...lasting between three and ten years. The company has a “sales-driven-culture” which is “the more you sell, the more commissions you will get”. Richard is responsible for monitoring when contracts are signed and when the payments for those contracts are assured. Obviously he failed in his job because he was incarcerated on April 24, 2006. The accounting department recorded its sales in the current quarter while these sales should be recorded next quarter, which took place at the fourth quarter of 1998 and the second quarter of 2001. According the evidence and the proclamation of prosecutors from the DOJ and SEC, the CA accounting department did not follow the GAAP. However, Richard asserted that this way of accounting was not as costly and significant as the WorldCom or Enron corruption cases because these two companies went bankrupt. Richard is also very confident that once released from prison, he will be able to continue his accounting career. The process in which CA recorded its sales revealed numerous inaccurate accounting principles and concepts. According to the article, the accounting department recognized revenue while the contract was signed. It follows the accrual concept that revenue is recognized not only when cash transactions occur. Since the contracts were signed, the revenue could be received earlier or later. Accural accounting helps to provide a more accurate picture of current company conditions. However, CA’s accounting strategy was to recognize next quarter...
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...Letter from Prison Esta lectura relata el caso de Stephan Richards y su travesia por Corporate Associates (CA) finalizando en 7 anos de carcel. Veo como el problema principal que los directores de CA estaban enfocados en el fin sin importarles los medios. En otras palabras, los directivos manipulaban los datos financieros (fechas de los cierre de contratos en cada cuatrimestre) para cumplir sus metas de ventas internas previamente establecidas y por ende llegar al EPS prognosticado por los analistas. El GAAP establecia que los ingresos por licencias de software fueran reconocidos una vez se firmaba el contrato, el software estuviera entregado y el pago razonablemente asegurados. Según GAAP, CA debio registrar el valor presente del contrato en el cuatrimestre que se cumpliera con estas 3 condiciones. A continuación un dateline de los acontecimientos del caso: Julio 2000 – CA anuncia que sus resultados financieros para 1er trimestre 2011 seria menos de lo prognosticados por Wall Street. CA justifico este resultado por la tendencia de muchos clientes esperar ultimo minuto para firmar esperando beneficiarse de mayor oferta, plazos mas largos de pago, servicios gratuitos, etc. y resulto que no firmaron a tiempo. April 2001 – NY times cuestiona las practicas de contabilidad excesivamente agresivas para usados por CA para impulsar ganacias. CA se defiende. April 30, 2001, KMPG, los auditores de CA, defiende las practicas de contabilidad de CA. Empieza una investigación...
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...FOODCORP REFLECTION PAPER 1. INTRODUCTION In FoodCorp simulation, held on 22 nd of November, my position was VP Marketing Services and I worked under the head of SVP Service Group. Service group consisted of 4 people including one senior vice president and three vice presidents. As VP of Marketing Services, I was responsible for marketing communications in general. I also mention about organizational structure of FoodCorp to establish a basis for my latter discussions. FoodCorp has a matrix structure and also has a number of committees like executive committee, acquisition committee, new business committee and distribution committee. In this paper, I will give brief information about our simulation process and then provide my reflections about some specific moments. 2. SIMULATION PROCESS President’s Decision about Groups: At the beginning of the simulation, our president enabled us to introduce ourselves and give information about our roles. Then each group continued with small meetings with their own groups. After group meetings, we would continue with committee meetings according to the original agenda. However, we were divided into two groups: Those who have operational roles and those who have not and our president decided each group to held meetings according to that division. In the operational group there were 9 people while non-operational group was consisting of 3 people. Service Group Meeting: I think that we held a successful and effective meeting in...
