: The consultant indicated that some preliminary activity analysis shows that per-unit costs can be reduced by at least 7. Since the marketing manager had indicated that the market share (sales volume) for the boards could be increased by 50% if the price could be reduced to 12, Danna became quite excited. Required: 1. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION What is activity-based management? What phases of activity analysis did the consultant provide? What else remains to be done? 2. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Identify as many nonvalue-added costs as possible. Compute the cost savings per unit that would be realized if these costs were eliminated. Was the consultant correct in the preliminary cost reduction assessment? Discuss actions that the company can take to reduce or eliminate the nonvalue-added activities. 3. Compute the unit cost required to maintain current market share, while earning a profit of 4 per unit. Now compute the unit cost required to expand sales by 50%, assuming a per-unit profit of 4. How much cost reduction would be required to achieve each unit cost? 4. Assume that further activity analysis revealed the following: switching to automated insertion would save 60,000 of engineering support and 90,000 of direct labor. Now, what is the total potential cost reduction per unit available from activity analysis? With these additional reductions, can Mays achieve the unit cost to maintain current sales? To increase it by 50%? What form of activity analysis is this: reduction, sharing, elimination, or selection? 5. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Calculate income based on current sales, prices, and costs. Then calculate the income by using a 14 price and a 12 price, assuming that the maximum cost reduction possible is achieved (including Requirement 4s reduction). What price should be selected?
Suppose you are analyzing a firm that is successfully executing a strategy that differentiates its products from those of its competitors. Because of this strategy, you project that next year the firm will generate 6.0% revenue growth from price increases and 3.0% revenue growth from sales volume increases. Assume that the firms production cost structure involves strictly variable costs. (That is, the cost to produce each unit of product remains the same.) Should you project that the firms gross profit will increase next year? If you project that the gross profit will increase, is the increase a result of volume growth, price growth, or both? Should you project that the firms gross profit margin (gross profit divided by sales) will increase next year? If you project that the gross profit margin will increase, is the increase a result of volume growth, price growth, or both?
Glencoe First National Bank operated for years under the assumption that profitability can be increased by increasing dollar volumes. Historically, First Nationals efforts were directed toward increasing total dollars of sales and total dollars of account balances. In recent years, however, First Nationals profits have been eroding. Increased competition, particularly from savings and loan institutions, was the cause of the difficulties. As key managers discussed the banks problems, it became apparent that they had no idea what their products were costing. Upon reflection, they realized that they had often made decisions to offer a new product which promised to increase dollar balances without any consideration of what it cost to provide the service. After some discussion, the bank decided to hire a consultant to compute the costs of three products: checking accounts, personal loans, and the gold VISA. The consultant identified the following activities, costs, and activity drivers (annual data): The following annual information on the three products was also made available: In light of the new cost information, Larry Roberts, the bank president, wanted to know whether a decision made two years ago to modify the banks checking account product was sound. At that time, the service charge was eliminated on accounts with an average annual balance greater than 1,000. Based on increases in the total dollars in checking, Larry was pleased with the new product. The checking account product is described as follows: (1) checking account balances greater than 500 earn interest of 2 percent per year, and (2) a service charge of 5 per month is charged for balances less than 1,000. The bank earns 4 percent on checking account deposits. Fifty percent of the accounts are less than 500 and have an average balance of 400 per account. Ten percent of the accounts are between 500 and 1,000 and average 750 per account. Twenty-five percent of the accounts are between 1,000 and 2,767; the average balance is 2,000. The remaining accounts carry a balance greater than 2,767. The average balance for these accounts is 5,000. Research indicates that the 2,000 category was by far the greatest contributor to the increase in dollar volume when the checking account product was modified two years ago. Required: 1. Calculate rates for each activity. 2. Using the rates computed in Requirement 1, calculate the cost of each product. 3. Evaluate the checking account product. Are all accounts profitable? Compute the average annual profitability per account for the four categories of accounts described in the problem. What recommendations would you make to increase the profitability of the checking account product? (Break-even analysis for the unprofitable categories may be helpful.)
Carpetland salespersons average 8,000 per week in sales. Steve Contois, the firms vice president, proposes a compensation plan with new selling incentives. Steve hopes that the results of a trial selling period will enable him to conclude that the compensation plan increases the average sales per salesperson. a. Develop the appropriate null and alternative hypotheses. b. What is the Type I error in this situation? What are the consequences of making this error? c. What is the Type II error in this situation? What are the consequences of making this error?
The president of Poleski would like to know the effect that each of the following suggestions for improving performance would have on contribution margin per unit, sales needed to break even, and projected net income for next year. Each change should be considered independently. Reset the Data Section to its original values after each suggestion is analyzed. Fill in the table following the suggestions with the results of your analysis. a. The president suggests cutting the products price. Since the market is relatively sensitive to price, . . . a 10% cut in price ought to generate a 30% increase in sales (to 156,000 units). How can you lose? b. The sales manager feels that putting all sales personnel on straight commission would help. This would eliminate 77,000 in fixed sales salaries expense. Variable sales commissions would increase to 2.00 per unit. This move would also increase sales volume by 30%. c. Poleskis head of product engineering wants to redesign the package for the product. This will cut 1.00 per unit from direct materials and 0.50 per unit from direct labor, but will increase fixed factory overhead by 100,000 for additional depreciation on the new packaging machine. The package redesign would not affect sales volume. d. The firms consumer marketing manager suggests undertaking a new advertising campaign on Facebook. This would cost 30,000 more than is currently planned for advertising but would be expected to increase sales volume by 30%. e. The production superintendent suggests raising quality and raising price. This will increase direct materials by 1.00 per unit, direct labor by 0.50 per unit, and fixed factory overhead by 110,000. With improved quality, . . . raise the price to 18.50 and advertise the heck out of it. If you double your current planned advertising, Ill bet you can increase your sales volume by 30%.
