“JPMorgan Chase & Co. is one of the largest banking institutions in the United States and a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, and asset management. The company serves millions of customers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients.

In 2008, many financial analysts credited the firm and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, with being instrumental in saving two important financial services companies, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. JPMorgan Chase purchased these firms at the request of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson in order to stabilize a rapidly unraveling but highly inter-connected international banking system. But, JPMorgan Chase’s reputation took a turn for the worse a few years later.

In 2012, Bloomberg News reported that JPMorgan Chase was behind massive trades that were distorting the world financial and commodities markets. A JPMorgan Chase employee based in London, Bruno Iksil, had apparently made securities trades that were so large that his trades were driving significant price movements worldwide. His influence on the market was so great that Iksil became known colloquially as “the London Whale.” In 2013, JPMorgan Chase was fined nearly $920 million due to Iksil’s trading losses, one of the biggest financial penalties ever assessed on a financial institution. A year later, JPMorgan Chase reached a $13 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over bad mort-gage loans previously made by its 2008 acquisitions of Bear Sterns and Washington Mutual.

Despite its legal troubles, JPMorgan Chase moved forward with plans to help Twitter under-write its initial public offering. The firm was interested in the public’s reaction to this event and opened up a social media channel. On the day that Twitter went public, a JPMorgan Chase employee managing the social media program tweeted on the account @jpmorgan, “What career advice would you ask a leading exec at a global firm? Tweet a Q using #AskJPM.” The idea was intended to give college students an opportunity to communicate directly with Jimmy Lee, a senior executive, according to JPMorgan Chase spokesman Brian Marchiony.

The company was not expecting what happened next. Some of the tweets included:

What’s your favorite type of whale? #AskJPM

Did you always want to be part of a vast, corrupt criminal enterprise or did you “break bad”? #AskJPM

My question: Why is JPMorgan Chase foreclosing on my neighbor after she’s paid for her house 4 times over? #AskJPM Disgusting.

How many $jpm bankers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, they just foreclose on the house. #AskJPM

By early afternoon of the day @jpmorgan went live, the Daily Beast editor and columnist Daniel Gross tweeted, “Oh my lord, the #askjpm session. Will go down as case study in corporate use of social media.”

Some think that in a social media climate, sarcasm rules, and as a result companies have much less control over how the public engages with their brand and how to manage its reputation. JPMorgan Chase was unprepared to deal with the public’s negative view of the bank and its actions, especially in the wake of a recession that some believed was caused in part by JPMorgan Chase’s irresponsibility. On November 13, 2013, a week after the original tweet by JPMorgan Chase, the company cancelled its original Q&A with Jimmy Lee and sent the following tweet to its followers:

Tomorrow’s Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board.”

“In total, 1,661 people retweeted the message. CNBC had actor Stacy Keach, the voice from its television documentary series American Greed, read the message cancelling the Q&A verbatim. His reading of the posted tweet from the #AskJPM became very popular on YouTube.

Even though JPMorgan Chase managed through the 2008 financial crisis without posting a quarterly loss and was able to purchase the nearly bankrupt Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual’s assets, some said that its reputation was tarnished. A business and law professor at the University of Michigan said, “It is a jolt of reality, and the reality for JPMorgan is ugly. The bank is highly visible and greatly disliked.”

In December 2014, JPMorgan Chase released a report called “How We Do Business” that described not only its business standards and practices but also reviewed how it had addressed recent challenges resulting from the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. The report highlighted some of the company’s mistakes and its efforts to rearticulate and re-emphasize its cultural values and corporate standards—with the aim of ensuring that employees internalize and live by these standards. The report detailed many of the company’s efforts to strengthen its internal controls through improved infrastructure, technology, operating standards, and governance.”

Sources: Information for this case taken from JPMorgan Chase & Company’s How We Do Business—The Report, 2014, available at www.jpmorganchase.com; “JPMorgan Trader’s Positions Said to Distort Credit Indexes,” Bloomberg Business, April 6, 2012, www.bloomberg.com; “JPMorgan to Pay $13 Billion in Deal with US,” MSN Money, October 22, 2013, www.msn.com; “JPMorgan’s Twitter Mistake,” The New Yorker, November 16, 2013, www.newyorker.com; and “JPMorgan’s #AskJPM Twitter Hashtag Backfires against Bank,” Bloomberg Business, November 14, 2013, www.bloomberg.com“

1. What are the benefits and costs to JPMorgan Chase’s reputation given its use of a stakeholder question-and-answer session on Twitter? How do its various stakeholders now think of JPMorgan Chase’s image?
2. Would you define the incident as a crisis? Assume you are JPMorgan Chase’s CEO and are conducting a press conference: what main points about the incident should you emphasize to the media and convey to the public?