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...Real-time Business Intelligence: Best Practices at Continental Airlines1 Written by Hugh J. Watson (University of Georgia), Barbara H. Wixom (University of Virginia), Jeffrey A. Hoffer (University of Dayton), Ron Anderson-Lehman (Continental Airlines), and Anne Marie Reynolds(Continental Airlines) Data management for decision support has moved through three generations, with the latest being real-time data warehousing. This latest generation is significant because of its potential for affecting tactical decision making and business processes. Continental Airlines is a leader in real-time business intelligence and much can be learned from how they have implemented it. The movement to real-time is the latest development in business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing. Real-time data warehousing provides the data that is required to implement realtime BI. By moving to real-time, firms can use BI to affect current decision making and business processes. This capability is especially important for customer-facing applications, such as those found in call centers and check-in processes, and helps firms become more customer-centric. Terms such as the “real-time enterprise” and the “zero latency organization” are often used to describe firms that use real-time BI. The purpose of real-time BI is to increase revenues and decrease costs. Companies that successfully implement real-time BI can dramatically improve their profitability. For example, Continental Airlines,...
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...A letter from prison Introduction Richard is the executive of Computer Associates. His company sells software products which usually have licence last for a period of three to ten years. The company has a “sales-driven-culture” which is “the more you sell, the more commissions you will get”. Richard is responsible for keep an eye on things like when the contracts are signed and when those payments are assured. It seems that he failed on his job because he was put in jail on April 24, 2006. The accountant department had recorded the sales in the current quarter while these sales should be recorded in the next quarter, which took place at the fourth quarter of 1998 and the second quarter of 2001. According the evidence and the proclamation of prosecutors, the action account department has taken was not following the GAAP. However, to the word of Richard himself, this way of accounting was not a really big deal like the WorldCom bankrupt or Enron bankrupt. And he is also very confident to continue developing his career in the future after he is released from the jail. 1. Sumarize the lessons learned by you from reading this article. The way that Computer Association records its sales has pointed out several accounting principles and concepts. According to the article, the account department recognized revenue while the contract was signed. It follows the accrual concept that revenue is recognized not only when cash transactions occur. Since the contracts were signed,...
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...Questions: ETHICAL ISSUES Q1. How serious were Stephen Richards’ actions? If Computer Associates achieved the same financial results within “allowed accounting flexibility”, will this change your answer? Q2. Richards describes how difficult it is to operate in the “gray areas of accounting” and wanted more guidance from senior management. Do you agree or disagree with him? If you were placed in the same position as Richards, how would you handle the situation? What are the options that you think you would face in deciding what to do? Q3. Step back and consider management’s incentives and choices. What are Computer Associate’s motivations to manage earnings and the financial value represented by the statement of financial position? What type of corporate governance structures in firms have been identified by the research as a flag, or indicator, that a firm is more likely to manage/manipulate financial accounting outcomes? ACCOUNTING ISSUES Q4. Comment on the GAAP standard that allows software firms to recognize the entire value of the licensing contract as revenue in the quarter that the contract was affirmed. Do you think this accounting treatment contributed to the culture at Computer Associates? Why or why not? Q5. Exhibit 4 provides an overview of the inflated recorded revenue and EPS. Is it important for Computer Associates to meet analyst estimates? Why or why not? Q6. Does accounting management/manipulation have an impact on stock prices? (Hint:...
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...very short chapters, written as letters to God, that explain in the shortest possible ways the trials and tribulations Celie (and, later, Nettie) experience. Alice Walker presents Celie’s thoughts in the vernacular, with poor grammar and spelling. These emphasize the point that Celie is not an educated woman. Walker’s ability to use diction, tone, apostrophe, and the appeal to pathos. Walker uses diction and tone when prompting the characters’ dialogue. She does so in one of Celie’s letter to God when discussing Squeak coming home from prison. Harpo is disgusted and enraged that Squeak was abused in prison. He says, “I ought to go back out there with guns, maybe set fire to the place, burn the crackers up.”...
