Finance 4596

Seminar in Financial Management

Spring 2016
Instructor: Amir Shoham
Office: Alter Hall 424
Office Hours: T&R 10:30-11:00
Email: amir.shoham@temple.edu
Class Prerequisites: Finance 3101, 3504 and 3507
Textbook: See BB for details

“We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the
wilderness, which no one can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the
point of view from which at last we come to regard the world.” Marcel Proust

Course Objective
As the capstone undergraduate class in finance, the Seminar in Financial Management is
designed to provide participants with an encompassing integrative experience in finance that
prepares them for entry into the workplace. This is accomplished by using business cases to
reinforce and unify the tools that students have developed in prior finance classes through
practical application and a full exploration of the richness of finance as it is applied in business
scenarios. The focus of this course will be on critical thinking, utilization of the tools of finance
and development of business communication skills. Each student should leave the class with an
understanding of the issues faced by corporations, the risks and decisions unique to finance and
the tools used to manage those risks and decisions. The ability to communicate clearly and
concisely in a business setting is of critical importance throughout one’s career and, accordingly,
the development of written and oral communication are cornerstones of this class with the goal
of creating a strong integrative and unifying experience in information literacy in business and
finance.

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Course Method
This course contains case analysis, presentations and two exams, however, it is primarily a case
analysis class. You will learn more in a case class from attempting to solve problems than from
the posing of the problem itself. The questions that arise may be more important than the
questions that were originally posed. From the days of Socrates, the battle of question and
answer has been used as an effective instruction device. You cannot enter into this process with a
set of preconceived ideas about analysis, the case, finance, or the process of solving problems.
Case analysis is not formulaic and there is no “right” answer. Just because a given solution
actually occurred doesn’t mean it was “right” or even “okay”. The most beautiful thing about a
case class is that what each of you learns will be different, it will be determined by your
colleagues and it will be dynamic. Two cases may teach opposite lessons. In the end, your
learning will depend on your preparation, your background, your work ethic, your choice of
strategy and your desire to use your mind.

Cases are complex, challenging, and realistic. They are the closest you will get to being in an
actual business decision-making role until you are employed in one. They are an excuse for
exploring problems and asking questions. The most important aspects of a case may be hidden.
Assume nothing, verify everything, question the answers and answer the questions.

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Harvard Business School, long known for its case approach, provides us with the 4 P’s required
of any student enrolled in this class.

1. Preparation: You must read and analyze the assigned material and case before hand. Be
prepared to formulate a plan of action, justify it, explain any assumptions you have made and
defend it before your colleagues. There is no such thing as a wrong answer, but there are
answers that are ill-conceived. The Socratic method requires vigorous discourse to be of any
value. To achieve that discourse, you must be prepared.
2. Presence: You must come to class or you cannot learn nor be learned from. I will not tolerate
absence from this class. You wouldn’t miss a crucial meeting at work, don’t miss one here
and every class is a crucial meeting to which your attendance is required.
3. Promptness: Coming to class late causes a disruption of the discussion; it is rude to your
colleagues and to me.
4. Participation: You have the responsibility to share your understanding and insight with the
class. I am just a moderator and arbiter. You are individually and collectively responsible for
your own learning. You should be prepared well enough to make your participation
independent of the strategy you believe best addresses the problems at hand. Being prepared
means you can answer basic questions about the business scenario without reference to the
case materials in either electronic or paper form. This is a basic business skill that will serve
you well if you master it.

This course meets the writing intensive requirement for the Fox School of Business and
Management. All writing assignments will be in the form of a professional business memo that
begins with a recommended course of action and be followed by the necessary data description
and analysis to support that recommendation. The Component Details section of this syllabus
contains mandatory guidelines for case submission.

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Course Goals

Effective decision-making and communication are the cornerstones of a successful career in

business. In finance, effective decision making and communication are demonstrated by: the

accurate assessment of a business scenario; the identification of the relevant information and

necessary decision points; the selection of the appropriate tools with which to guide decision-

making; the utilization of those tools effectively; the evaluation of alternative courses of action;

and the recommendation of an actionable decision that is clearly and concisely supported by the

data and analytics. Accordingly, this class is writing-intensive with an emphasis on developing

student ability to:

1. Write a concise paragraph that identifies the problem, its importance, alternative solutions

and recommendations while avoiding unnecessary summarization of material from the

business scenario and includes at least one reference to an outside source.

2. Organize an analysis and present it clearly and concisely

3. Effectively present the data necessary to perform the analysis

4. Evaluate alternative courses of action

5. Recommend an actionable decision that has strong factual support within the context of the

case and does not reflect solely or primarily an opinion.

