Please read EVERYTHING below carefully. Most times when a student asks a clarification question, the answer is simply overlooked below.
Case #1 due Sunday, April 14, 2024: Case 8 – Coca Cola (page C-117)
Case #2 due Friday, May 3, 2024: Case 9 – Jose Cuervo: The Making of a Legendary Tequila Brand (page C-130)
Task and Scenario: You are a respected business analyst and consultant, hired by the president of the corporation to conduct an objective case analysis of the said corporation and provide recommendations based on the case situation described (by the textbook case).
Your objective is to use your knowledge of business policy and strategy to address the prescient issues expressed by the case. To do this effectively, you will also need to address several contextual issues through your own research of the company, outside of the case.
Being that the audience of the case analysis is the president of the corporation and its board of directors, and that you are a respected business analyst, they do not expect, nor will tolerate, a restatement of facts, or a summary of the history of the company or its products or services.
Furthermore, you must assume that the audience need not be educated on the concepts utilized in the paper. They are the president and board of directors after all. Rather, they need to see the expert application of accepted business analysis techniques and cumulative findings of the analysis. In the end, your substantiated and professionally derived thoughts, opinions, and recommendations are desired.
Lastly, the case analysis is professional document, and anything less than professional writing and presentation will tarnish your reputation as a trusted and respected business analyst and consultant.
How to Work: The analysis should be your effort only. This is not a group effort. Neither should you utilize any other previous case analysis for the assigned company, from whatever source derived. Doing is prohibited and would be viewed as plagiarism.
On the other hand, any information you find about the company, its competitors, or the industry on the web or in the library is not only permissible but recommended. However, do not footnote your sources or provide inline citations. All you simply have to do is provide a Works Cited page listing your sources – this page may simply be a list of hyperlinks. Use APA format.
Case Analysis Format: The Case Analysis should be submitted as an individual Microsoft Word document (.doc and .docx format only) to the appropriate Case Study Assignment link. The document will include a title page with your name on the first page, the class (MGT 527.01W), name of the company analyzed, and the date and a Works Cited section.
Good, economically written analysis papers range from 9 to 12 pages. Do not go over 14 pages (not including Title Page and Works Cited) – you may be penalized for attempting to inundate and overwhelm the audience.
Be economical, cogent, concise, and to-the-point in your writing. Edit your writing ruthlessly. Constantly look for ways to eliminate redundancy and use as few words as possible. Always keep your audience in mind. Your audience is sophisticated, has a limited amount of time, and wants to know your main points and bottom line as fast as possible. They do not need to be educated.
Do not waste words, use cliché’s or provide fluff. Doing so discredits the analysis.
Everything should be written in third person. NEVER use personal pronouns like, I, me, our, we, etc.
Utilization of editors such as Grammarly is highly, HIGHLY recommended.
Pages should be numbered. The body of the paper should utilize double line spacing; Calibri, Arial or New Times Roman font; and a font size of 11 or 12. The paper shall be logically organized. 1″ margins.
Organization: The following recommended Headings and Sub-headings should be a guide (and outline) to the organization of your case analysis. You may choose to add to or amend these titles as necessary to fit your analysis.
- {Title page}
- Executive Summary
- Internal Assessment
- Analysis
- Strengths and Weaknesses
- External Assessment
- Analysis
- External Opportunities and Threats
- Possible Options
- Recommendations
- Update
- Works Cited
Instructions for each Section of the Case Analysis (the grading rubric will follow this closely)
Under each of the above headings, you should discuss/evaluate such things as the following:
The Executive Summary section is presented first, but is the very last thing written in the case analysis. In less than a page, distill the major findings and recommendations of the Case Analysis. Give the executive audience a preview of the details contained within the pages of the Case Analysis that follows. Do not try to write this first. Write it VERY last.
Under the Internal Assessment section, you should start with a size up of the company’s financial performance and current situation, as well as a number of the its internal strengths and weaknesses. (Recommended length: about 3-5 pages)
Financial Analysis (see Financial Health Ratios at bottom of these instructions and pages C-13 to C-16 of the text)
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- Are there any especially good or bad ratios, trends?
- Pay particular attention to financial growth, profitability, and leverage trends.
- What are the 2-3 year trends, we are not interested in quarterly results?
- How has the company’s stock performed in the last couple of years – are the stockholders happy or not? (ROI on stockholder investment)
- Are there any especially good or bad ratios, trends?
Competitive Advantage Analysis (VRIO)
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- Identify the resources, capabilities, and/or core competencies that gives the company competitive advantages. They key elements may need to be categorized as being Valuable, Rare, Inimitable and/or Organizationally driven. A table is a great way to summarize these elements – but a table alone is insufficient. Written description is required.
