For this part of the course project, you will demonstrate your ability to illustrate the functions and impact of banking and monetary institutions and to provide a recommendation guided by them.

In your role as a financial advisor at Eagle Consulting, you are performing a complete financial analysis for Melinda Jacobsen, a successful business executive who is retiring in 10 years. A portion of this analysis covers the question of whether Ms. Jacobsen should refinance her home in order to provide additional funding for a long-term retirement investment.

Because “above and beyond” customer service is critical to the success of Eagle Consulting, in addition to providing a recommendation on possible refinancing options, you want to provide Ms. Jacobsen with some background information on the Federal Reserve and how it affects interest rates.

Using the information about Melinda Jacobsen’s goals and the information you uncover during your research, you will write a recommendation document that explains the Federal Reserve, how the Federal Reserve affects interest rates, possible loan options, and a final recommendation for what loan she should choose.

To complete this assignment, do the following:

1. Download and read the Eagle Consulting Info Sheet.
2. Write a 3 page recommendation structured in three parts:
   1. Explanation of how the Federal Reserve impacts interest rates (1.5 pages)
   2. Explanation of loan options (1 page + Excel chart)
      Recommendation for a loan (.5 page)

      See below for details on each of the three parts.

Part 1: Federal Reserve’s Impact on Interest Rates

1. Discuss how the Federal Reserve uses the following tools to impact interest rates and the economy:
   1. Open market operations
   2. Discount rate
   3. Reserve requirements

Part 2: Loan Options

1. Research the current mortgage interest rates for a 10-year, 15-year, 20-year, and 30-year loan.
2. In Excel, graph the interest rates using years as the X-axis and interest rates as the Y-axis.
3. Using the graph, describe the following:
   1. Type of yield curve presented in the graph
   2. Relationship between interest rates and number of years to maturity
   3. Impact that risk and inflation has on the interest rates as the maturity date is lengthened

Part 3: Recommendation

1. Make a recommendation to Ms. Jacobsen on what mortgage loan to take (10-year, 15-year, 20-year, or 30-year).
2. Justify your recommendation.

If you need assistance with using Microsoft Word or Excel, please visit the Video Tutorials page in the Course Materials folder.

Think about your life so far as a narrative. Use a graphic organizer to show your understanding of the 4 elements of plot as they are at work in the short story of your life. Then, write a short story that depicts one episode in your life. Include all the elements of plot, but try to make the transitions between them fluid. Clever writers often play with the sequencing of the events in their plots in order to create certain effects like suspense and complexity. If you listen to people telling stories orally, they rarely move from event to event in a purely chronological fashion. Rather, they use plot devices like foreshadowing, flashback, ab ovo narrative, circular narrative, and en medias res narrative to enhance their storytelling powers. 

Complete the following exercise.

In December 20X2, the Cardoso Company established its predetermined overhead rate for jobs produced during the year 20X3 by using the following cost predictions:

• Overhead costs: $750,000
• Direct labor costs: $625,000.

At year-end 20X3, the company’s records show that actual overhead costs for the year were $830,000. Actual direct labor cost had been assigned to jobs as follows:

Jobs completed and sold…………………..   $513,750
Jobs in goods in progress inventory………    $ 68,500
Jobs in finished goods inventory…………     $102,750
Total actual direct labor costs……………       $685,000

Required:

1. Using the information above, determine the pre-determined overhead rate for the year 20X3.
2. Determine when the overhead is over applied or under applied, the amount during the year, and prepare the adjusting entry to allocate any over or under applied overhead the cost of goods sold.
3. Create a report between 200 and 300 words in length for leadership. The topic is the state of this company. Where do you see a problem regarding the company? Make some suggestions if there are areas you feel need to be further investigated.

Task:

Drawing on the work of influential contributors on climate for creativity and innovation and creative leadership critically evaluate how creativity and innovation are promoted and sustained across multiple levels of the organisation in the Infinitif Innovation case study (see below). You will present your analysis in report format of approximately 1500 words excluding references and appendices.

Case Study: Infinitif Innovation:

Creativity and innovation are key assets for any organization. Let us assume you agree with this statement and decide to bring innovation into your organization. If yours is a typical company it may fit the following profile:

Yet, there is a niggling sense that your company can be performing at a higher gear, and that innovation can make the difference. So what do you do?

While these are steps in the right direction, their impact on the company may not be sustainable. Employees come and go and technologies are constantly changing. In this case study we describe a different approach that can make innovation a more sustainable asset for an organization. It involves changing the way people think, act, and work and an integrated effort at all levels of the organization: individual, team and organizational.

Let us begin by looking at these three levels.

Infinitif Innovation is a multinational group with an asset value in excess of £10bn. Its holding companies include banking, insurance, construction, mutual funds, and leisure resorts. For two years Infinitif Innovation had been searching for a way to achieve the company’s vision of long-term, sustainable innovation. They were looking to find a structured methodology that would allow everyone in their organization to be more innovative and so challenge the general consensus that innovation and creative thinking is an inherent trait among gifted individuals. Infinitif Innovation was interested to teach its organization how to create sustainable innovation.

Infinitif Innovation launched a comprehensive innovation programme that has created a culture and an attitude of innovation across the company’s sub-businesses and 14,000 employees.

Between 2008 and 2009, over 400 new products, services, business models and work processes have been successfully implemented yielding new revenue on one hand, and cost saving and efficiency on the other. Two examples include: a) a new service in Infinitif Innovation’s industrial machinery leasing company that created a new market, and b) new banking services that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost saving.

Over 600 innovation champions were trained throughout the entire company to lead systematic innovation inside the organization. To date, close to 2000 employees have developed creativity and innovation skills from the coaches who run regular training.

Infinitif Innovation’s structure includes two directors responsible for overseeing all innovation processes and 20 innovation managers who support the cross-organization innovation coach activity. An innovation portal was established to support the innovation managers and innovation coaches by giving them access to innovation tools, workshop scripts, and examples that they can use in their work.

Infinitif Innovation established internal communication mechanisms that would update the entire organization on innovation activities and achievements. This continues to create a buzz in the company, getting everyone on board, and at the same time shows management support and commitment to the process. Infinitif Innovation regularly puts out quarterly booklets on new products and services in the company born out of the innovation process, corporate DVDs showing different divisions’ accomplishments, and ‘Innovation of the Day’ emails giving both real Infinitif Innovation cases as well as information on innovation tools.

After less than three years Infinitif Innovation has much to show in terms of its ROI – return on innovation. The model they applied made innovation a concrete tool across all levels of the organization:

1. Individuals are more creative and give better performance.

2. Teams have enhanced work processes for rolling out their decisions.

3. The organization has a supportive culture and structure to implement real changes across the entire company.

*** Word counts = 1500 Words

*** In-Text citations and references using Harvard style.