More from these Authors

• Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2020 (Revised July 2020)

  Accounting for Leases at American Airlines (A)

  Jonas Heese, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Julia Kelley

  In March 2020, as coronavirus reduced demand for air travel, an analyst was forecasting American Airlines’ (American’s) first quarter financial results. To develop a forecast, she needed to familiarize herself with Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842),” passed four years earlier by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. ASU 2016-02 required companies to disclose all leases on their balance sheets, but it made an exception for leases with variable payments, allowing companies to leave such leases off-balance sheet. The Wall Street Journal estimated that more than 50% of American’s leases remained off-balance sheet due to the exclusion of variable leases. Should American and other companies be allowed to leave variable lease payments off-balance sheet? How did the decision to leave these payments off-balance sheet affect companies’ risk profiles and valuations?

  Keywords: Accounting; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Finance; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leasing; Accounting Industry; Air Transportation Industry; North and Central America; United States;

  Citation:

  Heese, Jonas, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, and Julia Kelley. "Accounting for Leases at American Airlines (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-069, June 2020. (Revised July 2020.)  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducators

  Related

• Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020

  Driving Transformation at the Majid Al Futtaim Group

  Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

  The case opens with Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, anticipating on the Group’s next phase in the multi-year transformation journey and reflecting on the initiatives he implemented to create the Group’s growth-oriented culture. Founded in 1995, MAF Group was a regional conglomerate, operating shopping malls, and retail and leisure establishments across 12 businesses in 15 markets in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The case describes the series of structural changes that Bejjani undertook since he became the CEO in 2015, how he transitioned the Holding company from a passive investor to a strategic architect model, and assumed ownership of the brand, culture, and talent across the entire organization for all its operating companies: MAF Properties, MAF Retail, and MAF Ventures. The case discusses the steps that the Group undertook – creation of the Leadership Institute, a new performance management system, investments in digital technology and analytics capabilities, and the launch of the School of Great Moments to instill a focus on customer experience. By November 2019, Bejjani recognized that the organization had evolved considerably in the past five years. He wondered about the next steps in scaling and ability to execute strategy. How much more could he push the organization to continue to change?

  Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; United Arab Emirates; Middle East; Dubai;

  Citation:

  Srinivasan, Suraj, and Esel Çekin. "Driving Transformation at the Majid Al Futtaim Group." Harvard Business School Case 121-002, July 2020.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsEducators

  Related

• Editorial | Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung | July 3, 2020

  Was sich nach dem Wirecard-Skandal ändern muss

  Jonas Heese and Karthik Ramanna

  Citation:

  Heese, Jonas, and Karthik Ramanna. "Was sich nach dem Wirecard-Skandal ändern muss." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (July 3, 2020).  View Details

  CiteView Details

  Related