Internal Assessment Conclusion
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- Based on the above analysis, identify the company’s key strengths and weaknesses.
Under the External Assessment section examine the general, industry and major competitors. Examine how the firm fits within the environment, how it competes, and how it compares to its major competitors. You will want to use pertinent elements of PESTLEG, Five Forces, and Competitor Analysis in this endeavor. In sum, the section should address the following questions: (Recommended length: about 3-5 pages)
- What significant general environmental effects impact the company? ( as derived from PESTLEG analysis)
- How profitable is the industry and what are its key trends? (as derived from Five Forces Analysis)
- How intense is the competition? (Competitor Analysis)
- What are the most important external opportunities and threats of the general environment, industry, and from competition for the company?
In the Possible Options section identify possible strategies going forward as they relate to the presented case. (Recommended length: about 1.5 – 3 pages)
- What options exist for the company to address the issues in the case?
- Are there any mutually exclusive strategies?
- Remember, these would be possibilities, not necessarily what you ultimately recommend.
- Weigh the pros and cons of each.
In the Recommendations part you should identify several things that the company needs to do going forward. Just as important is why you think these would be appropriate. (Recommended length: about 1.5 – 3 pages)
- Identify the major, the minor, the immediate, and the long-term strategies.
- This maybe the most important area but also the most difficult.
- What do you think will happen as a result of implementing these recommendations?
Update: Provide a brief read on what the company has done since the case appeared in the text. (What has worked, what hasn’t, why, etc. (Recommended length: about 1 – 2 pages)
Additional Instructions:
- A significant portion of the grade will be based on how well your work follows the instructions above. You may wish to use the bulleted portions above as a type of checklist. The grading rubric closely follows the instructions above.
- In that each case/company/industry is different, each case has different factors that should be addressed in your analysis. I check for those as I read case analysis.
- You can find company and industry data, news, and access to annual statements on such web sites as Yahoo Finance, Moody’s, and/or the company’s home web site. The most recent company annual statement would be a prime starting point for your analysis. Base your financial analysis on yearly figures – not quarterly figures.
- DO NOT copy and paste tables/figures/charts from existing sources as fillers for your analysis. Doing so will likely be penalized. However, you may want to create tables/figures/charts summarizing elements of your analysis. If you do, please keep in mind that any table/figure/charts is a supporting part or summary of your written analysis. The tables/figures/charts alone are insufficient.
- Keep in mind that the textbook work of this semester was conducted to help prepare you for the task of analyzing past, present, and future strategies. The what, how, when, why, where strategy questions are contained in its chapters; as well as having already taken the prerequisites for this capstone course.
Helpful instructions for conducting the Financial Analysis subsection/portion of the Internal Analysis:
See also pages C-13 to C-16 of the textbook
The most common way to determine the financial health of a publicly traded company is to conduct a financial ‘snapshot’ analysis. The following is a list of nine commonly used ratios in this assessment. Some or all the below may be applicable to the case analysis subject. Part of the assignment is your ability to determine what is applicable, and what is not. The instructor will not give you specific instructions on what to, and what not to use.
Most effective case analyses utilize most of these, often in tabular form with explanatory written analysis and interpretation of the findings. The data necessary to make the calculations may be found in the annual reports of the company (best place to start), but also in other sources like Yahoo Finance, Moody’s, and other financial related publications. Remember, we are not interested in quarterly results, but yearly trends. The most effective financial health analyses give longitudinal, year-to-year insights.
The most enterprising students may also make comparisons to the industry averages and some, to the firm’s most influential competitors. Ultimately, the depth of this analysis is up to you as an analyst.
Liquidity
- Current ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities
- Quick Ratio = (Current Assets – Inventory – Prepaid Expenses) / Current Liabilities
Solvency
- Debt to Equity (D/E) Ratio = Total Debt / Total Equity
- Debt to Asset Ratio = Total Debt / Total Assets
Operating Efficiency
- Receivables Turnover Ratio = Net Credit Sales / Average Accounts Receivable
- Inventory Turnover Ratio = Cost of Goods Sold / Average Value of Inventory
Profitability
- Net Profit Margin = (Net Income / Revenue) * 100
- Gross Profit Margin = [(Net Sales – Cost of Goods Sold) / Net Sales] *100
Bottom Line
- Return on Equity = Net Income / Total Equity
Ratios and Financial Health References (If your reference any of the these, include them in the Works Cited section)
- https://www.delapcpa.com/business-advisory/financial-health-ratios/Links to an external site.
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/061916/what-best-measure-companys-financial-health.aspLinks to an external site.
- https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/how-to-determine-the-financial-health-of-a-companyLinks to an external site.