It was a Sunday. The fi rst day of the annual Strategic
Hari pertama perencanaan Strategis
Planning retreat of the Board of Directors of
Anderson
Industries, Inc. had fi nally arrived.
Anthony Rizzo, a young financial analyst, had
been working for Thom Thomson, Anderson’s
recently-appointed chairman/CEO, for the last six
months. He had been given the assignment to present
the newly developed Corporate Restructuring
Program
to the Board. Anthony was both excited and
nervous.
The Corporate Restructuring Program was one of
Mr. Thomson’s key management initiatives, largely
because Anderson had frequently been criticized for
having unusually high expenses. Composed of 83
projects,
the program was complex, with many moving
parts. However, a key element of the program was to
reduce expenses by $100 million while maintaining
current revenue levels, thus providing dramatic
improvement in a key metric known as the operating
expense ratio (operating expenses/revenues).
Management
viewed this expense reduction goal to be a
stretch, but they also considered it necessary, and
they
wanted to build credibility by demonstrating the
company’s
ability to meet an important goal. The Board of
Directors was aware of the program and its
objectives,
but Anthony’s presentation was intended to provide
much deeper insight.
The prior week had been unexpectedly easy. Because
of Mr. Thomson’s desire to avoid any surprises, all of
the presentations had been fi nalized by Wednesday,
and the dry run took place on Thursday. On Sunday,
Anthony planned to arrive at the hotel early to have a
chance to check the meeting room before the
presentation.
The meeting was to start at 2:00 p.m., and
Anthony was one of the fi rst presenters.
Itu hari Minggu.
tahunan Dewan Direksi Anderson mundur
Industries, Inc. akhirnya tiba. Anthony Rizzo,
seorang analis keuangan muda, telah bekerja untuk
Thom Thomson, Anderson Ketua / CEO yang baru
diangkat, untuk enam bulan terakhir. Dia telah diberi
tugas untuk hadir Program Restrukturisasi Korporat
yang baru dikembangkan ke Dewan. Anthony juga
bersemangat dangugup.
Program Restrukturisasi Perusahaan adalah salah
satunya Inisiatif manajemen utama Mr. Thomson,
sebagian besar karena Anderson sering dikritik
memiliki pengeluaran yang luar biasa tinggi. Terdiri
dari 83 proyek, programnya kompleks, dengan
banyak bergerak bagian. Namun, elemen kunci dari
program ini adalah untuk mengurangi biaya $ 100
juta dengan tetap mempertahankan tingkat
pendapatan saat ini, dengan demikian memberikan
peningkatan dramatis dalam metrik kunci yang
dikenal sebagai operasi rasio pengeluaran (biaya
operasi / pendapatan). Manajemen memandang
sasaran pengurangan biaya ini menjadi meregang,
tetapi mereka juga menganggap itu perlu, dan mereka
ingin membangun kredibilitas dengan menunjukkan
kemampuan perusahaan untuk memenuhi tujuan
penting. Dewan Direksi mengetahui program dan
tujuannya, tetapi presentasi Anthony dimaksudkan
untuk memberikan wawasan yang jauh lebih dalam.
Minggu sebelumnya sangat mudah. Karena
keinginan Mr. Thomson untuk menghindari kejutan,
semuanya presentasi telah diselesaikan pada hari
Rabu, dan lari kering berlangsung pada hari Kamis.
Pada hari Minggu, Anthony berencana untuk tiba di
hotel lebih awal untuk memesan kesempatan untuk
memeriksa ruang rapat sebelum presentasi.
Pertemuan akan dimulai pukul 2:00 malam, dan
Anthony adalah salah satu presenter pertama.
Traffic was light, and Anthony was well ahead of
schedule. Upon arriving at the hotel, he checked to
see if
his room was available. He learned that he could not
check in for a few hours, but the front desk delivered
an
urgent message asking him to call Sharon Carpenter,
Anderson’s head of fi nancial planning, as soon as
possible.
On the call, Sharon explained that she had received
the newest budget submissions from the business
units just before leaving the offi ce on Friday
afternoon.
Wanting to get a head start on next week’s
work, she began her review of the company-wide
rollup
on Sunday morning. Initially, everything looked
fi ne, but she noticed that a few ratios were a little off
. Salah satunya adalah rasio biaya operasional, jadi dia
One was the operating expense ratio, so she wanted
to inform Anthony before his presentation to the
Board. Sharon and Anthony discussed some of the
most likely explanations for the exceptions, but
lacked
the data to reach any conclusions. Sharon commented
that the budgeting process tended to be somewhat
iterative this early in the cycle, so she almost
regretted
her decision to take a quick look on Sunday morning.
Nevertheless, Sharon and Anthony both knew
that some very ambitious goals had been set causing
them to be concerned that real slippage had occurred.
