Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Net Present Value (NPV) / MBA Resources

Introduction to Net Present Value (NPV) - What is Net Present Value (NPV) ? How it impacts financial decisions regarding project management?

NPV solution for Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance case study

At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Net Present Value (NPV) case study solution. Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Jerry Luftman, Frank Wander, Mark Nathan, Harshil Sutaria. The Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance (referred as “Guardian Alignment” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Leadership & Managing People. It also touches upon business topics such as - Value proposition, Strategy.

The net present value (NPV) of an investment proposal is the present value of the proposal’s net cash flows less the proposal’s initial cash outflow. If a project’s NPV is greater than or equal to zero, the project should be accepted.

NPV = Present Value of Future Cash Flows LESS Project’s Initial Investment

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Case Description of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Case Study

The 5-year transformation at Guardian Life Insurance provides significant insights for organizations aspiring to enhance their IT-business alignment. Alignment is more than just organizational structure, there is no silver bullet; it requires effective governance, partnership, communications, value analytics, technical services, and people. Like most companies around the globe, Guardian recognized the importance of moving to a collaborative IT-business alignment relationship; IT-business alignment was a persistent pervasive problem that needed to be improved. In 2005, Guardian viewed IT as an ineffective expensive cost of supporting the business. Was improving the IT-business relationship as difficult as drawing 'a line' in the sand? Today, IT is enabling and driving demonstrable strategic business value. The approach that transpired this turnaround at Guardian will provide students and organizations with a clear understanding and set of lessons learned that can be applied to enhance IT-business harmony. More importantly, it will help organizations recognize the important role that IT and business leadership must play as they collaborate to address the important considerations necessary to attain a mature relationship. To demonstrate this transformation, the past and the current IT-business alignment maturity of Guardian has been benchmarked and analyzed to reveal the steps taken to enhance the impact that IT is having on the company. Were these initiatives all that are necessary to enhance the IT-business relationship? What are the important next steps to improve the relationship?

Case Authors : Jerry Luftman, Frank Wander, Mark Nathan, Harshil Sutaria

Topic : Leadership & Managing People

Related Areas : Strategy

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Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 6% for Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Case Study

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 6 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10015226)	-10015226	-	-
Year 1	3451386	-6563840	3451386	0.9434	3256025
Year 2	3981715	-2582125	7433101	0.89	3543712
Year 3	3963600	1381475	11396701	0.8396	3327915
Year 4	3251448	4632923	14648149	0.7921	2575451
TOTAL			14648149		12703103

The Net Present Value at 6% discount rate is 2687877

In isolation the NPV number doesn't mean much but put in right context then it is one of the best method to evaluate project returns. In this article we will cover -

Different methods of capital budgeting

What is NPV & Formula of NPV,
How it is calculated,
How to use NPV number for project evaluation, and
Scenario Planning given risks and management priorities.

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Capital Budgeting Approaches

Methods of Capital Budgeting

There are four types of capital budgeting techniques that are widely used in the corporate world –

1. Net Present Value
2. Profitability Index
3. Internal Rate of Return
4. Payback Period

Apart from the Payback period method which is an additive method, rest of the methods are based on Discounted Cash Flow technique. Even though cash flow can be calculated based on the nature of the project, for the simplicity of the article we are assuming that all the expected cash flows are realized at the end of the year.

Discounted Cash Flow approaches provide a more objective basis for evaluating and selecting investment projects. They take into consideration both –

1. Timing of the expected cash flows – stockholders of Guardian Alignment have higher preference for cash returns over 4-5 years rather than 10-15 years given the nature of the volatility in the industry.
2. Magnitude of both incoming and outgoing cash flows – Projects can be capital intensive, time intensive, or both. Guardian Alignment shareholders have preference for diversified projects investment rather than prospective high income from a single capital intensive project.

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Formula and Steps to Calculate Net Present Value (NPV) of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance

NPV = Net Cash In Flowt1 / (1+r)t1 + Net Cash In Flowt2 / (1+r)t2 + … Net Cash In Flowtn / (1+r)tn
Less Net Cash Out Flowt0 / (1+r)t0

Where t = time period, in this case year 1, year 2 and so on.
r = discount rate or return that could be earned using other safe proposition such as fixed deposit or treasury bond rate. Net Cash In Flow – What the firm will get each year.
Net Cash Out Flow – What the firm needs to invest initially in the project.

