The process of identifying other organizations that are best at some facet of your operations, analyzing your performance versus theirs in order to establish a standard against which to judge performance, and identifying a model for learning how to improve is known as: a. copycatting. b. continuous improvement. c. industrial espionage. d. employee empowerment. e. benchmarking.

Ummit record company is negotiating with two banks for a $157,000 loan. fidelity bank requires a compensating balance of 24 percent, discounts the loan, and wants to be paid back in four quarterly payments. southwest bank requires a compensating balance of 12 percent, does not discount the loan, but wants to be paid back in 12 monthly installments. the stated rate for both banks is 9 percent. compensating balances will be subtracted from the $157,000 in determining the available funds in part a. a-1. calculate the effective interest rate for fidelity bank and southwest bank. (do not round intermediate calculations. input your answers as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places.) a-2. which loan should summit accept? southwest bank fidelity bank b. recompute the effective cost of interest, assuming that summit ordinarily maintains $37,680 at each bank in deposits that will serve as compensating balances

Shrieves casting company is considering adding a new line to its product mix, and the capital budgeting analysis is being conducted by sidney johnson, a recently graduated mba. the production line would be set up in unused space in the main plant. the machinery’s invoice price would be approximately $200,000, another $10,000 in shipping charges would be required, and it would cost an additional $30,000 to install the equipment. the machinery has an economic life of 4 years, and shrieves has obtained a special tax ruling that places the equipment in the macrs 3-year class. the machinery is expected to have a salvage value of $25,000 after 4 years of use. the new line would generate incremental sales of 1,250 units per year for 4 years at an incremental cost of $100 per unit in the first year, excluding depreciation. each unit can be sold for $200 in the first year. the sales price and cost are both expected to increase by 3% per year due to inflation. further, to handle the new line, the firm’s net working capital would have to increase by an amount equal to 12% of sales revenues. the firm’s tax rate is 40%, and its overall weighted average cost of capital, which is the risk-adjusted cost of capital for an average project (r), is 10%. define “incremental cash flow.” (1) should you subtract interest expense or dividends when calculating project cash flow?

Biochemical corp. requires $600,000 in financing over the next three years. the firm can borrow the funds for three years at 10.80 percent interest per year. the ceo decides to do a forecast and predicts that if she utilizes short-term financing instead, she will pay 7.50 percent interest in the first year, 12.15 percent interest in the second year, and 8.25 percent interest in the third year. assume interest is paid in full at the end of each year. a)determine the total interest cost under each plan. a) long term fixed rate: b) short term fixed rate: b) which plan is less costly? a) long term fixed rate plan b) short term variable rate plan