Write an extremely professional report to the C-suite

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Reference no: EM132583498

Assignment -

The project basically consists of 3 challenges:

1) Finding information (This is relatively easy. Control-F was one of the greatest inventions of humankind.) There are 25 Data Items to be found.

2) Summarizing what you find (Bullet points of the 25 Data Items are fine!)

3) Writing an extremely professional, no-more-than 2-page letter/report to the C-suite, with the focus being on one or more areas that need attention of senior management.

As you know, my project (the sample project) is for LOW, comped off of HD. You need a comp (a comparable firm as a benchmark). Otherwise your ratios are in a vacuum and you don't know what to say. I decided not to include industry-wide benchmarks. A single comp is sufficient for this exercise, plus you'd probably want to kill me if I had other comps, along with more analyses, models, etc. This is a tradeoff.

Your company (client) is the first ticker in the pairing of tickers, and your comp is the second. (So, if you were assigned UAA, NKE, your client is UAA).

Step 1: Get your team organized, swap contact info, divide up the 25 Data Items.

Step 2: Get the info for your share of the 25 Data Items (Please follow the Data Source Table included in the sample project with LOW/HD, and refer to the data I retrieved for LOW in the sample project, so you will have an idea of what to look for.) Then, summarize your Data Items (again, just bullet points).

Step 3: Share (google docs or other) the Data Items and the summaries and set up a meeting, virtual or in-person, to: a) discuss briefly the summaries (teach the others what you learned), and b) discuss the ratios, which are provided in a template.

Re: ratios, you have a short time series (just 5 years) so trend analysis is limited, but certainly you have enough to spot something. For instance, what's happening over time with the 3 margins (Gross Margin, EBIT Margin, and Profit Margin)? What's happing over time with capital structure? What's happening with equity value, cash flows, efficiency ratios, etc., for both the client firm and comp?

Tell me a good story. Put words to the ratios. It's not rocket science, but invest some time looking over the spreadsheet and discussing what you see. (Learning ratios is boring. I admit. Using them in an intelligent discussion is a valuable skill to have, and actually does become satisfying as your level of knowledge increases, which you attain through practice.)

The final output of the meeting (from Step 3) should be answers to: What are actual/potential problem areas? And, very important: Who (which teammate) is the lead-writer for the letter/report to senior management?

The letter (report to senior management) is the main output of the FSA Project. (That's what I read carefully and will ding students on if they are sloppy and don't make sense. I've had terrible letters, which I've sent back to the kitchen before even finishing reading. I've also had professional letters that nailed it on the very first try. I also just do a quick spot-check to make sure students found/summarized all 25 Data Items).

So, the letter is a big deal for the project. You'll need a good writer, but also the writer will need everyone to participate as a sounding board and as editors. Jointly written letters are often problematic, but doable. If you use joint writing on a shared document, you'll want the team's submission (deliverable), to flow properly (don't repeat info, don't mix up pronouns . . . sometimes using 2nd person, sometimes 3rd, etc.) A good guide for the letter is in LOW/HD sample project. Write something like that and you'll be fine. If your team would like, feel free to copy the style, the topical arrangement, the flow, etc., using of course the data for your client (and comp) and tailoring it to match your specific analysis.

You may want to trade favors with your lead-writer, given the importance of the letter to the project.

Reference no: EM132583498

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