Monday, November 06, 2006
Working for "Impact"
Spent Sunday and most of Monday working on our MBA capstone project for Impact Machine, our consulting client. A small two-person hockey design firm based in downtown Toronto, they are looking to expand into being an end-to-end "design to store" solutions provider for retailers, sporting goods stores or sports brands.
Sunday was spent reviewing the initial draft of our capstone project report as well as a Powerpoint presentation with our team's situational analysis, assessment and recommendations for Impact Machine and its stated goal to broaden its business to being a full-line solutions provider and away from being a niche design-only firm.
Monday started off with Prof. Dan Thornton's class in financial accounting and valuation, based largely on the residual income model (RIM) developed by Ohlson (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson (1995) and described in the journal "Contemporary Accounting Research." Although somewhat controversial in that the model claims to be able to identify mispriced securities (i.e. those that are overvalued or undervalued) on a consistent basis, it does not appear to be widely adopted by analysts on Wall Street or Bay Street. If so, there is the opportunity for those versed in RIM to potentially generate excess returns by using this model, especially in Canada where, apparently, few analysts have even heard of RIM, let alone be practitioners of it.
At lunch, my mind still abuzz with RIM formulas, some of my classmates and I met over lunch at Casey's to put our combined MBA brains together for a very good cause - the planning and production of a New Year's Eve fundraising event for the benefit of a charity organization dedicated to suicide awareness and prevention. Building on our initial meeting last Thursday night at Czehoski on Queen Street West, we're thinking now of a "Black and Bling Ball" (i.e. dress in black with LOTS of accessories!!!) for an elegant yet energizing night out to bid goodbye to one year and hello to the new one!
After lunch, our team was back on the Impact Machine case and spent the next few hours refining the Powerpoint presentation. Given that Impact Machine's fame is in the hockey business, team member Alison came up with the idea of framing the slides as a hockey rink and using animated pucks going towards a net as a way to keep track of the progress of the deck! Wow, talk about creativity! Those guys at Digital Cement must be happy to have her there!
Sunday was spent reviewing the initial draft of our capstone project report as well as a Powerpoint presentation with our team's situational analysis, assessment and recommendations for Impact Machine and its stated goal to broaden its business to being a full-line solutions provider and away from being a niche design-only firm.
Monday started off with Prof. Dan Thornton's class in financial accounting and valuation, based largely on the residual income model (RIM) developed by Ohlson (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson (1995) and described in the journal "Contemporary Accounting Research." Although somewhat controversial in that the model claims to be able to identify mispriced securities (i.e. those that are overvalued or undervalued) on a consistent basis, it does not appear to be widely adopted by analysts on Wall Street or Bay Street. If so, there is the opportunity for those versed in RIM to potentially generate excess returns by using this model, especially in Canada where, apparently, few analysts have even heard of RIM, let alone be practitioners of it.
At lunch, my mind still abuzz with RIM formulas, some of my classmates and I met over lunch at Casey's to put our combined MBA brains together for a very good cause - the planning and production of a New Year's Eve fundraising event for the benefit of a charity organization dedicated to suicide awareness and prevention. Building on our initial meeting last Thursday night at Czehoski on Queen Street West, we're thinking now of a "Black and Bling Ball" (i.e. dress in black with LOTS of accessories!!!) for an elegant yet energizing night out to bid goodbye to one year and hello to the new one!
After lunch, our team was back on the Impact Machine case and spent the next few hours refining the Powerpoint presentation. Given that Impact Machine's fame is in the hockey business, team member Alison came up with the idea of framing the slides as a hockey rink and using animated pucks going towards a net as a way to keep track of the progress of the deck! Wow, talk about creativity! Those guys at Digital Cement must be happy to have her there!
