John, an American, is having a meeting in China where he is attempting to obtain a Chinese company as a new customer. Which of the following is most likely to generate a positive response from the Chinese (a high-context culture)? John gets straight to the point of the sales pitch and avoids relationship-building efforts.

John gives a detailed description of all of the company’s products.

John looks the Chinese straight in the eye, and gives a firm handshake.

John expresses his desire to start a long-term relationship with the Chinese company.

After discussing the options, the strategic management team has agreed that the pod coffee idea works well with the company's mission statement and decides that the company should move forward in exploring the pod coffee idea. in order to make sure that the pod coffee idea is a good one, and to see if there are other potential future endeavors to pursue, you must analyze the market situation and formulate a strategy. your boss asks you to start working on the pod coffee idea. what is your first stepa. your first step is to formulate a strategy for how to market the pod coffee concept. b. your first step is to consult with your boss and find out what he thinks about the pod coffee idea. c. your first step is to do some research to find out what your competitors are doing. d. your first step is to analyze the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Afirm's before-tax cost of debt, rd, is the interest rate that the firm must pay on debt. because interest is tax deductible, the relevant cost of debt used to calculate a firm's wacc is the cost of debt, rd (1 – t). the cost of debt is used in calculating the wacc because we are interested in maximizing the value of the firm's stock, and the stock price depends on cash flows. it is important to emphasize that the cost of debt is the interest rate on debt, not debt because our primary concern with the cost of capital is its use in capital budgeting decisions. the rate at which the firm has borrowed in the past is because we need to know the cost of capital. for these reasons, the on outstanding debt (which reflects current market conditions) is a better measure of the cost of debt than the . the on the company's -term debt is generally used to calculate the cost of debt because more often than not, the capital is being raised to fund -term projects. quantitative problem: 5 years ago, barton industries issued 25-year noncallable, semiannual bonds with a $1,600 face value and a 8% coupon, semiannual payment ($64 payment every 6 months). the bonds currently sell for $845.87. if the firm's marginal tax rate is 40%, what is the firm's after-tax cost of debt? round your answer to 2 decimal places. do not round intermediate calcu

Arnold rossiter is a 40-year-old employee of the barrington company who will retire at age 60 and expects to live to age 75. the firm has promised a retirement income of $20,000 at the end of each year following retirement until death. the firm's pension fund is expected to earn 7 percent annually on its assets and the firm uses 7% to discount pension benefits. what is barrington's annual pension contribution to the nearest dollar for mr. rossiter? (assume certainty and end-of-year cash flows.)