The Case of the Unidentified Industries-2013 If you were asked to visualize (in income statement and balance sheet form) the financial structure of a typical firm in one particular industry, do you think you could do it? How close to your "vision" do you think the reality would be? What if you were asked to do the same experiment covering 14 firms drawn from 14 different industries? How many of the 14 do you think you would get right? You may be surprised by how much you already know! Exhibit 1 presents the balance sheets (in percentage form) and other selected financial data for 14 firms drawn from 14 different industries. While there are clear differences in the financial structures of different firms within a single industry, the firms selected have figures that are broadly typical of those in the industry. Try to match the 14 firms operating in the 14 industries named below with the 14 sets of financial data presented in Exhibit 1. Use any approach you find helpful. Airline Bookstore chain Commercial Bank (fitted into the most nearly comparable balance sheet and ratio categories of the nonfinancial companies) Computer software developer Department store chain (with its "own brand" charge card) Electric and gas utility (with 80% of its revenue from electricity sales and 20% of its revenue from natural gas sales) Online direct factory to customer personal computer vendor (with more than half of sales to business customers and most manufacturing outsourced) Online retailer Parcel delivery service