Sunbeam Analysis
There are some clear and fairly glaring changes in accounting policy and listing of expenses occurring at Sunbeam between the years 1996 and 1997. Some potential areas of discrepancy and outright fraud are more subtle and complex, and cannot be fully ascertained or accounted for, but even the most glaring and concrete examples make it clear that some substantial financial finagling has taken place to depress 1996's numbers and inflate performance in 1997.
irst, the two special charges (listed on the spreadsheet and here by their footnote denotations) that supposedly occurred in the final quarter of 1996, if reversed, begin to bring the posted earnings of the two years closer in line. As posted, the cost of goods sold is 71% of sales for 1997 (70.6% for the fourth quarter), but a substantially larger 91.5% for 1996 (and a whopping 115% for the fourth quarter of 1996). Simply removing Special…...
mla
First, the two special charges (listed on the spreadsheet and here by their footnote denotations) that supposedly occurred in the final quarter of 1996, if reversed, begin to bring the posted earnings of the two years closer in line. As posted, the cost of goods sold is 71% of sales for 1997 (70.6% for the fourth quarter), but a substantially larger 91.5% for 1996 (and a whopping 115% for the fourth quarter of 1996). Simply removing Special Charge A from the cost of goods sold brings 1996's cost of goods sold to 82.1% (80.7% for the fourth quarter). Selling expenses, which in 1996 were affected by Special Charge B, show a similar pattern. These expenses formed 11.2% of sales in 1997 (9.7% for the fourth quarter) but 21.7% in 1996 as reported (35% for the fourth quarter); removing the amount from Special Charge B. still leaves a significant gap between 1996 and 1997 but closes it substantially, with this ratio dropping 17.4% after the adjustment (with a more substantial drop, down to 19.2%, in the fourth quarter of 1996). The earnings (or loss) before taxes can also be adjusted simply by eliminating the special charges to show more similar performance between 1996 and 1997 than initially appears to be the case, though there is still a loss in 1996.
There is an additional restructuring charge of $154.9 million listed in 1996 as well, and removing this cost all but eliminates the loss that occurred in 1996, the majority of which still occurred in the fourth quarter when all of the special charges entered the picture. All of the above effects would be magnified still further if the reported charges in 1996 were removed from earnings in 1997, or were split between the two years. That is, it appears as though false losses were created in 1996 to make 1997 look better, and it would make sense that these false losses were then reported as part of earnings in 1997. If this is the case, performance in both years would be even closer in value and would be generally lower -- especially in 1997 -- than reported.
Taking the new earnings figures and adjusting for other discrepancies in the cash flow statement also leads to some significant differences in the perceived financial standing of the company in both years. While it is impossible to determine how much of the extreme difference in receivables and inventories for the two years comes down to the withholding in 1996 and the inflation of 1997's numbers, simply averaging out the values reported in both years and accounting for these differences (and the different earnings) in the net cash provided (or used ( by operating activities changes things substantially, making 1996 a much better year than reported and 1997 significantly worse. This case does not really suggest why Sunbeam's accountants or officers would have an incentive to engage in this behavior, yet their accounting discrepancies are glaring enough to be suspect even without a clear motive.
unbeam Corporation's fraudulent accounting for its financial years 1996, 1997 and early 1998. The essay also reviews the historic audit failure that occurred, and discusses factors that contributed to the scandal and ways in which it might have been prevented.
unbeam, the consumer brand name that was to become well-known among generations of Americans, had its beginnings in 1893 when founders John K. tewart and Thomas J. Clark began manufacturing and selling a commercial horse clipping machine in Chicago. In 1897 the company was incorporated as the Chicago Flexible haft Company. When the company began manufacturing an electric iron named "The Princess," its first electric appliance, the product's introduction marked the beginning of the Electrical Appliance Division of today's Jarden Corporation (Jarden, 2011).
In the early years, the company's products, ranging from toasters to irons to mixers, were so successful that the company changed its name to the unbeam Corporation in…...
mla
Securities and Exchange Commission. (1999). SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin: No. 99 -- Materiality. [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 December 2011].
Stanwick, S. And Stanwick, P. (2003). Sunbeam Corporation: "Chainsaw Al" and the Quest for a Turnaround. Auburn University. [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 December 2011].