Step 1 – Understand the nature of the project and calculate cash flow for each year.
Step 2 – Discount those cash flow based on the discount rate.
Step 3 – Add all the discounted cash flow.
Step 4 – Selection of the project

Why Leadership & Managing People Managers need to know Financial Tools such as Net Present Value (NPV)?

In our daily workplace we often come across people and colleagues who are just focused on their core competency and targets they have to deliver. For example marketing managers at Guardian Alignment often design programs whose objective is to drive brand awareness and customer reach. But how that 30 point increase in brand awareness or 10 point increase in customer touch points will result into shareholders’ value is not specified.

To overcome such scenarios managers at Guardian Alignment needs to not only know the financial aspect of project management but also needs to have tools to integrate them into part of the project development and monitoring plan.

Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 15%

After working through various assumptions we reached a conclusion that risk is far higher than 6%. In a reasonably stable industry with weak competition - 15% discount rate can be a good benchmark.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 15 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10015226)	-10015226	-	-
Year 1	3451386	-6563840	3451386	0.8696	3001205
Year 2	3981715	-2582125	7433101	0.7561	3010749
Year 3	3963600	1381475	11396701	0.6575	2606131
Year 4	3251448	4632923	14648149	0.5718	1859026
TOTAL					10477111

The Net NPV after 4 years is 461885

(10477111 - 10015226 )

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Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 20%

If the risk component is high in the industry then we should go for a higher hurdle rate / discount rate of 20%.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 20 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10015226)	-10015226	-	-
Year 1	3451386	-6563840	3451386	0.8333	2876155
Year 2	3981715	-2582125	7433101	0.6944	2765080
Year 3	3963600	1381475	11396701	0.5787	2293750
Year 4	3251448	4632923	14648149	0.4823	1568021
TOTAL					9503006

The Net NPV after 4 years is -512220

At 20% discount rate the NPV is negative (9503006 - 10015226 ) so ideally we can't select the project if macro and micro factors don't allow financial managers of Guardian Alignment to discount cash flow at lower discount rates such as 15%.

Acceptance Criteria of a Project based on NPV

Simplest Approach – If the investment project of Guardian Alignment has a NPV value higher than Zero then finance managers at Guardian Alignment can ACCEPT the project, otherwise they can reject the project. This means that project will deliver higher returns over the period of time than any alternate investment strategy.

In theory if the required rate of return or discount rate is chosen correctly by finance managers at Guardian Alignment, then the stock price of the Guardian Alignment should change by same amount of the NPV. In real world we know that share price also reflects various other factors that can be related to both macro and micro environment.

In the same vein – accepting the project with zero NPV should result in stagnant share price. Finance managers use discount rates as a measure of risk components in the project execution process.

Sensitivity Analysis

Project selection is often a far more complex decision than just choosing it based on the NPV number. Finance managers at Guardian Alignment should conduct a sensitivity analysis to better understand not only the inherent risk of the projects but also how those risks can be either factored in or mitigated during the project execution. Sensitivity analysis helps in –

What can impact the cash flow of the project.

What will be a multi year spillover effect of various taxation regulations.

What are the uncertainties surrounding the project Initial Cash Outlay (ICO’s). ICO’s often have several different components such as land, machinery, building, and other equipment.

What are the key aspects of the projects that need to be monitored, refined, and retuned for continuous delivery of projected cash flows.

Understanding of risks involved in the project.

Some of the assumptions while using the Discounted Cash Flow Methods –

Projects are assumed to be Mutually Exclusive – This is seldom the came in modern day giant organizations where projects are often inter-related and rejecting a project solely based on NPV can result in sunk cost from a related project.

Independent projects have independent cash flows – As explained in the marketing project – though the project may look independent but in reality it is not as the brand awareness project can be closely associated with the spending on sales promotions and product specific advertising.

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Negotiation Strategy of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance

References & Further Readings

Jerry Luftman, Frank Wander, Mark Nathan, Harshil Sutaria (2018), "Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.