MEWC
FMWC
TAC
EEO
By Nick Faris and Kyle McCall
At Equity Methods, we’re always looking for analytically minded people who like solving puzzles — more specifically, puzzles with real-world implications. In an economy powered by human capital, we help companies manage the incentives that drive progress, from high-stakes modeling to ensuring that the transactions are represented with transparency and accountability.
“What does that actually mean?” you might ask. Rather than simply telling you, we want to show you. That was the thinking behind the three tasks that we developed for Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge, or MECC. We wanted to give students the opportunity to flex their Excel muscles while working on examples drawn from our world.
We’ve worked with over 1,000 organizations, from Fortune 100 to pre-IPO companies, to develop compensation programs. There are many paths companies can take to do that, not to mention different objectives they want to achieve. But there are also rules they must follow when they offer share-based compensation (for employees) or securities (for investors). The rules can be complicated and ambiguous. So, we tackle the toughest projects to determine what our clients need to do under these rules and ensure compliance.
We’ve worked with over 1,000 organizations, from Fortune 100 to pre-IPO companies, to develop compensation programs. There are many paths companies can take to do that, not to mention different objectives they want to achieve. But there are also rules they must follow when they offer share-based compensation (for employees) or securities (for investors). The rules can be complicated and ambiguous. So, we tackle the toughest projects to determine what our clients need to do under these rules and ensure compliance.
Against that backdrop, let’s look at the tasks. One is a case study where you take the perspective of the founder of a startup company. You, the founder, are thinking about awarding equity compensation (shares of ownership) to certain employees, a common practice among cash-strapped startups. In the case study, you’ll set up an analytical model, then project a few different scenarios to help the founder understand how a share-based equity program could play out as the company grows.
The other two tasks are questions. The first asks you to forecast equity compensation expense to see what it could look like in the future, depending on how the company’s stock price performs and the other kinds of stock-based instruments you may have issued in the meantime. The second question is a variation on a pay equity project. Ordinarily, we’d analyze compensation disparities within companies (e.g., between men and women), but for this case, you’ll analyze the spending difference of dog owners versus cat owners.
In addition to earning the Equity Methods Career Prep Badge, there is a fourth case focused on financial modeling, giving you exposure to corporate restructuring scenarios and another opportunity to apply your analytical skills in practice.
See how ownership evolves
Estimate outcomes
Find patterns between groups
Analyze pay decisions
See how ownership evolves
Estimate outcomes
Find patterns between groups
Analyze pay decisions
To recap, these tasks represent real-life problems that we help Equity Methods clients solve. Although we use a different tool, SAS, to do our heavy analysis, we frequently use Excel for upfront analysis and to help companies understand how a solution can take shape. These are all transferable skills that can take your career in any number of directions. We hope you enjoy the MECC materials we created for you—and if you do, we’d love to hear from you!
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