Zabel, R.B. And Benjamin, J.J. (2002). Reviewing Materiality in Accounting Fraud. New York Law Journal. [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 December 2011].
Dismantle the Deal?The AMA defended the deal, stating that it is "good for patients and for the public" as the AMA can opt out of endorsing any product if it does not meet their standards. They also emphasized that the fees from the deal would be used for public healthcare initiatives and research programs.However, an argument can be made in favor of dismantling the AMA-Sunbeam deal.The primary concern is the potential conflict of interest that arises from the AMA endorsing Sunbeam's products. As a respected health organization, the AMA's primary responsibility should be to the welfare of patients and the public. By entering into a commercial deal with Sunbeam, the AMA does indeed risk compromising its objectivity and credibility (Nanda, 2002).For instance, if a Sunbeam product were found to be defective or overpriced, the AMA might be less likely to criticize or warn the public about it due to their…...
mla
References
Nanda, A. (2002). The American Medical Association-Sunbeam Deal (A): Serpent on the Staff Meets Chainsaw AI. HBS.
Conjoint Analysis
edesigning Product Lines with Conjoint Analysis:
How Sunbeam Does It
What are the strengths & weakness of the studies ?
The Sunbeam Appliance Company (SAC) division is facing the challenge of differentiating their core product lines, as they are rapidly maturing and losing market share and profits. The decision to pursue conjoint analysis is made to accomplish the following goals. First, Sunbeam wants to know what models need to be in the product line, what their physical appearance needs to be what their performance characteristics also need to be (Page, osenbaum, 1987). What follows is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these studies and what Sunbeam could have done differently to minimize the study's weaknesses, which are many.
Strengths
The following are the key strengths of the conjoint analysis studies taken on by Sunbeam in an effort to reposition and profitably grow their food processor line. First, the studies successfully show why…...
mla
References
Auty, S. 1995, "Using conjoint analysis in industrial marketing," Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 191-191.
Green, P.E. & Krieger, A.M. 1991, "Segmenting Markets with Conjoint Analysis," Journal of Marketing, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 20-20.
Green, P.E., Krieger, A.M. & Carroll, J.D. 1987, "Conjoint Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling: A Complementary Approach," Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 21-21.
Green, P.E., Krieger, A.M. & Wind, Y. 2001, "Thirty years of conjoint analysis: Reflections and prospects," Interfaces, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. S56-S73.
Kaiser, F. 2000, January. "Tourism, ussian-Style - It Takes More to Tour ussia Than a Taste
for Adventure a Tough Stomach, and Plenty of Your Own Toilet Paper." World and I
15(1): 154.
Kermally, S. 2003. Gurus on Marketing. London: Thorogood.
Strahilevitz, M. 1999. "The Effects of Product Type and Donation Magnitude on Willingness to Pay More for a Charity-Linked Brand." Journal of Consumer Psychology 8(3): 215-219.
Tollefsrud, P.A. 2002. "Toilet paper aka T.P: The History of Toilet Paper." University of St.
AMA SunbeamThe Sunbeam deal did indeed raise questions about the credibility of the American Medical Association (AMA). Critics argued that the AMA\\\'s endorsement of Sunbeam products could create a conflict of interest, potentially compromising the association\\\'s ability to objectively evaluate Sunbeam products in the future.For instance, Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, stated: \\\"It immediately sets up a conflict of interest. In the future, how can the AMA evaluate any Sunbeam product and warn the public if they are defective? Or what if they are good products, but twice as expensive as those made by other companies?\\\" (Nanda, 2002, p. 11).Moreover, Mildred Cho, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, argued that the AMA was violating its own policies by accepting royalty payments from Sunbeam in exchange for endorsing its products. She referred to two AMA…...
mla
ReferencesNanda, A. (2002). The American Medical Association-Sunbeam Deal (A): Serpent on the Staff Meets Chainsaw AI. HBS.
Arthur Anderson: Questionable Accounting Parctices
Arthur Anderson: Questionable Accounting Practices
Arthur Andersen LLP was founded in 1913, and for over 90 years, the company would have become one of the "Big Five" largest accounting and auditing firms in the United States with the same standard comparable to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and Ernst & Young. In the 80s, Arthur Anderson name was synonymous with integrity, trust, and ethics. Such values are critical to the success of firms charged with auditing and firms confirming a company's financial statement, whose accuracy of a company's financial statements generally influence investor's investment decision. (Ferrell, Linda, 2012).
