...General Mills Inc.—Understanding Financial Statements Teaching Notes: This is the first case we use in our course and it sets the tone. We find that using a company well-known to students piques their interest and gets the course off to a good start. The purpose of the case is to gain familiarity with financial statements and to begin to think about how financial statements reflect economic events and financial performance. Some students need to be reminded that the point of the exercise is not to perform a comprehensive analysis of the company. At this point, most students do not have the required skills. Rather, the goal is one of discovery. Many students find that they understand a lot more of the information in the financials than they thought they would. Others find that the vocabulary bogs them down. They need to be encouraged to learn the language of business. A productive exercise is to have students jot down a few (3-5) items they find puzzling in the financial statements. Then, on the last day of class, have the students refer back to their list. Typically, they understand everything they had on their day-one list. This provides tangible evidence of the value of the course because most students are pleasantly surprised at how much they have learned. The case probes the three basic statements as well as the two opinions issued by the firms’ auditors. This provides the opportunity to introduce the notions of corporate governance and ethics. The case includes basic questions...
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...RTE Cereal Case Study Number of Firms and Market Shares There were six firms in the industry from 1950 to 1990 represented in the case study. In 1990 private label firms entered the market. The industry grew consistently through the 21st century but, the Big Three, consisting of Kellogg, General Mills, and Nabisco, dominated the market. Kellogg has consistently dominated the market shares in the RTE cereal industry with General Mills and Post following close behind. From 1950 to 1993, Kellogg’s average market share was 40.3, General Mills was second with an average market share of 21.7 and third of the Big Three, Post, had an average market share of 17.4. There were not any significant changes in the market shares from 1960 to 1980. However, in 1990 Post dropped to 11.1, 4.5 less than the value in 1980, General Mills reached 24.4, 4.5 more than the value in 1980, and Kellogg, still leading the pack, decreased to 37.5, 3.4 less than the value in 1980. From 1990 to 1993, there were not any significant changes in the market shares for the Big Three. There are three other firms listed in the case study that represented the remainder of the market shares. During the same time frame, Quaker had an average market share value of 6.8. Quaker market shares decreased dramatically from 1950 to 1960 but made a steady increase beginning in 1970. Nabisco’s average market share was 5.0. The market shares for Nabisco decreased in 1970 and continued to decrease giving them the lowest...
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...Gaurav Gupta FT154037 Sec – 4 FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING CASE-STUDY Case Discussion 9-1 1 Current Ratio of General Mills |2010|2009| Current Assets|3480.00|3534.00| Current Liabilities|3769.10|3606.60| Current Ratio|0.92|0.98| Current Ratios are less than 1 for both the years. Hence, company will not be able to pay off their short term liabilities with their current assets 2||Kelloggs||General Mills| ||2010||2009|2010|2009| |Current Assets|2195||2558|3480.00|3534.00| |Current Liabilities|3184||2288|3769.10|3606.60| |Current Ratio|0.69||1.12|0.92|0.98| |In both the years, General Mills have higher current liabilities than the Kellogg's|| Case Discussion 10-2|||||| ||||| 1||Kelloggs||General Mills| ||2010||2009|2010|2009| |Total Liabilities|9693||8925|12030.90|12058.30| |Shareholder's Equity|2154||2275|5402.90|5172.30| |Debt to Equity Ratio|4.50||3.92|2.23|2.33| Kellogg's has got a better debt to equity ratio during both the years 2010 and 2009 Kellogg's has more debts than equity compared to General Mills. This means that interest expenses of Kellogg's is more than the interest expenses of General Mills. This also means the assets of the Kellogg's has been acquired more by raising debts than share capital. 2||Kelloggs||General Mills| ||2010||2009|2010|2009| |Long term Liabilities|6509||6637|8261.80|8852.30| Important Changes For Kellogg's, Long term Debts and Deferred Income tax has increased from 2009 to 2010, while...
