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Through this case, participants will be able to:

▪ understand the different approaches to preparing operating budgets;

▪ classify the costs based on traceability to its cost centres;

▪ understand the difference in budget preparation and its analysis under different cost centres;

▪ put together the required information, identify the format and prepare major operating budgets; and

▪ evaluate operating budgets and give suggestions to the company based on budget analysis.

This case is about a manufacturing company that is going to introduce a budgeting system. It highlights the process of information collecting from key employees for budget preparation. This case also deals with various decisions to be made during the implementation of the new system such as the context of budgets, cost units and sequence of budgets.This case will help students to enhance their understanding of the operating budgets. The students will able to visualize the difficulty faced by companies to implement a new system.

This case is applicable in the courses such as Master of Business Administration, Master of Commerce or other postgraduate studies. This can also be discussed in professional courses such as Chartered Accountants, Certified Management Accountants, Company Secretaries, Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India and Chartered Financial Analysts.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Undergraduate courses: Auditing, Leadership, Management accounting. Postgraduate courses: Leadership, Management accounting.

Auditing, Leadership, Management accounting

This case documents the journey of a professional accountancy organisation, namely, the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and document the MIA’s journey on the establishment of digital blueprint for the accounting profession in Malaysia including some major milestone in innovating audit evidence-gathering technique by introducing e-confirm for auditing bank confirmation in Malaysia. This case highlights the significant role played by a lady chief executive officer (CEO) in embarking into the digitalisation of the accountancy profession and practice in Malaysia. While the ultimate objective of digital blueprint is to transform the accounting and auditing practices in Malaysia, the CEO has led by example by embedding digitalisation within MIA’s practices itself.

The learning outcome of this paper are as follows: to develop students’ understanding on the right attitudes, skills and characters that a successful leader should possess in contemporary business environment by focusing on dilemma and stereo-typing faced by women leaders; to develop the students’ understanding on the changes in business environment particularly the rise of digital technology that affecting the ways in which accounting functions in organisations; to encourage students to be aware that technical accounting knowledge is just one of the key success factors in the career of a professional accountant. The case offer insight into accountants’ role in digital environment and the development needed for accounting profession; to demonstrate how auditing process can benefit from the advancement in technology; and to encourage critical discussion on the development of accounting profession in Malaysia. The case aims to develop students’ critical discussion on the roles of MIA as a regulator of accounting profession and to appreciate historical development of accounting profession in Malaysia. The case also aims to encourage students to realise the existence of other professional accounting bodies, accounting practitioners and academic accountants, and together with MIA, they play significant role in shaping the accounting profession in Malaysia.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The case has a strong implication on the role of effective leaders in ensuring that significant efforts involved in digitalisation journal, a vital need for the accountancy professional to continue to be a relevant profession, is a success.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Women leadership, Digitalisation, Professional accountancy organisation, Electronic bank confirmation, Malaysia

Naparima Company Limited (NCL) was an importer and wholesaler of grocery and household products in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. Following increasing competition and the adoption of more lavish lifestyles by its owners, the company had fallen on hard times. Its banker, First Republic Bank, had called its outstanding loans of $1.412 million and given the company 90 days to repay all sums outstanding. Also, several major creditors had threatened legal action to recover amounts payable. This had forced NCL to explore alternative financing arrangements and to devise strategies that would improve its financial situation.

The authors used both field interviews and secondary data when preparing this case. One of the authors was a consultant to the company as it worked to develop a restructuring plan. The primary data gleaned from that process, which included interviews with all three leaders of NCL and a review of the company's financial statements, was supplemented by the collection of secondary data about the industry and its competitors from interviews with the executive director of industry association, and information about the national economic environment from newspaper articles and library resources.

This case is suitable for senior-level undergraduate students in a capstone business course, and graduate students in small business management and family business management courses.