Question 1 must be 250-300 words with the core values of Saint Leo integrated in question 1. And Question 2 must be 250-300 words with the core values of Saint Leo integrated in question 2. Also, must use WEBSITES ONLY THAT ARE BASED IN THE UNITED STATES. APA Citation.

https://www.saintleo.edu/mission-values-identity

Professor and everyone,

• How will you reach the necessary Channels to communicate with your prospective Customer Segments?
• What type of relationship does each of your Customer Segments expect you to establish and maintain with them?
• What questions or uncertainties do you have about the brand you would like to create?

I would think and listen to the great ideas that comes my way. Next I would identify what would be needed and be a great fit for the center. Then I would take notes of what the parents and students are suggesting. Finally would converse with all of the students and parents. The segments that I would reach out to the students and parents would be as follows:

• Social factors,
• Economic factors,
• Demographics,
• Product uses,
• Behavioral preferences

By having these segments it will let the people understand the meaning of the recreational center and what will take place there. The questions I would asked that would benefit the recreational center and to have everything in perspective for the students, parents, and faculty and staff is: Who do you want to reach? What value are you providing? Want your brand to be remembered?

These are a few questions that would be asked pertaining to my business of the recreational center.

Reference:

https://www.leadscon.com/4-ways-communicate-prospe…

https://profiletree.com/customer-segmentation/

For this assignment, select a specific business; it can be one you work for or, better yet, one you would like to work for in the future. Make sure the company you select meets the following criteria: It must have a written code of ethics and operate at the benevolent level of CSR (corporate social responsibility).

Search online for the company’s website, and review its code of ethics and its report on its corporate social responsibility programs; be sure to identify any of its sustainability practices—this may be a separate link.

Write a report on your chosen company’s code of ethics and CSR. In your report, address whether you believe that leaders of organizations have a duty to all stakeholders or just to stockholders. Present a business argument either for or against corporate social responsibility.

PART 1

The following situation deals with the choice of business entity formation and its impact on taxable income to the owners.  Please answer part A and B.

Bill and Kerry plan to open a limo service for the Miami Dade area after they buy and renovate two 15 passenger vans purchased recently at an auto auction in Delray Beach, Fl.  Bill is a licensed commercial driver, but is not knowledgeable on business formations, and Kerry has experience as a bookkeeper.  Kerry plans to keep her current job with Sunshine foods, inc. but will moonlight with the company when necessary.  Their initial projections are that they will lose $35,000 in 2017.  They have also paid cash for the two commercial vans ($10,000 each) and had to pay $1,000 to the port of Miami to receive a commercial permit valid through 7/31/2020.  

To fund operations so far Bill has taken out a second mortgage on his personal residence for $70,000 and deposited the full amount into the company’s bank account.  Kerry has not contributed any money to the company, but has offered to work on the company’s accounting books for ‘free’ until a point in time when the company has enough money to pay her.  

a. List advantages for operating this business as a partnership instead of a corporation and state your recommendation as their CPA for business entity formation including % allocation. If your advice is a partnership (please also state whether you believe they should set up as a general or limited partnership in your opinion).

b. As the CPA for Kerry and Bill, what will Bill and Kerry recognize for taxes, assuming they accept your recommendation for entity formation as stated in part A in 2017? 

PART 2

Thomas and his wife Diana have operated their own children’s daycare for the last three years.  They also own the daycare facility, a building and the adjacent land located on 1322 Glades Road.  They have a limited amount of working capital but do not forsee the need to make additional capital improvements in the near term.  Their total business assets are about $250,000 with a $120,000 mortgage on the building as their only liability.  In recent years they have not kept exact records, but have been able to withdraw any unneeded assets at the end of the year, which totaled approximately $50,000 in cash in 2013.  

In 2013 they reported a net income of $85,000.  In addition, Thomas has used his personal car for business travel and has charged the business mileage at the appropriate mileage when he has traveled to Miami for continuing educational credits and Diana has traveled to New York once each year for a trip with girlfriends and to attend a conference on childhood development.   Although Thomas and Diana have never been sued, in recent months they have started to think about possible legal liability.  

As a good friend of Thomas and Diana and a CPA, what is your opinion about incorporating the business going forward? List at least two reasons for or against incorporating, and any change the S-corp status would have on their taxable income from the company? 

PART 3

Estates taxes : Good or bad for small business owners?

Supporters of the estate and gift tax argue that it provides progressivity in the federal tax system, provides a backstop to the individual income tax and appropriately targets assets that are bestowed on heirs rather than assets earned through their hard work and effort. However, critics argue that the tax discourages savings, harms small businesses, taxes resources already subject to income taxes, and adds to the complexity to the tax system. Critics also suggest death is an inappropriate time to impose a tax. 

The above video is produced by the heritage foundation, and clearly biased against the estate tax in its current form.  Now that you have studied the estate tax in more detail, state your opinion for or against the estate tax in its current form?  Do you believe it is a necessary to generate income for the government? Or do you agree with the heritage foundation that the tax imposes an undue burden on small business owners? While this is often a political debate question, Please justify your answer with ACCOUNTING THEORY we have studied so far in this course.

https://youtu.be/ImxWWLEcMiI

Link for part 3