ABRAMS COMAPANY
Prepared by: Milan Padariya, 63-MBA(Pharma) Page 1
CASE 5-4 ABRAMS COMPANY
Que. 1: Evaluate each of the concerns expressed by top management, and if necessary, make recommendation appropriate to the circumtences describedin the case
The Abrams case is about using profitability measures to evaluate profit centers. The case alsoreflects a long academic debate in the US-literature about ROI problems. In EU companies it ismore common to evaluate PCs with Income measures like RI and EVA. This case covers thetree main problems in controlling profit centers:
1.
The ROI behavior2.
Transfer pricing disputes3.
Operational trouble shouting
It is very difficult to find a relevant and fair capital base for the ROI measure.
Abrams usebook value for fixed assets which inflate the ROI measure as the assets age.
The age and mix of assets also differs among divisions which give unfair measures. It is alsoeasy for the divisions to manipulate the capital base at the end of the year.
ROI based bonusmay rob the future, who want to invest in assets if that reduce the bonus.
I recommend this company
to use RI or EVA instead of ROI and to control the investmentsseparately using NPV and capital turnover measures.
The bonus should be based on the budgeted income level, the RI targe