The cases describe the demise of Arthur Andersen, a firm that had long set the industry standard for professionalism in accounting and auditing. Once an example of strong corporate culture with a commitment to public service and independent integrity, Andersen saw its culture and standards weaken as it grew explosively and changed its mode of governance. The (A) case describes a crisis precipitated by the admission of Waste Management, a major Andersen client, that it overstated its pretax earnings by $1.43 billion from 1992 to 1996. The resulting Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation ended with Andersen paying a $7 million fine, the largest ever levied against an accounting firm, and agreeing to an injunction that effectively placed the accounting giant on probation. Students analyze the causes of Andersen's problems and advise Andersen leadership. The (B) case covers Arthur Andersen's relationship with Enron, one of the great success stories of the “new economy” boom. When Enron's aggressive use of off-balance sheet partnerships became impossible to hide in autumn 2001, news reports stated that Andersen auditors had engaged in extensive shredding of draft documents and associated communications with Enron. Students are asked to act as crisis management consultants to Andersen CEO Joe Berardino. The (C) case details Andersen's collapse following its indictment and conviction on criminal charges of obstructing justice in the Enron case. Its conviction was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on narrow technical grounds, but by then Andersen had ceased to exist, eighty-nine years after Arthur E. Andersen had taken over a small accounting firm in Chicago. Students can focus on the impact of media on a reputational crisis.

Students will: Identify the teachable moment in a crisis that leaders can leverage as an opportunity to improve a firm's reputation or core identity, to reinforce values, and to drive change, Understand the impact on crisis management of the media landscape and regulatory decision-making, Realize the fragility of corporate cultures and the need to actively maintain them, especially during difficult times,

Organizational change.

Undergraduate and Masters level management programmes, particularly in management accounting, public sector accounting or organizational change.

This case study reflects organizational changes when Fijian Post and Telecom Company (FPTL) made a transition from a government department to a corporate entity. The focus of this case study is to examine some of the intra-organizational or micro-level changes that took place at the company. While the impetus for change may have originated in the Fiji Government's policies of public sector reform, the objective here is to outline the often slow pace of intra-organizational change within FPTL.

FPTL is a sole provider of postal and telecommunication services in Fiji. The organizational actors faced tensions and initially resisted the change to private business routines. However, with wider education and training on the change process, the resistance was reduced. At FPTL, a management team was set up to introduce commercial norms which were subsequently stabilized by the team through the ongoing process of educating employees on the benefits of changes and routinisation of new practices.The learning outcomes are to understand the difficulty of the change process and be aware of some of the resistance that may persist owing to cultural and political circumstance of a specific country.

Teaching note.

Entrepreneurship, family business.

MBA, executive MBA

PN Rao Fine Suits, famously known as the “best tailors” for men's suits and groom wear, started with their first shop in 1923 as a small business of a tailoring shop catering to the needs of the British ladies in Bangalore, India, and by 2013, had four showrooms spread across Bangalore and Chennai, with an annual turnover of INR360 million. Over the years, the patrons of PN Rao have grown not only in Bangalore but across the globe, from countries such as the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands. The PN group had three business arms: the PN Rao showrooms, Rupasi and PN Rao Creations. This family business has survived nine decades in business, with the third generation of family now actively involved in the operations and expansion of the business. Chandramohan Pishe and Machender Pishe, the second-generation brothers in the business, believe in a conservative growth path for their brand, compared to the third-generation cousins, Naveen Pishe and Ketan Pishe. Naveen and Ketan are aware of the market opportunities and the competition and often look for the differentiator that their brand can offer. They are very enthusiastic about their future expansion plans and would like to open 100 showrooms by 2023, their centennial year. The market indicators are favourable and, if leveraged strategically, do offer opportunities to fulfil their expansion plans. Naveen and Ketan firmly believe in the need of instituting a family constitution as they move forward with their expansion plans. The second generation is not very confident of this idea, however, as they believe the family values to be strong enough to continue in the same fashion.

Understand the challenges of a small business and the importance of re-inventing by leveraging a mix of market opportunities to grow and sustain; to evaluate the need and importance of family constitution at the PN Rao Group to sustain, scale and govern in a manner so as to avoid any kind of future family business conflicts.

teaching notes are available for educators only. please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Firms that are selling a relatively new market offering have to create the need for that offering. House Wonders entered a market that was not that well-informed about their market offering, and thus, have experimented with several communication channels that had different cost, and naturally different results. The purpose of this case is to encourage the students to compare and contrast the different communication methods, discuss their usage by House Wonders and come up with the best communication strategy.

