Suppose you study a group of successful companies and you find that they emphasize customer focus, or quality improvement, or empowerment; how do you know that you haven't merely discovered the management practice equivalent of having buildings? how do you know that you've discovered something that distinguishes the successful companies from other companies? you don't know. you can't know--not unless you have a control set, a comparison group.

Paar corporation bought 100 percent of kimmel, inc., on january 1, 2012. on that date, paar’s equipment (10-year life) has a book value of $420,000 but a fair value of $520,000. kimmel has equipment (10-year life) with a book value of $272,000 but a fair value of $400,000. paar uses the equity method to record its investment in kimmel. on december 31, 2014, paar has equipment with a book value of $294,000 but a fair value of $445,200. kimmel has equipment with a book value of $190,400 but a fair value of $357,000. the consolidated balance for the equipment account as of december 31, 2014 is $574,000. what would be the impact on consolidated balance for the equipment account as of december 31, 2014 if the parent had applied the initial value method rather than the equity method? the balance in the consolidated equipment account cannot be determined for the initial value method using the information given. the consolidated equipment account would have a higher reported balance. the consolidated equipment account would have a lower reported balance. no effect: the method the parent uses is for internal reporting purposes only and has no impact on consolidated totals.

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The upper-level managers of synergy technology are meeting for the week to look at the long-term company goals and overall direction of the organization. the ceo has expressed her concern over the economy and has told her managers to look closely at the environment outside the organization before making decisions and to be future oriented. in this meeting, top managers of synergy are