Response as the Chief Executive Officer
Final Exam Questions: Essential Lessons from the US Financial Crisis
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In determining your grade on
Finance Final
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Finance Final
Response as the Chief Executive Officer
With sheer delight, this report offers further insight into the dynamics that affect a business and, more so, the significance of external factors. In most circumstances, they are unforeseen and out of the organization’s control. This position concerns one of the company’s recently launched products. Despite the eager anticipation, the company’s latest product release has failed to create a major competitive advantage, given that our competitors were quick to produce similar commodities. Nonetheless, we are bound to overcome this minor blip in enlarging our value chain by relying on our strengths, including our brand identity, and hedging one product against the other to ensure that all succeed. We will be proactive from these angles. This is because we are among the pioneers of this product in the marketplace. Also, we enjoy a major advantage in the growing market share we command. We cannot relinquish a product that has already shown a massive contribution to the company’s revenues. Instead, it is a major wake-up call for everyone to assess their contributions towards making the organization the client’s best option. Otherwise, the following actions will be implemented steadily to the realization of this goal.
First, we shall hire a competent leader in this division because on my appointment as the chief executive officer, I had limited knowledge of this product. I was not part of the initial team that contributed immensely to product development and I lack sufficient information on the basic fundamentals of entire process. Therefore, I might be incapacitated to make the best decisions that are in the product’s interest. In essence, a person who has been a leader at a startup organization of this nature could be in a better position to determine the best way forward. The person has to possess a clear comprehension of the economies and diseconomies of scale that arise with its growth. In essence, the overall expectation is that they have orchestrated the growth of such a business model to success. Our shareholder maximization value has to be considered, and thus, the candidate needs to show a historical record indicating competence in expanding a company’s operations nationally and globally. Shareholders are major stakeholders in this process. The second major change will be reassessing the expenditures the new strategies will cost to the firm. In this case, the company will hedge the expenses of one product to the other. It was anticipated that the new product in the growing market segment would prove to be a massive addition. Even though it has failed to reach these standards, its performance is slightly above average. Therefore, the goal will be to dedicate more resources to the current operations until we realize there is a prolonged constant, which would be the optimal point of a normal distribution curve. This juncture will mark the critical milestone the project will be anticipating. This point will be where the most crucial decision on the product will be made.
Among the most important questions is whether the product fits to continue being in the production line relative to its performance in the market. Currently, game theory dictates that each economic player will react differently to the market. Our move has to be highly strategized to ensure that we can gain optimal advantage and learn of the product itself. Eventually, we will determine whether the product has reached its market saturation or the level of competition is becoming stiffer. However, in between now and then, we need to ensure that our operations are self-sustaining and with all stakeholders satisfied. Suppliers will be paid on time while employees will be compensated accordingly. Annual bonuses will also be provided to the employees. In this case, the board and line managers, who are conversant with the things on the ground, can define a clear course to undertake. Ultimately, the organization consolidates as much information on the situation to guarantee that the best decision can be made.
Factors Most Responsible for Financial Crisis
Credit Default Swaps
The credit default swaps are to bear the greatest responsibility for the development of the crisis. A study conducted after the crisis indicated that most of the people that received these loans failed to meet the security criterion. In other words, they lacked the appropriate credit score necessary in obtaining a loan of the respective magnitude. Some of these individuals were migrants who saw the deal as something worth seizing. Credit default swaps (CDSs) are the last steps that define the approval of the deal thereof. CDSs first came to the fore in 1994, which JP Morgan had introduced. Since then, the implication of CDSs has only grown, with the notional amount of outstanding CDS contracts being at about $11.8 trillion (Fu et al., 2020). CDSs are financial derivatives that offer an entity guarantee over bond risk. In other words, two lenders' swap' risks. CDSs are reminiscent of insurance policies, enabling buyers to shield themselves from unlikely but probable devastating events financially. This position highlights the uncertainty attribute that CDSs bear. Later, it will be realized that the companies that issued these CDSs lacked sufficient cash to repay legally, that it crumbled the global financial industry.
Personal Opinion
The entire 2008 financial crisis cycle was an intricate web of mortgage buyers, financial institutions (banks), investment banks, investors, rating agencies, and credit default organizations (Jickling, 2009). The government's presence is, in essence, that of the visible hand in a free market economy (Scott, 2006). Governmental institutions facilitate a conducive environment through which these events can be conducted (Băileşteanu & Lungu, 2014). In modern times, the two factions have grown intertwined in a constant generation of friction. Crony capitalism is increasing evidence of the changing times, and corporate institutions use their capital to influence the direction of policies and even politicians' fate (A...