Case: The Financial Detective, 2005
The case presents you with financial ratios for eight pairs of unidentified companies and asks you to mate the description of the company with the financial profile derived from the ratios. Maybe we can then identify the company based on the description. The primary objective of this case is to introduce you to financial ratio analysis-in particular, the range of ratios and the insights each one affords.
The structured exploration of pairs of companies within an industry affords a number of important insights into strategy and financial performance. First, the economics of individual industries account for significant variations in financial ratios because of differences in technologies, product characteristics, or competitive structures. Second, financial performance results from managerial choices: within industries, the wide variation in financial ratios is often a result of the differences in corporate strategy in marketing, operations, and finance.
The company pair is E and F which is computers.