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...Political Environment Case Study CJA 444 In this paper, my response to the letter from the state governor who asked me to end all educational, vocational, and treatment programs in the prison facility will be discussed. I will present negotiating suggestions, present updated information on how my programs have benefited our economics, present evidence on how much internal and external support my programs have. I will discuss who I will contact for support and present the effectiveness and the success of my policies. As the prison director, if I received a letter from my State Governor, verbally directing me to immediately stop all effective activities like the educational, vocational, and treatment opportunities in my prison institute, I would quickly respond to the letter stating why the he (Governor) has to reconsider his or her directives. Due to the effectiveness of my policies, I will not immediately yield to the Governor’s order on giving up my coordinated and effective programs; instead I would write the governor and prove how the society has economically benefited from my prison management system. I would also re-present my prison design and how I am getting inmates involved in education, and vocational opportunities which I believe has been productive and helpful to our societies. In addition, besides the benefit society achieves from this system, it also motivate the inmates by giving them a chance and opportunities to better themselves...
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...9-110-045 REV: MARCH 31, 2011 EUGENE SOLTES A Letter from Prison On February 14, 2008, Stephen Richards, inmate #71320-053 at Taft Federal Correctional Institution, completed a letter to Eugene Soltes, a student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Richards was the former global head of sales at Computer Associates. Exhibit 1 provides the list of questions Soltes asked Richards. Exhibit 2 is a copy of the letter Soltes received in return. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Eugene Soltes prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. Purchased by: CHUAN LAN llaass2@163.com on August 24, 2013 110-045 A Letter from Prison Computer Associates and Stephen Richards Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) began as a four-person start-up in 1976. Its founder, Charles Wang, sought to...
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...Andy Dufresne is put in prison. He is accused of a crime that he has not done. The officers go through a long process of questioning. Eventually Andy gets out of prison. Andy’s friend Red is released from prison as well. The warden commit suicide when he was alone, and he got robbed. Through the process of the questioning from the DA, he seemed to react as if he was calm, but irritated on in the inside from the accusation for his wife and her loved one's death. The DA asks Andy, “Do you mean to tell this court that your wife did not recognize your brand-new Plymouth sedan behind Quentin’s car?” Andy had calm responses to majority of the many questions the DA was asking. Andy was found guilty at the end of the case on a snowy Wednesday afternoon. Andy was sentenced his life to prison. He was taken into the Shawshank...
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...The Scarlet Letter Death…the common punishment in Puritan America. Puritans were people who lived in a time of fear; fear of sin and a fear of God. Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman of the sixteen hundreds, committed a sin that would leave her with a life of ridicule and guilt. Her life is narrated by a dweller of the eighteenth century, two hundred years after her lifetime. Hester Prynne’s life is told in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathanial Hawthorne and is stationed in the Puritan town of Boston during the sixteenth century. Prynne, who was sent to America by her husband, was left alone by him for two years. Soon, she became attracted to another man, committed adultery, and bore a daughter whom she named Pearl. Due to this child, her fellow Puritans became aware of her deadly sin, and Prynne was sentenced to prison for a short time, public ridicule on a scaffold, and a life of recognition wearing the “Scarlet A,” which stood for her sin of adultery. In Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s punishments were fair to her crime. For the crime of adultery that Hester Prynne committed, the punishment of staying in prison was fair. Prynne, living in Puritan Boston in the sixteenth century, was seen as someone as deadly as a murderer. During this time, adultery was known as a horrid sin which would send a person to Hell upon death. Therefore, the usual punishment for this crime during this time was death, which Prynne narrowly...