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...Case Study Gauging the Impact of Display and Brand Messaging on the Cereal Category in-store behavior monitoring system Disclaimer: This test was conducted by CART (Center For Advance Retail Technology), in association with ShopperGauge®. Neither General Mills nor any other cereal company provided data or participated in any way with the research. © 2010 BVI Networks, Inc. and Rock-Tenn Shared Services, LLC. RETAILNEXT is a trademark of BVI Networks, Inc. SHOPPERGAUGE is a trademark of RockTenn Shared Services, LLC. CENTER FOR ADVANCE RETAIL TECHNOLOGY and RETAIL 3.0 are trademarks of Hawkins Strategic, LLC. Other marks are the property of their respective owners. Gauging the Impact of Display and Brand Messaging on the Cereal Category Background The goal of this project was to determine whether or not in-line display xturing and messaging increases brand and category sales and drives acceptable ROI. We further sought an understanding of how the unit and messaging would impact shopper behavior, in terms of tra c pattern shifts, dwell times, purchase and interaction with product. The Cereal aisle was chosen for this study. Speci cally, General Mills branded products were designated to be featured in a new xture, accompanied by a meaningful, educational, healthy choice message: “Whole Grain Goodness”. The assortment included products that were currently being positioned very di erently. For example, some are targeted for children using the lure of sweet and familiar...
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...Bullet point one: “Identify the segmentation criteria that will affect your target market selection.” The division and criteria gathered are from General Mills.” The products offered by General Mills, consist of (Pillsbury, Post Cereal, Kellogg, Kraft, Betty Crocker, General Mills Cereal Coupons, General Mills top jobs product, and many more). Before he or she can proceed there need to be some clarification of the target market, and marketing strategy. Target marketing involves a team of people (group), that a business has selected or focused on to further its products or merchandise. In a marketing, the analysis found a more understood definition of target marketing; was a business strategy. “Market strategy is to be understood as mass media. Mass media, and its strategy television or radio, are used to educate the public about a business product. If a business wish to sell its’ product, television is the way to do it. By means of advertising, radio or even newspapers could reach a target group. Customers selected to measure merchandise are segments of marketing strategy. The above are terms of a business that do store buying of a business’s product. In week three team assignment the instructions are to list the different criteria for a target market. General Mills with its target market uses all the above strategies, and the following to monitor its products activity. Differentiated strategy is used to make offers to the different groups or segments it...
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...1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY General Mills is planning to launch a new ready-to-eat whole grain children’s cereal called Pirate Oats. Pirate Oats will be the first cereal of its kind offering the health benefits of whole grains while still being preferred by the target market of American children under the age of five. Children will favor Pirate Oats because of the cartoon mascot Captain Grain pictured on the front of the box. Parents will love Pirate Oats because it will keep their children healthy and at lower risk to develop childhood obesity and type two diabetes. This is because Pirate Oats will be lower in excess sugar, and higher in whole grains, than the competition. Pirate Oats will be marketed through an advertising campaign on popular children’s after-school television shows on networks such as Nickelodeon and FOX. First year marketing efforts will result in revenues equalling 10% of the target market as well as a 2% total market share gain for General Mills within the ready-to-eat breakfast cereal market. Achieving these goals will allow General Mills to reliably turn a profit within the first year of sales. 2.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS General Mills has long been a standard in the ready-to-eat breakfast cereal marketplace. It has many cereals marketed to, and designed for children, and has enjoyed a healthy market share to date. With the recent health food craze, the rise in childhood obesity, and poor diet being blamed for heart disease, type two diabetes, as well as cancer;...
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...General Mills Case Study Solution "Acquisition of Pillsbury" Topics that are covered to solve this case • Benefit of the acquisition • Present value of cost savings • Deal structure • Contingent payment analysis • Acquisition cost • Recommendation Benefits of the Acquisition • Accelerate sales and earnings growth by acquiring Pillsbury > Product Innovation > International Expansion > Channel Expansion > Productivity Gains • Combined product portfolio would be more balanced • Combined firm would rank 5th in size among competitors based on food sales • Cost savings Present Value of Cost Savings • Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) for General Mills > Cost of Equity = 9.6% > Cost of Debt = 9.5% > Tax Rate = 40% > After Tax Cost of Debt = 5.7% > Weight of Debt (D/V) = 10.8% > Weight of Equity (E/V) = 89.2% > WACC = 9.2% • Expected Cost Savings > 2001 = $25m, PV = $23m > 2002 = $220m, PV = $185m >2003 = $400m, PV = $307m >Total PV = $515 Deal Structure • Payment shares • Assumption of Pillsbury's debt > Existing debt = $142m > New borrowing = $5billion • Contingent payment by Diageo to General Mills Contingent Payment Analysis • What is it? > "Claw-back" or "Contingent Value Right" >>Claw-back is previously given monies or benefits that are taken back due to specially arising circumstances...