In the 1990s, Arthur Anderson became one of the fastest growing accounting and auditing firms in the United States with huge financial success during the period. However, starting from 2001, the company faced several lawsuits for accounting irregularities. In May 2001, "the company paid $110 million to settle claims brought…...
mla
References
Ferrell, O.C. Linda, J.F. (2012). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases: 2009 Update. Cengage Learning
Fraedrich, J. Ferrell, O.C. Ferrell, L.(2011). Ethical Decision Making for Business. Cengage Learning.
McGlynn, M (2010). Arthur Andersen Case Studies in Business Ethics. Carnegie Mellon Temper School of Business.
From these examples there is a varied sense of the realism of Eliot in both her prose and her poems. The realism of Eliot demonstrates a reflection of the era. The naturalist and realism movements were ingrained in the Victorian 19th century and yet the descriptive nature of Eliot's works make them in many ways timeless. The characters are enveloped with the reader into the surroundings of events of human social drama.
orks Cited
Eliot, George. The Best-Known Novels of George Eliot: Adam Bede, the Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola. New York: Modern Library, 1940.
Eliot, George, Brother and Sister
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html
Eliot, George, Two Lovers
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html
Eliot, George in a London Drawingroom
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html
Eliot, George, Mid my Gold-brown Curls
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2696.html
Eliot, George, Two Lovers, in Stevenson, Burton Egbert. The Home Book of Verse. At http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/george_eliot/poems/3456
Pizer, Donald. Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Revised ed. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984....
mla
Works Cited
Eliot, George. The Best-Known Novels of George Eliot: Adam Bede, the Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola. New York: Modern Library, 1940.
Emile Zola and Honere De Balzac were writers that embraced their century and time period. They wrote comprehensive histories of their respective contemporary societies. Although they share a similar interest in dissecting time throughout their novels, Emile shows a more modern take on time than does Honere De Balzac. In fact, his methodical approach to the social, moral, and sexual landscape of the late nineteenth century proves Zola as the quintessential novelist of modernity. Zola shows this through irregular change in his novels: The Drinking Den, Germinal, La Bete Humaine, Nana, and The Debacle. hereas Balzac, in his work, Le Comedie Humaine, Eugenie Grandet, and Father Goriot, follows an old fashioned classic style of realism that focuses on the upper class. Balzac shows time through detail and structure, Zola through change and dynamic fluidity.
Zola's epic kind of realism is shown through variety and complexity. His characters are all different and…...
mla
Works Cited
Balzac, Honore, and Pierre G. Castex. La Comedie Humaine. Paris: Gallimard, 1976. Print.
Balzac, Honore, and Alexander G.H. Spiers. Eugenie Grandet. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co, 1914. Print.
Balzac, Honore. Father Goriot - the Original Classic Edition. Dayboro: Emereo Pub, 2012. Print.
Bell, David F. Real Time: Accelerating Narrative from Balzac to Zola. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. Print.
Improvements in Integrity, Financial Accountability, Ethical Conduct and Corporate Responsibilities under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
e passed Sarbanes-Oxley in the wake of the Enron scandal to try to root out financial and accounting irregularities. How could similar irregularities occur at Lehman Brothers? History has a way of constantly repeating itself. -- Joseph Grant 2010
The high-profile corporate shenanigans by Enron and Lehman Brothers have made it clear that tough legislation was needed to compel Americans businesses to clean up their financial acts. Indeed, in response to Enron's late 2001 bankruptcy, Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 but the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in late 2008 made it clear that there was still a problem in some sectors of American business. This paper provides a review of the relevant literature to determine how the integrity of corporate finance, ethics, and other responsibilities have improved, what the corporate finance industry culture has learned…...
mla
Works Cited
Bierstaker, James, Marshall, Kenneth K. And Greenwald, Jonathan. (2010, December).
"Strengthen Your Core: Are You Getting the Most from Your Compliance, Operations,
Risk, and Enterprise Support Functions?" Strategic Finance 92(6): 35-39.