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 Course Schedule and Due Dates

Due Dates:
Week Topic In-class Assignment Submission Revisions
(midnight of) (midnight of)
January 11 Introduction Individual Cert. Exam
How to Approach a Case

January 18 Financial Decision Making

January 25 Forecasting Super Project Jan. 25, 2016 Feb. 01, 2016
February 01 Financial Ratios Financial Detective Feb 01, 2016
(Indiv.)
February 08 Cost of Capital Teletech (Group)Sit down Feb. 08, 2016 Feb. 15, 2016
with Professor
February 15 Capital structure M&M Pizza (Indiv.)Sit Feb 15, 2015 March 07, 2015
down with profesor
February 22 Capital Budgeting
March 07 Capital Budgeting Arcadian Micro (Group ) March 07, 2016 March 14, 2016
March 14 Capital Budgeting Geo Tech (Group) March 14, 2016 March 21, 2016
March 21 Valuing Enterprises
March 28 Individual Cert. Exam (retake)
April 04 Valuing Enterprises Champ Sports (Indv) April 04, 2016 April 11, 2016
April 11 Valuing Enterprises Flinder Valves (Group) April 11, 2016 April 18, 2016
April 18 Final remarks

Final Exam Saturday April 30, 2016

9:00 AM - 2:00PM

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Course Grade

The final course grade will be determined as follows:

Component Weight
1. Presentations 10%
2. Individual Certification Exam (higher of two attempts) 15%
3. Individual Final Exam Case 20%
4. Group cases 29%
5. Individual cases 26%

Total 100%

Boldface items (case write-up components 4 & 5) will receive comments in an initial round
of grading with the final grade to be determined by resubmission of a revised version
addressing instructor comments.

Fox School Grading Policy

Grade
A > 93.33
90.00 <= A- <= 93.33
87.67 <= B+ <=89.99
83.34 <= B <= 87.66
80.00 <= B- <= 83.33
77.67 <= C+ <= 79.99
73.34<= C <= 77.66
70.00<= C- <=73.33
67.67<= D+ <=69.99
63.34<= D <=67.66
60.00<= D- <=63.33
F <=59.99

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Component Details

1. Individual Certification Exam: This exam is designed to ensure that students in the
capstone class and graduating with a finance degree have the necessary knowledge and
skills to successfully complete the class and to meet the expectations of financial market
employers. The exam will be offered on the first night of class and a different version
covering the same material will be offered on the date indicated. The exam will cover the
material from your prior finance classes for which you are responsible upon entering and
leaving this class. A list of the relevant topics will be distributed via Blackboard prior to
the beginning of the semester along with textbook references for those students wishing
to review the material prior to taking the exam. All students must take the exam in class
during the first meeting of their class. Students missing the first night of class will only
have one opportunity to take the exam. The second offering of the exam provides
students who add the class late, who perform poorly on the first offering or who are
committed to performing better an additional opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of
the material. The lower of the two exam grades will be dropped when determining
student scores on this component for purposes of determining the final class grade.
If you need to refresh your memory on the financial material you learned in previous
courses you can see videos on the financial topics at:
https://www.fox.temple.edu/vault/topic/finance/
2. Final Exam: The final is an individual mini-case at the scheduled exam time as indicated
on the syllabus. Note that this is not the scheduled time in the University schedule of final
exam times to ensure that you have enough time to adequately prepare the case write-up.
The assignment will be provided at the scheduled time via Blackboard and you will have
the length of the exam period (5 hours) to compose your answer and submit it
electronically to your instructor. Please also note that the scheduled time is a Saturday in
order to accommodate the differing section times for this class. The format for your final
exam submission should follow that of the group and individual case write-ups during the
semester: no more than four (4) pages of written material including the executive
summary with no more than six (6) pages of appendices in an MS Word or Work

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 document. Any supporting calculations should be included in a separate MS Excel file
with different labeled worksheets as needed for different calculations.
3. Group and Individual Cases: The write-up in all case submissions should be written as if
you are employed in the role of consultant to, or subordinate of, a senior financial
manager. The case group write-ups are to be no more than two written pages including
the executive summary and no more than 6 pages of accompanying exhibits (appendices).
The case individual write-ups are to be no more than three written pages including the
executive summary and no more than 6 pages of accompanying exhibits (appendices).
The document submitted for grading should be a single file in MS Word with any and all
necessary exhibits, appendices, etc incorporated into the Word document not provided as
additional individual files. Supporting calculations should be provided in a separate MS
Excel spreadsheet file with clear labeling and documentation in that file including the
separation of differing calculations into different labeled worksheets within the file. Any
and all materials submitted should be of professional quality which means, among other
things, you should not insert picture format files (jpg, bmp, etc) of items that are more
appropriately created in a spreadsheet or word-processing program.

It is a central goal of this class that the individual case write-ups should be well-
developed writing samples that you can then provide to prospective employers upon
request. It has become extremely commonplace for finance employers to request a
writing sample and this is your opportunity to generate several such samples.

