The formal merger with Darrell has been negotiated and the legal formalities have been completed. The two company management teams are working on the integration of the two businesses.
You receive an email from Peter Sorchi, the Chief Executive of the merged company:
From: Peter Sorchi, Chief Executive Officer
To: Senior Finance Manager
Subject: Integration of IT and treasury
Hi,
I need you to advise me on a couple of matters. The attached press clipping shows how sensitive this is.
We need to integrate the IT and treasury functions of the former Wodd and Darrell. I thought that it would be a simple matter of identifying the common ground and slimming down both companies' departments to cover the new entity, but I have the heads of both IT and treasury from each company arguing that their approaches are better for the merged group and that they should take the lead.
Wodd's Treasurer claims to be an expert in natural hedging of currency risks and Darrell's argues that her department was highly successful because it makes excellent use of derivatives for hedging. Both agree only on the fact that they cannot work together. I am afraid that I have to agree with them on that and the Board will have the difficult decision of choosing between them.
I have the opposite problem with the IT function. The two Heads of IT are excited to be able to combine their databases and to develop their respective interests in Big Dat a. They claim that we should retain all of the professional staff in both departments and possibly even expand the merged IT Department beyond that. Given the rationalisation in all of our other functions, I do not think that we can agree to that, but I would hate to throw away a worthwhile opportunity.
Please give me your thoughts on the following:
* What approach to hedging is more likely to meet our needs: natural hedging or heavy use of derivatives?
* Ignoring hedging, what other factors should we consider in deciding between the two treasurers?
* Are the two heads of IT likely to be correct in arguing that we need to retain all existing IT staff in order to exploit synergies in data, particularly opportunities to leverage Big Data?
* What would the challenges be in motivating them to reduce their joint staffing levels and how might we deal with these?
Peter

From: Martin Wills, Head Geologist
To: William Seaton, Director of Finance
Subject: Reserves
Hi William,
I have reviewed the situation with respect to our "probable" or "2P" reserves, as disclosed in our latest annual report. I am sorry to say that we have to downgrade our figures with respect to reserves. I am recommending that all extraction activities cease for the foreseeable future on the North Atlantic and South Atlantic fields and that the proved reserves be downgraded from proved to probable.
I have to stress that this is not attributable to any past error on the part of the geologists. The world oil price has been depressed and the discovery of large deposits of shale oil in the USA suggests that the oil price will not recover for some time. That means that some oil wells that were commercially viable this time last year are no longer worth processing.
The oil remains under the rock and I have no doubt that we will restore operations in the long term.
We are by no means the only oil company to have been forced to take this action.
The one piece of good news is that the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014 have already been published. My understanding is that we do not have to withdraw them, so unless you put an advertisement in the press, we can carry on quietly trying to sort this mess out.
I have my best people working on ways to extract oil from our wells more efficiently, so we may be able to increase production over the next year or so.
Martin

Press clipping from today's Financial News:
Yesterday's announcement of yet another major oil find by Slide should keep everybody happy. Nobody will be happier than the directors of Fouce Oil, whose continuing ownership of one quarter of Slide's shares continues to confuse industry insiders. Perhaps there are hidden depths to the relationship between Slide and Fouce Oil.

The following email has been forwarded to you by William Seaton, Director of Finance:
From: William Seaton, Director of Finance
To: Finance Manager
Subject: Email from CFO of Fouce Oil
Hi
This email arrived last night. I need you to help me to think through the various implications of doing what it suggests before I present it to the Board. I need you to focus on the following issues:
* Would this proposal make sense from a strategic point of view?
* If we did decide to go ahead, what would be the issues that we would have to consider with respect to informing the stock market?
Could you please email me your thoughts within the next hour? I have to brief the Board later today.
Thanks
William
The email referred to can be found by clicking on the Reference Materials button.

SIMULATION
A week later, Romuald Marek stops by your workspace and hands you a document.

The Board minute extract from Romuald can be viewed by clicking the Reference Material button above.
Reference Material
Board minutes extract: proposal to profit from ongoing strength of NS
Anna Obalowu Sole, Chief Operating Officer, reported that the strong NS was helping generate revenues from fuel sales. Discussion followed as to whether the strong N$ was likely to persist and whether a strong N$ benefits Arrfield overall.
Markus Jokel
a. Chief Executive Officer, stated that the Board should develop contingency plans that could be implemented if it seemed likely that the strong N$ would persist. In particular. Arrfield need not renew the contracts that permit aviation fuel suppliers to operate from its airports. Arrfield would then be free to create its own fuel sale business, buying fuel in bulk to replenish the storage tanks at each of its airports in Norland and then selling it directly to airlines He stated that this would almost certainly enhance Arrfield's share price Romuald Marek reminded the Board that four of Arrfield's six airports are located in Norland and that those airports charge for aeronautical and non-aeronautical services in N$.