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...through their “punk prayer”. The major reason for staging the punk prayer was because of Vladimir Putin’s run for presidential election, after serving two consecutive terms as a prime minister. In order to make sense of this case study, I will say that the Pussy Riotss are a nonconformist minor group in the Russian society who desire change in their society. They refuse to follow the norms of keeping quiet by expressing their opinion about the Russian government and the system as a whole through the “punk prayer.Mill will support this argument with his theory of individuality. Mill will begin by saying that “it is important that human beings should be free to form opinions and to express their opinions without reserve” (Mill 53 line 1-3). Mills statement explicitly encourages individuals to think for themselves and to be able to express their thoughts. By doing this, Mill believes that the individual will have strong impulses, which will produce energy and such energy can be used as fuel for change. He will further support these arguments by saying ‘conforming to custom or norms merely as custom does not educate or develop any qualities which are distinctive endowment of a human being” (Mill 56 1-3). As humans we are not created to...
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...General Mills case study Concepts A) General Mills is a global food company. The main products of the company are baking products, frozen products, ready-to-eat cereals, snacks, etc. The company sells its products to supermarkets, groceries, and wholesalers. The company makes money by introducing new products in the market. B) The financial statements that are commonly prepared for external reporting purposes are balance sheet, statement of cash flow, statement of shareholder’s equity and income statement. The title General Mills give these statements are General Mills inc and Subsidiaries consolidated statement of earnings i.e. Income statement and consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statement of cash flows, and consolidated shareholder’s equity. Consolidated means combined financial statements of a parent company and its subsidiaries. Company’s financial statements give an aggregate view at the financial position of a company. Parent company and its subsidiaries help to determine position of an entire group as opposed to one company’s standalone position. C) In US, publicly traded companies must file financial statements with the SEC – Securities Exchange Commission. The 2 main compulsory filings are:- Form 10K – the audited annual report that includes the four financial statements with explanation and analysis of financial results. Form 10Q – the unaudited quarterly report that includes summary version of the 4 financial statements and disclosures. D)...
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...Does workforce diversity always result in better organizational performance? In today’s global competitive environment, workforce diversity became a competitive edge that helps firms better understand different cultures and different ways of conducting business globally (“Benefits and problems”). Taylor Cox emphasized that increasing workforce diversity for better organizational performance is still an essential business issue that receives great attention, as “most of today's small business owners and corporate executives recognize that attention to the challenges and opportunities associated with the growing trend toward culturally diverse work forces can be a key factor in overall business success”. Rob McInnes identified 7 factors that motivate companies to diversify their workforces: As a Social Responsibility: companies exercise corporate social responsibility role by diversifying their workforces and supporting their good living. As an Economic Payback: “diversifying the workforce, particularly through initiatives like welfare-to-work, can effectively turn tax users into tax payers”. As a Resource Imperative: companies shouldn’t be hindered from attracting best talents available in the markets because of discriminatory practices. As a Legal Requirement: law requires companies not to be discriminatory in their employment practices or they will be exposed to penalties, as “fines and loss of contracts with government agencies”. As a Marketing Strategy: companies...
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...Introduction to financial accounting case studies Name : Sabah El Gaouej Poblem 13-5 page 748 * For further information, Kindly check the calculation sheet inclosed to my Email. 2. Heartland’s ratios evaluation The current and quick ratios measure the ability of the firm to easy liquidize - in both measures Heartland is significantly lower than the industry average, and so this may be a problem. The inventory, asset, and A/R turnover measures collectively reflect how well the firm is utilizing its assets. Heartland is managing it inventory and receivables better than the industry average, and asset turnover (the collective measure) is the same as the industry average. Financial leverage is measured with the Debt/equity ratio and times interest earned measure. Heartland relies more heavily on debt (rather than equity) and as a result is suffering a low times interest earned measure. These two are clearly correlated because you will owe more interest if you carry a larger debt load. Profitability is measured through ROS, ROA, and ROE. In general, we can say that Heartland is not as profitable as an average company that has a similar asset and liability structure. 3. Bank decision making I do not believe that the bank will approve the loan if it actually does use the survey data as a benchmark against Heartland's financial statements. Even if the loan is approved, it will include a higher interest rate, since the bank could loaning to Heartland as a risky venture...