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...North American Literature 2014-2015. Individual Freedom restricted by Puritans. Analysis of Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. [Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Scarlet Letter] ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to analyze how Nathaniel Hawthorne deals with the theme of freedom focusing on the major characters such as Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. I argue that, there is a sign of individual freedom due to the fact that all the characters have the right to act in the way they do it but they will be always suppressed by the decisions of the Puritans. I also argue that, there is no collective freedom in terms of society because Puritanism restricts, punishes and judges individual actions. Key words: major characters, individual freedom, suppressed, no collective freedom. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, is constructed by the main themes of isolation and suffering. Moreover, sin and the Puritan law are narrowly connected, making the wish of freedom almost an impossible achievement. Over the course of the novel, Hester is the only one who truly manifests her right of individual freedom. However, she has been punished by the Puritan law, which considers her attitude as a threat to the Puritan community and its religion. Hester’s freedom starts since the moment she decides to carry her punishment in New England and not going back to England, where she could have lived a new life without feeling guilty. Furthermore, her self-determination...
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...Prison Gangs Prison Gangs According to (Wikipedia) a prison gang is a term used to identify any type of gang activity in prisons and correctional facilities. The difference between prison gangs and street gangs has become unclear because gang members are in and out of the prison system according to the (Street Gangs and Interventions: Innovative Problem Solving with Network Analysis, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2005). Prison gangs offer more than just simple protection for the members in prison; many prison gangs are responsible for drug, tobacco and other contraband handling. Prison gangs often seek to intimidate other inmates and bribe or intimidate prison staff. Prison gangs are a large influence of organized crime. Prison gangs are also known for laundering money from outside gangs while in prison. The forming of a prison gang is prohibited however; prison gangs are on a rise and without regard of the law prohibiting them. Many of the gang members are already in prison serving very long sentences; when another member is sentence they link up and look out for one another. There are multiple prison gangs in America such as the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nazi Low-riders, La Eme, those are just a few. (American Prison Gangs by Sharon White) According to this article prison gangs are in the Federal prison system and 32 state jurisdictions. There are 29 able to be identified and the prison guards know the member by names. Prison officials have identified 114...
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...SuperMax Prison Michele Fuentes Ms. Calais November 7, 2012 Westwood College Week 4 Assignment CJRS 121 SuperMax prisons are lacking of personnel and super security according to the article “SuperMax Prison is Super Lax, Court Case Allege” from Drew Griffin and James Polk. These high profile dangerous criminals are still able to communicate with the world and run illegal activity from prisons. This does not make sense. How can a high security institution allow this to happen? Even if they don’t know of the matter, they are still serving time in the SuperMax security, which means top of the line-supervised institute. If illegal activity is happening outside in society and the orders/shots are being called from inside the institute, then the way of monitoring and supervising the inmates needs to change to isolate them form society. Ruben “Night Owl” Castro was accused of running illegal activities form his SuperMax cell. Castro was relaying messages in various ways like coded letters, phone calls, and though his girlfriends whom will go visit him and help send out his messages. A change that can be done to prevent Castro to do this is isolate him from society. He is in a SuperMax because he broke the law and committed a serous crime. He shouldn’t be allowed to have any visitors. He is in prison to isolate him from society, that time of isolation means no visitors, letters, phone calls, nor contact with any human besides the prison guards. This should apply to an inmate...
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...After reading A Letter from Prison I have many takeaways and lessons learned. It is absolutely imperative that companies maintain their financial documents with as much accuracy and honesty as possible, and do their due diligence in taking whatever measures appropriate to have accurate financial data. If a company does not understand how to properly record revenue than it is their due diligence to comply with the accounting standards that are set and they must hire employee’s who understand how to properly handle the situation. The ethics within this case are very negative when it comes to revenue recognition and the backdating of software contracts. Recognizing revenue within certain time periods for future contracts that may or may not actually occur was another take-away from this case: you simply can’t do that and still comply with generally accepted accounting principles. The payments for these contracts were not reasonably assured because of the multi-year lengths, and, this was my “ah-ha” moment when reading this case. Safeguarding financial reporting is more about the reporting companies than anything else in my observation with a letter from prison. The company chose to backdate contracts and recognize revenue improperly without informing their auditors of these decisions or situations that were occurring. I do think that within other companies sometimes it is about the auditors and their role is to provide honest and professional auditing work of the financial statements...
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