The final grade on each case will be based on how well you addressed the comments
from the original submission in your redraft. Your instructor reserves the right to raise
other issues not previously noted in the original draft that should have been addressed in
the rewrite. The easiest way to improve the writing style component of the grade is to
take your draft to the Fox Business Communication Center and have them help you
revise the paper and address the instructor’s comments.

A central component of a writing-intensive class, as required by University policy, is the

use of outside sources. Accordingly, each case you submit should include at least one
reference, properly formatted, of an outside source with information relevant to your case

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analysis or discussion. Examples of such would include references to the state of the
economy at the time of the case, analytic tools used in your exploration of the relevant
issues, or additional information on the company where possible or feasible. We have
only one rule for the case analysis itself: You may not use any source from later than
the case date. This ensures that you are addressing the case with the information and
tools available to the decision-makers at the time. Please note that this means citing your
textbooks from prior classes is generally not permissible since most of them will have
been copyrighted since the case date(s).

Professional, written documents will contain correct American English grammar, word
choice and spelling, and make coherent and persuasive arguments. Learning to write
clearly, concisely and informatively is an exceptionally valuable skill that you should
undertake to master as soon as possible. We will not be mandating margins, typesize,
indentation, etc. You should turn in a professional product. You wouldn’t turn in a report
to your boss with ¼ inch margins, ¾ line spacing and 8 pt type, don’t turn one in to us.
Generally, professional written reports will have at least 1 inch margins, use 12 or 10 pt
type and use 1.5 line spacing or double spacing. They will be capable of being printed
clearly on standard size 8 ½ x 11 inch paper. For instructors requiring a hard copy, a
simple staple in the upper left hand corner will suffice. It is neither necessary nor
recommended that you bind your reports or place them in glossy sleeves, etc.

4. Presentations

Presentations are an essential part of learning in this class. All group members should
participate in presenting the case. The presentation should not exceed 20 minutes. If you
are not prepared (individually and collectively), then this part of the grade will suffer.

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Personal Responsibility

All of the requirements for this course are clearly stated in this document, as well as other places
within Blackboard. Your instructor will try to remind you of due dates, but ultimately this is
your responsibility. If you do not turn in assignments, then it will be assumed that you
understand the consequences of your actions. If there are any changes, your instructor will post
them to the Announcements section within Blackboard. Part of doing well in this course is being
well organized, reading and following directions, and turning in your assignments on time.

Finally, this course is relatively unstructured compared to a typical undergraduate course. The
burden of learning falls on you. This means you need to read the material assigned and review
the case and homework assignments after class. Your instructor’s role in class is to guide you to
the resources necessary to get the job done and to demonstrate relevant analytical techniques, not
'spoon feed' you basic finance that you should already know. If you cannot organize your time
effectively (e.g., work, student organizations, other course requirements, etc. have a higher
priority), then your grade will suffer.

Please be advised that your instructor has no minimum grade for this course and does not
“curve” grades (there are no curves in the “real world”). You will be held to standards
approximating what you will encounter when you graduate. If you do not perform at a C level
then you may have to repeat this course in order to graduate. If you cannot keep up with the
material you should withdraw from the course before the deadline. If you don't, please
remember that your instructor has no obligation to pass you in this course.

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Course Policies

Late Submissions

No late assignments will be accepted – if you submit the case write-up late, your grade will be a
zero. Assignments must be submitted electronically on the indicated date in the schedule of
topics and assignments before the indicated time. Additionally, a matching hard copy will be
handed in at the beginning of the next class meeting for those professors requiring a hard copy.
Failure to turn in the hard copy at the beginning of class constitutes a late assignment even if the
electronic assignment was submitted on-time. Submission should be in the form of a single
Microsoft Work or Word file for the text portion of your write-up inclusive of any exhibits
necessary to support your recommendation and an Excel file demonstrating any quantitative
material included in or supporting the write-up. Please see the Component Details: Individual
and Group Cases section for further information on formatting, etc.

Incompletes

Your instructor will only give an "I" (“Incomplete”) if you meet the requirements for this grade,
i.e., you have completed substantially all of the work in the course, but for some unforeseen
reason you cannot finish the course. An “I” will only be assigned in the event that the student in
question meets the University criteria for receiving an “I”. In the event that a student fails to
complete the work necessary to receive a final grade by the end of the ensuing semester, the
default grade will be an “F”.

Attendance

I will treat you as if you are working for me. You wouldn’t regularly miss work, don’t miss
class. Late materials will not be accepted unless the student has a university-approved excuse.
This includes coming into class late when something has already been collected. While I
understand that we all face tight time schedules, it is inconsiderate to your colleagues for you to
come into class late. Please make every effort to be on time since being late constitutes being
absent. If you miss or are tardy to three classes, you will be assigned an “F” for the
semester. If you believe that you cannot attend class on time or will be missing several classes

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during the semester please consider taking the class in a different section or semester rather than
risking the “F”.