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...Essay mill From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia An essay mill (also term paper mill) is a resource that allows customers to purchase an original piece of writing on a particular topic. Customers provide the company with specific information about the essay, including: a page length, a general topic, and a time frame with which to work. The customer is then charged a certain amount for each page. [1] Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Products and services 3 Legal status 4 Criticism and controversy 5 Strategies for combating academic fraud 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 References History[edit] The ideology behind term paper mills can be dated back to the mid-nineteenth century in which "paper reservoirs" were located in the basements of Fraternity Houses. Otherwise known as "Fraternity files". these essay banks were practices in which students shared term papers and submitted work that had been done by other students.[2] These essay banks inspired the commercialization of ghostwritten essay-writing practices. As early as the 1950s, advertisements were circulating college campus that described services that included ghostwritten work for dissertations, theses, and term papers.[2] In conjunction with this practice, the changing attitudes of students in the 1960s and 1970s started to stray away from diligent and engaged course work because they saw an emphasis on the benefits of community involvement. A new focus on activities outside of the classroom took away from...
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...Industrialisation in India, 1850-1947:Three Variations in the Emergence of Indigenous Industrialists Gijsbert Oonk Abstract In this paper I describe three patterns in the emergence of Indian Entrepeneurs Indian large scale industries, 1850-1930. While doing this I focus on three variables: (1) the colonial attitude towards indigenous business, especially the transformation towards large scale industrialisation1; (2) the religious, occupational and regional background of industrialists to be; and (3) whether or not they belonged to a ‘minority’ group. While these patterns all led to the successful entry of Indian businessmen into large-scale industries, they differ in the explainable importance to be attributed to the different variables. This paper starts with a description of the entry of Marwari businessmen into the jute industry in Calcutta. This will be followed by the success of the Parsi community in the cotton industries of Bombay and finally the story of the Hindu industrialists in Ahmedabad. In the final section, these three patterns of industrialisation will be compared. 1.0 Introduction2 The social sciences have developed a plethora of explanations in describing the success -and to a far lesser extent the failure- of individual entrepreneurs as well as various business communities in World History. The most well known explanations and theories include: the concept of the stranger (Simmel); the spirit of capitalism (Weber); the innovator and the imitator (Schumpeter...
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...Nicole Sahlin November 28, 2012 EDU-536 Canter’s Disruptive Behavior Case Study Every teacher has had that one student who talks out during class, students who do not raise their hand and just carries on when you are trying to teach a lesson. You spend most of your lesson time trying to bring the class back on track rather than teaching. Canter’s has come up with a behavioral management cycle to help teacher’s rectify the bad behavior. Background on Kirra Kirra is 12 and a 5th grader at Manchester Township Elementary School her teacher is Mrs. Mills. Kirra lives with her mother, father, younger brother, and an older sister. Kirra’s home life is unfortunately anything but peaceful and calm. Her mother and father are constantly fighting with each other about money and the children. Kirra’s older sister Christina is the root of several of the family drama as well. Christina sneaks out and does not come home until three in the morning; she also sneaks people in and usually is very loud at night when Kirra is trying to sleep. Kirra also suffers from several health conditions, such as cyst in her ovaries and high blood pressure. Every month it seems that she is in and out of the hospital trying to discover what is causing the high blood pressure. On top of Kirra’s toxic home life and also her health issues Kirra does not have it easy at school either, when she was in fourth...
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...Corporate Taxation | Case Study Analysis | Section 37: General Deductions | By | K Srilekha MBA | | I. FACTS: The assessee company who carried on the business of manufacture of silk was a member of Indian Silk Mills Association. The members entered into a working time agreement to restrict the working hours of the looms to 42 hours per week, so that over-production could be avoided. But, the members could transfer these loom hours amongst themselves. The assessee purchased loom hours from two members for a consideration of Rs 20 lakhs for a period of 6 months. The assessee claimed deduction of Rs. 20 lakhs as business expenditure, under section 37(1) of Income Tax Act. Is the claim justified? II. ANALYSIS OF FACTS: Each member of the association was manufacturing less than what it could have, if it was working full time. The members agreed to such an agreement as otherwise there would have been over-production of silk. The loom hours could be traded for, if you had an excess of them. Loom hours are the number of hours that you work your looms (mills) for. Section 37 speaks about ‘General Deductions’: Any expenditure not specifically covered by sections 30 to 36 is deductible under section 37, if the following conditions are satisfied: a) It should be in respect of business carried on by the assessee b) It should have been laid out or expended wholly or exclusively for the purpose of business c) It must have been incurred in the previous...
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