Home

  [Home]

Updated on October 22, 2010

PLEASE follow these instructions closely. They are designed to ensure that I get your work, that I can identify it as your work, and that I can evaluate it carefully and accurately.

1. Individual work is required for all parts of the assignment. Separate answers derived from a "common" worksheet do NOT constitute individual work and will be treated as academic dishonesty, with full penalties applied. [= you flunk the assignment in a best-case scenario]
2. Professional-looking work is expected. Form and format count; treat all your work as though it was going to be reviewed by someone you REALLY wanted to impress [significant other, grandma, the "boss," graduate school admissions officer, etc.] 
3. Electronic copy [Excel file ONLY] due no later than 9:30 am PDT on October 28th, 2010. Late receipts go to cyberheaven.
   1. email subject line: catfish final; messages with other subject lines will be ignored and deleted.
   2. Excel filename: yourlastnamecatfish.xls; files with other filenames will be ignored and deleted.
4. Hard copy due no later than the start of your class section, and should consist of the following:
   1. a ONE page summary of your results [prepared in Word or the equivalent], which gives your answers to the questions below
   2. a printout of your Excel worksheets.

Other instructions:

1. Please DO NOT use Excel to answer the "essay" questions.
2. Use bullet points to answer the essay questions wherever possible. Be brief, but be specific.
3. This case is somewhat similar to the Crummy Cracker case. OK, sure, the product and environment are very different, but the basic issues are much the same: can this business make money?
4. One way to think about questions 1 and 2, below is to use what I call the "frog pond" method. How big is the frog pond [= the market]? How big are the frogs already in the pond [canoe manufacturers, in this case]?  Are they big bullfrogs or tadpoles? How serious is the "threat" from the big ones [are they just noisy or do they really stir up the water?] Is there enough space for yet another frog in this pond? Are there enough lily pads to hide under here, or are we going to get beat up before our tadpole-sized venture reaches maturity? Thinking this through in the context of the case should not be too difficult.
5. Note that the answer to question 2 is somewhat dependent on the answers to questions 3, 4, and 5.
6. HINT: There is nothing NEW in this case that really requires the material from chapter 5. In some respects, I could just as well have used Catfish Creek Canoes in place of the Crummy Cracker case. DO NOT make this more difficult than it is.

Your assignment questions are as follow:

1. Is this an attractive industry to enter? Why or why not?
   1. Who are CCC's competitors? What kinds of product do they offer?
   2. What are consumers looking for when canoe shopping?  How much are customers willing to pay for wooden canoes?
   3. How do the competitors' products compare with what potential canoe customers are looking for? Consider both price and attributes of the product.
2. Given your evaluation of 1a - 1c, above, can CCC provide a canoe having the attributes that customers want for a price customers are likely to pay? What selling price should CCC set in order to cover costs and meet profit goals?
3. Determine the dollar value of the investment that would be required to get CCC started.
4. Determine CCC's total fixed costs. Include internet charges. Note that advertising rates are given for two magazines catering to canoers. Assume that CCC would go for a 3 inch ad in each of the two publications mentioned, and the prices are linear.
   1. The U.S. exchange rate on July 29, 1999 was 1.4695.
   2. Production cost of the ad is $1,000Cdn.
   3. Fixed assets have a useful life of 5 years; depreciation is straight line, zero salvage.

5. Determine the sales revenue necessary for Davidson to achieve an annual net profit of $10,000.

6. Based on your analysis so far, what price will Davidson have to charge in order to achieve the desired profit? 

Evaluation of your work:

"A" papers will thoroughly address each of the issues enumerated above. Written work will be comprehensive and contain insights into the obvious issues as well as the subtleties involved in this decision. Numerical analysis will be accurate, complete and well organized. "A" papers will demonstrate a thorough understanding of the conceptual issues which are relevant to the analysis. "A" papers will have professional appearance and will be entirely free of errors in spelling, grammar and syntax. One primary differentiator between "A" and "B" papers will be the extent to which you are able to integrate the qualitative and quantitative assessments of this situation. "C" papers will tend to lack any such integration, and/or contain significant conceptual/mechanical errors. More serious [or more numerous] errors will result in grades of C- or lower. Historically, students' ability to address questions like So what? What difference does it make? Who cares? has been a major factor in the difference between higher and lower grades in all of my classes.

Assessment of quantitative skills: Ass discussed in the course syllabus, some of the assignments to evaluate your achievement of quantitative skills. Catfish Creek is one of those. This will not require that you do anything different from what you would normally do in the class or on an assignment, and it will have no impact on your grade. However, on specific assignments, you will get feedback on my assessment of your achievement of quantitative skills. Achievement of quantitative skills is demonstrated by the ability to manipulate quantitative information as well as the ability to interpret that information:

1. Calculations: can you "do the math" and arrive at the correct answer? Note that this involves both mechanics [arithmetic and algebraic manipulation of numbers and variables] and a conceptual understanding of the material [manipulating the correct numbers in the correct ways]. It is critical to use calculations which are consistent with established formulas and relationships.

2. Interpretation: do you understand the "raw data" as well as the results of calculations [i.e., the numerical "answers"]? What do the numbers mean? Can you use the information you have derived in order to make a decision or provide a recommendation to management?
    

Copyright © 2010 Gerald M. Myers
Last modified: 1/31/2011; 17:24