Carter, Charles C. (2011, May 1). "Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy." Journal of Real Estate Literature 9(2): 492-499.
Vermont Photos
Vermont's rich cultural and environmental history is captured visually in black and white still photography. Each of these images offers a distinct glimpse or glance at Vermont life. Some images portray non-human subjects ranging from animals to landscapes to architecture. Several are macro, or close up, shots of Vermont's minutia. None of the images are portraits, which is significant because it allows the viewer to perceive Vermont without the added lens or filter of social life.
An image of a Pullman Car appears in green and fills the frame. The composition suggests movement, as the horizontal lines of the rail car and the tracks beneath it all move in the same directions. The original Pullman Palace cars were decorated ornately on the inside. Yet the viewer is invited to look inside at the big green Pullman Sunbeam, which rolled into Manchester in Spring of 2012 from South Carolina. The moving…...
Figurine of the Goddess adjet
In the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, there is a sculpture in the Egyptian wing that depicts one of the Egyptian goddesses. The piece is entitled "Figurine of the Goddess adjet." It is located in Hammer Building Room 303 of the museum amongst the other Egyptian art exhibits. It was given to the museum from the Hearst family, famous for their collection of ancient, historically-significant pieces of art and it is obvious that despite its age, the sculpture has been carefully preserved. This particular piece is from the 26th dynasty of Egyptian rule and is estimated to have been created between 664 and 525 BCE. It is unknown exactly who sculpted the figure. Since the actual date of the sculpture is unknown, it is logical that the sculptor is also a mystery.
Although the figure is fairly small, only standing 13 inches high, it gives off…...
mla
Works Cited:
Janson, H.W. & Janson, A. (2008). Janson's A Basic History of Western Art. 8th.
Leone Nelly Sachs was born in erlin on December 10, 1891. She was the only child of a wealthy erlin industrialist. The family lived in the Tiergartenviertel, a fashionable area of erlin. ecause of her family's wealth, Nelly was educated by private tutors her before she entered the erliner Hhere Tchterschule. She studied music and dancing, and at an early age began writing poetry. Her early love of literature came from home. Her preference was for the German Romantic writers.
At the age of 15 she began a correspondence friendship with the Swedish author Selma Lagerlf, which lasted some 35 years. Lagerlof would later win the Nobel Peace prize in 1909 and donate the gold medal to provide war relief to Finland when Stalin's troops attacked. This friendship would become important for Nelly in the years to come.
Nelly began writing poems by the age of seventeen in the traditional, rhymed forms.…...
mla
Bibliography
NELLY SACHS., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Seventh Edition, 01-01-2002.
Langer, Lawrence. Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Schiff, Hilda. Holocaust Poetry. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.
William Wadsworth. The writer attempts to analyze the poet's technique and style and discuss the use of emotions within those works. There were three sources used to complete this paper.
Throughout history authors of literature have used their works to fill their readers with emotions. Poets have been especially good at making the reader feel things that they might otherwise not have felt before reading the work. William Wordsworth is considered one of the most prolific and classic poets in history. His works cover topics of wide range and there are over 900 poems that flowed from his heart to the reader within his life. Many of his works are strong examples of his ability to show emotion in his speakers. The poet is well-known for his ability to reproduce emotion in his reader through the use of diction, rhythm, detail, apostrophe, and imagery. The Lucy poems, The Thorn and…...
mla
References
Wordsworth, William. The Lucy Poems. Bantam Classics 1990
Wordsworth, William. The Thorn. Bantam Classics 1990
Wordsworth, William. Home At Grasmere. Bantam Classics. 1990
omen, Men and Environment
hile we might like to believe that we are each the masters of our own fate, in fact the environment plays an important role in shaping who we become. Guthrie makes this point in The Big Sky, for Boone, Summers and Teal Eye are all more the product of their environment than they are the creators of the world around them. Guthrie suggests that this being-shaped-by rather than shaping-of the environment is especially strong in the est, but he also at least suggests that the environment is a potent force in shaping the lives of people everywhere.
It has become fashionable in recent years to scoff at the myth of the est and to replace this myth with history. This is in large measure what Guthrie has set out to do. He is intent on telling a real story about a real place, and in particular in telling…...
Schlissel, Lillian. Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey. New York: Schocken, 1992.
Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library
of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