Focusing on Anthony’s presentation, the potential
impact was clear. To meet the targeted operating
expense ratio, either revenues would have to increase
by $25 million, which was unlikely given the current
economic conditions, or the expense reductions
would have to increase by an additional $15 million,
which was slightly less than 2% of total
companywide
expenses.
Lalu lintas sepi, dan Anthony jauh di depan
susunan acara. Setibanya di hotel, dia memeriksa
untuk melihat apakah kamarnya atau ruangannya
tersedia. Diamengetahui bahwa dia tidak bisa
check-in selama beberapa jam, tetapi resepsionis
mengirim
pesan mendesak memintanya untuk memanggil
Sharon Carpenter, Kepala perencanaan keuangan
Anderson, sesegera mungkin.
Di telepon, Sharon menjelaskan bahwa dia telah
menerimanya pengajuan anggaran terbaru dari bisnis
unit sebelum meninggalkan kantor pada hari Jumat
sore. Ingin memulai lebih awal minggu depan
Setelah bekerja, ia memulai ulasannya tentang
peluncuran perusahaan
pada Minggu pagi. Awalnya, semuanya tampak baik-
baik saja Namun, dia memperhatikan bahwa
beberapa rasio sedikit berbeda.
ingin memberi tahu Anthony sebelum presentasinya
kepada dewan. Sharon dan Anthony mendiskusikan
beberapa kemungkinan besar penjelasan untuk
pengecualian, tetapi kurang data untuk mencapai
kesimpulan apa pun. Sharon berkomentar
bahwa proses penganggaran cenderung agak
berulang di awal siklus ini, jadi dia hampir menyesal
keputusannya untuk melihat cepat pada hari Minggu
pagi.
Namun demikian, Sharon dan Anthony sama-sama
tahu bahwa beberapa tujuan yang sangat ambisius
telah ditetapkan menyebabkan mereka khawatir
bahwa selip nyata telah terjadi. Berfokus pada
presentasi Anthony, potensinya dampaknya jelas.
Untuk memenuhi operasi yang ditargetkan
rasio biaya, pendapatan harus meningkat
sebesar $ 25 juta, yang tidak mungkin diberikan saat
ini kondisi ekonomi, atau pengurangan biaya
harus meningkat $ 15 juta tambahan, yang sedikit
kurang dari 2% dari total seluruh perusahaan
biaya.
After speaking with Sharon, Anthony asked if the
hotel could provide him with space to work. He was
led
to the hotel engineer’s offi ce, a very small offi ce
deep in
the guts of the hotel. There, he got back on the phone
with Sharon, and they considered the alternatives.
The
focal point of Anthony’s presentation could be
impacted
in a small, but still material, way; they could only
speculate
about the reasons for the change in projections;
and they could not reach Mr. Thomson. Further, time
was very short. Should Anthony simply proceed with
the presentation as previously approved, should he
try
to incorporate the new projections into the
presentation,
should he “hide” the slides showing numbers and
try to fi nesse his way around the issue, or should he
be
upfront about the uncertainty in the numbers? How
would the Board react if uncertainty was
demonstrated?
How would Mr. Thomson respond if surprised
during the Board meeting?
Anthony tried again to speak with Mr. Thomson,
who was meeting with the Audit Committee of the
Board, but that Committee meeting ran longer than
expected. Mr. Thomson rushed to the Board Meeting,
flanked by a few of the Audit Committee members,
getting there just in time for the scheduled
start.
Setelah berbicara dengan Sharon, Anthony bertanya
apakah Hotel bisa memberinya ruang untuk bekerja.
Dia dibawa ke kantor insinyur hotel, kantor yang
sangat kecil di dalam hotel. Di sana, dia kembali ke
telepon dengan Sharon, dan mereka
mempertimbangkan alternatifnya. titik fokus
presentasi Anthony dapat terpengaruh
dalam cara yang kecil, namun tetap material; mereka
hanya bisa berspekulasi tentang alasan untuk
perubahan proyeksi; dan mereka tidak bisa
menghubungi Tuan Thomson. Selanjutnya, waktu
sangat pendek. Haruskah Anthony melanjutkan saja
presentasi seperti yang disetujui sebelumnya, harus ia
coba untuk memasukkan proyeksi baru ke dalam
presentasi, haruskah dia "menyembunyikan" slide
yang menunjukkan angka dan cobalah untuk
menyelesaikan masalah ini, atau dia harus
melakukannya di muka tentang ketidakpastian dalam
angka? Bagaimana Dewan akan bereaksi jika
ketidakpastian ditunjukkan?
Bagaimana tanggapan Tuan Thomson jika terkejut
selama rapat Dewan?
Anthony mencoba lagi untuk berbicara dengan Tuan
Thomson, yang bertemu dengan Komite Audit
Dewan, tetapi pertemuan Komite itu berjalan lebih
lama dari diharapkan. Mr Thomson bergegas ke
Rapat Dewan,
diapit oleh beberapa anggota Komite Audit,
sampai di sana tepat waktu untuk dijadwalkan
mulai.