This case simulates the challenges faced by a department store that is specialized in home improvement and hardware that recently started operations in Egypt. The store heavily emphasizes the role of “do it yourself” products, which is relatively new to the Egyptian customers. The case study presents the current economic conditions in Egypt, the company profile of the store and its parent company. The following sections involve explaining the concept of “do it yourself,” and other competitive advantages the store, House Wonders, has and how the management team managed to make the best out of it. The case study is concluded by explaining that in spite of all their efforts, the team is still faced with a number of challenges that are yet to be resolved, the most important of which is how to better reach the targeted segment.

Undergraduate/ MBA.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

T Education is a leading educational science and technology enterprise in China with technology-driven, talent intimacy and quality leadership as the core development objectives. Since its inception, it has been committed to creating better learning experience for children. As the predecessor of T-education, X-education was founded in Beijing in 2003. At first, it mainly provided after-school math counseling for school-age children. Over the past 10 years, its business has been expanding, covering almost every aspect of school-age education. This case studies accounting issues and business ethics challenges that firms may face when they transform from a single (traditional education) line of business to a multiple channel business.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:▪ evaluate the difficulties of entry-level women entrepreneurs in the South African farming industry;▪ appreciate the entrepreneurial journey of a women entrepreneur in the farming industry;▪ assess the role of networking and support programmes in prompting women entrepreneurs in South Africa;▪ understand the role of diversification in building a sustainable business in today’s COVID-19-affected economic environment;▪ make an informed decision regarding how COVID-19 had negatively affected the farming industry; and▪ critically evaluate which options are available for women entrepreneurs to overcome the negative effects of COVID-19 and remain sustainable businesses.

In April 2021, managing director and co-owner Beverley-Anne Joseph, was considering the long-term business strategy options for Zelpy, her hop farm business outside George, a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. As the first black woman hop farmer in Africa, she had run a successful business supplying hops to South African Breweries (SAB), a subsidiary of the global conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev). To date, her hop farming business had not been impacted by the South African Government’s COVID-19 lockdowns that impacted the sale of alcoholic beverages. However, it had given her a wake-up call as to the risk of having most of her eggs in one basket. She now had to consider how to diversify her farming business to minimise risk.

MBA, Masters in Management, Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Executive Education short courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case’s learning objectives to work on can vary according to the topic selected by the teacher. This case has been put forward with a particular interest in corporate strategy issues, specifically, on the joint management of businesses (in this case, academic programs). Therefore, students are expected to be able to understand the managerial dilemma on centralization and decentralization; recognize the peculiarities of a shared services center (SSC); and decide on which services to centralize in an SSC.

Centralizing or not centralizing is a frequent managerial dilemma. This is a challenge faced not only by business managers but also by corporate level areas responsible for jointly managing various businesses. Resources and capabilities allocation is an essential process for strategy execution, specifically in corporate strategy that must answer the question: How to jointly manage businesses? Sharing services is a collaborative strategy which aims to increase efficiency by centralizing some processes related to this joint business management. Mario, Dean of the Escuela de Administración in Medellín, Colombia, intends to optimize the school resource allocation processes so that there is more equitable support between the different academic programs. For this, he has thought of creating an SSC as it is a practice that he has seen in prominent companies in the city. His idea is to start operating the SSC in early 2018; however, the particular character of a management school leads him to ask himself: What to centralize and what not to centralize?

This case of decision (Ellet, 2007; Sánchez et al., 2013) can be used to promote student learning of strategy courses both at advanced undergraduate levels and in graduate programs. Likewise, it can be used in workshops with executives and administrative personnel of companies that face the centralize–decentralize dilemma. These types of topics are the subject of study by both corporate strategy theorists who address the question of how to jointly manage business (Menz et al., 2015; Michael Porter, 1987) and consultants (Deloitte, 2012). It is desirable, although not mandatory, that students have some knowledge or experience in strategic issues and challenges associated with the administration of companies made up of various businesses (multi-business firms).

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.