Bannister Company, an electronics firm, buys circuit boards and manually inserts various electronic devices into the printed circuit board. Bannister sells its products to original equipment manufacturers. Profits for the last two years have been less than expected. Mandy Confer, owner of Bannister, was convinced that her firm needed to adopt a revenue growth and cost reduction strategy to increase overall profits. After a careful review of her firms condition, Mandy realized that the main obstacle for increasing revenues and reducing costs was the high defect rate of her products (a 6 percent reject rate). She was certain that revenues would grow if the defect rate was reduced dramatically. Costs would also decline as there would be fewer rejects and less rework. By decreasing the defect rate, customer satisfaction would increase, causing, in turn, an increase in market share. Mandy also felt that the following actions were needed to help ensure the success of the revenue growth and cost reduction strategy: a. Improve the soldering capabilities by sending employees to an outside course. b. Redesign the insertion process to eliminate some of the common mistakes. c. Improve the procurement process by selecting suppliers that provide higher-quality circuit boards. Required: 1. State the revenue growth and cost reduction strategy using a series of cause-and-effect relationships expressed as if-then statements. 2. Illustrate the strategy using a strategy map. 3. Explain how the revenue growth strategy can be tested. In your explanation, discuss the role of lead and lag measures, targets, and double-loop feedback.
2. The sales for T-2 are decreasing and the purchase costs are increasing. The firm might drop T-2 and sell only T-1. Barbour allocates fixed costs to products on the basis of sales revenue. When the president of Barbour saw the income statements (see below), he agreed that T-2 should be dropped. If T-2 is dropped, sales of T-1 are expected to increase by 10% next year, but the firm’s cost structure will remain the same. T-1 T-2 Sales $ 245,000 $ 296,000 Variable costs: Cost of goods sold 79,000 148,000 Selling & administrative 19,000 59,000 Contribution margin $ 147,000 $ 89,000 Fixed expenses: Fixed corporate costs 69,000 84,000 Fixed selling and administrative 21,000 30,000 Total fixed expenses $ 90,000 $ 114,000 Operating income $ 57,000 $ (25,000 ) Required: 1. Find the expected change in annual operating income by dropping T-2 and selling only T-1. 2. By what percentage…
To increase Sales and Sales Growth, the top Marketing Manager suggested to price products slightly lower than the main competitor and at the same time increase product quality (competitor is not expected to react or make changes). This strategy would require an initial one time investment today of $1 million in advertising (and for some machines) and the Net Profit Margin (and Cash Flows) will be zero for years 1, 2, 3. However, sales are expected to grow 20% in years 1,2,3 (then sales will stabilize and sales growth will be 1% in year 4 and over). Also, in year 4 Net Profit Margin will return to 5% (due to economies of scale). (Some numbers have been pre-filled in the tables below). CURRENT BUSINESS SITUATION END OF YEAR 0 1 … Sales Growth 0% … Net Profit Margin 5% … Sales ($Millions) 80.00 … Profit or Cash Flow 4.00 … NPV(i=.15) 26.67 $Millions SUGGESTED SALES…
Danna Martin, president of Mays Electronics, was concerned about the end-of-the year marketing report that she had just received. According to Larry Savage, marketing manager, a price decrease for the coming year was again needed to maintain the company's annual sales volume of integrated circuit boards (CBs). This would make a bad situation worse. The current selling price of $18 per unit was producing a $2-per-unit profit—half the customary $4-per-unit profit. Foreign competitors kept reducing their prices. To match the latest reduction would reduce the price from $18 to $14. This would put the price below the cost to produce and sell it. How could these firms sell for such a low price? Determined to find out if there were problems with the company's operations, Danna decided to hire a consultant to evaluate the way in which the CBs were produced and sold. After two weeks, the consultant had identified the following activities and costs: Activities Costs Setting up equipment…
A service company has the following financial information (in millions of $)a. What is the profit leverage effect of reducing the cost of the facilitating goods in this company?b. It has been suggested that the in-house services costs could be reduced by 10 percent in the coming year by implementing lean systems. What effect would thisohave on earnings increase in percentage?c. What is the profit leverage effect of in-house services relative to profits?
Frank Corporation evaluates its managers based on return on investment (ROI). Hazel B and Sarah D, managers of the electronics and housewares departments respectively, have recently suffered from declining profits in their departments. Over lunch, they discuss the problem, and how they could improve performance. Most of the discussion centers around ways to increase sales. Near the end of the lunch period, however, Sarah remarks that there are two components to consider, and that they have considered only one. She wonders whether there is some way to reduce investment, and by decreasing the denominator of the ROI fraction, to improve the final result. Back at work, Hazel continues to mull over Sarah's remarks. She decides to pursue the matter further, and before the end of the quarter she has sold quite a bit of older equipment and replaced it with equipment obtained with a short-term lease. Her performance, measured by ROI, is markedly improved, although sales continue to be…
In response to the weak economy, your company’ssales force is urging you, the sales manager, to changesales terms from 1/10, n/30 to 2/10, n/45. Explain whatthese terms mean and how this switch could increase ordecrease your company’s profits.