Academic Integrity

Temple University believes strongly in academic honesty and integrity. Plagiarism and academic
cheating are, therefore, prohibited. Essential to intellectual growth is the development of
independent thought and a respect for the thoughts of others. The prohibition against plagiarism
and cheating is intended to foster this independence and respect.

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person's labor, another person's ideas, another
person's words, or the unauthorized use of another person's assistance. Normally, all work done
for courses -- papers, examinations, homework exercises, laboratory reports, oral presentations --
is expected to be the individual effort of the student presenting the work. Any assistance must be
reported to the instructor. If the work has entailed consulting other resources -- journals, books,
or other media -- these resources must be cited in a manner appropriate to the course. It is the
instructor's responsibility to indicate the appropriate manner of citation. Everything used from
other sources -- suggestions for organization of ideas, ideas themselves, or actual language --
must be cited. Failure to cite borrowed material constitutes plagiarism. Undocumented use of
materials from the World Wide Web is plagiarism.

Academic cheating is, generally, the thwarting or breaking of the general rules of academic work
or the specific rules of the individual courses. It includes falsifying data; submitting, without the
instructor's approval, work in one course which was done for another; helping others to
plagiarize or cheat from one's own or another's work; or actually doing the work of another
person.

The penalty for academic dishonesty can vary from receiving a reprimand and a failing grade for
a particular assignment, to a failing grade in the course, to suspension or expulsion from the
university. The penalty varies with the nature of the offense, the individual instructor, the
department, and the school or college.

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If your instructor finds that you have submitted any assignment that is identical (or close to
identical) to that of another group, copied from another source without reference, or if you are
suspected of cheating on the final exam, the following procedure will take place: First, your
instructor will contact you personally (via e-mail) to discuss the issue in the instructor’s office.
Based on the outcome of that meeting, the incident will either be dropped or forwarded to the
Department Chair or Dean's Office of the Fox School of Business. If the incident is forwarded to
the Dean's Office (and possibly the University Disciplinary Committee), then you will receive an
F for the course pending their decision.

Academic Support Services

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of
1973, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998, Temple University strives to make
programs, activities and services accessible for persons with disabilities. Disability Resources
and Services (DRS) is the department that facilitates access for students with disabilities at the
university. Please see the Student Services section of the Bulletin for information on Disability
Resources and Services.

Emergency Preparedness for Disruption of Classes

In the event of an emergency, Temple University will implement a plan for meeting the needs of
all members of the university community. Should the university be required to close for a period
of time, we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our educational programs will be
delivered to our students. These may include altering and extending the duration of the
traditional term schedule to complete essential instruction in the traditional format and/or use of
distance instructional methods. Specific strategies will vary from class to class, depending on
the format of the course and the timing of the emergency. Faculty will communicate class-
specific information to students via Blackboard.

Academic Freedom

Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The
University has adopted a policy on Student and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities
(Policy # 03.70.02) which can be accessed through the following link:

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http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02.

Miscellaneous

 The burden of proof for on-time assignments is yours. All assignments must be
submitted electronically to your instructor with a copy to yourself to ensure that it has
been delivered to your instructor. In addition, you should save a copy of your e-mail in
your “Sent” folder until you are certain it has been received. It is also recommended that
you back up documents during and after preparation. Details of any changes in due dates
for assignments can be found in Assignments in Blackboard. TUMail provides the ability
to confirm delivery and receipt so your instructor will not accept the excuse that you sent
the file but it did not get through. If your computer doesn’t work, find one that does.
 Communication with your instructor via e-mail will be greatly facilitated if your name
appears in your e-mail address and if you “sign” the e-mail with your full name. Your
instructor is more likely to pay attention to names he/she recognizes than to “generic” e-
mail return addresses such as tua12345@temple.edu or “cute/clever” e-mail return
addresses such as cooldude@temple.edu. In addition, an email should reference the
response or action expected from the instructor. If, for instance, you mail a spreadsheet
for review and that is not referenced in the body of the email no action may be taken.
Make sure you also distinguish what class and section you are in.
 You will be working with spreadsheets intensively in this course just as you likely will in
practice. You need to refresh your skills if you haven't worked with them for a while.
 Your instructor may post grades to Blackboard's grade book, but you should not view
these postings as the official record. If there are any errors in the posting, you need to
contact your instructor immediately.
 The instructor reserves the right to change the assignments based on the progress of the
class. All changes will be dated and posted to Blackboard in the Course Information
section which will be the official record of all matters pertaining to the course excepting
the gradebook section of Blackboard.

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