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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2012 version)

  Integrated Assurance at Philips Electronics N.V.

  Robert G. Eccles and Daniela Saltzman

  Philips Electronics is a leader in integrated reporting. In 2010 it produced its third generation report. Since its first report in 2008, Philips' integrated reports and its integrated reporting website had grown in sophistication. In planning for its integrated report for 2011, the company is exploring the issues that will need to be addressed in order to produce an integrated report. KPMG is the company's auditor for both the financial and nonfinancial information contained in the integrated report, but these are covered by separate assurance opinions. Among the challenges of providing an integrated audit is getting the internal measurement and control systems for nonfinancial information to be of the same quality as for financial information. A further challenge is that the cultures of the finance function and those who work in sustainability are very different.

  Keywords: Accounting Audits; Reports; Organizational Culture;

  Citation:

  Eccles, Robert G., and Daniela Saltzman. "Integrated Assurance at Philips Electronics N.V." Harvard Business School Case 412-054, May 2013. (Revised from original January 2012 version.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2010 version)

  Baxter's Asia Pacific 'Talent Edge' Initiative

  Jordan Siegel, Mimi Xi and Christopher Poliquin

  This case examines whether multinationals have a potential competitive weapon in aggressively exploiting social schisms in host labor markets and in hiring and promoting senior managers from excluded groups.

  Keywords: Labor; Selection and Staffing; Groups and Teams;

  Citation:

  Siegel, Jordan, Mimi Xi, and Christopher Poliquin. "Baxter's Asia Pacific 'Talent Edge' Initiative." Harvard Business School Case 711-408, March 2013. (Revised from original October 2010 version.)

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• Working Paper | 2013

  An Evaluation of Money Market Fund Reform Proposals

  Samuel G. Hanson, David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

  We analyze the leading reform proposals to address the structural vulnerabilities of money market mutual funds (MMFs). We assume that the main goal of MMF reform is safeguarding financial stability. In light of this goal, reforms should reduce the ex ante incentives for MMFs to take excessive risk and increase the ex post resilience of MMFs to system-wide runs. Our analysis suggests that requiring MMFs to have subordinated capital buffers could generate significant financial stability benefits. Subordinated capital provides MMFs with loss absorption capacity, lowering the probability that a MMF suffers losses large enough to trigger a run, and reduces incentives to take excessive risks. We estimate that a capital buffer in the range of 3 to 4% would significantly reduce the probability that ordinary MMF shareholders ever suffer losses. In exchange for having the safer investment product made possible by subordinated capital, the yield paid to ordinary MMFs shareholders would decline by only 0.05%. Other reform alternatives such as converting MMFs to a floating NAV would likely be less effective in protecting financial stability.

  Citation:

  Hanson, Samuel G., David S. Scharfstein, and Adi Sunderam. "An Evaluation of Money Market Fund Reform Proposals." Working Paper.

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