ssignment: Company Analysis – Writing Assignment 1
You will have time to work on this assignment in class.
Purpose
To analyze a company’s external business communication documents.
Overview
According to the Syllabus, meeting all requirements for an assignment will earn you a grade of B. The B grade indicates expected performance at the graduate level. To achieve a grade of B+ or better, your work should cover all main points of an assignment, demonstrate a clear and concise organized thought process, incorporate various levels of creativity, include additional resources and experiences into the assignment, and contain no noticeable grammatical, typographical, or spelling errors.
A grading rubric, which will be used by your professor, is included with each assignment. Carefully review each rubric to make sure you have addressed all the criteria before submitting your assignment. Most of the rubrics include the following general criteria in addition to the specific criteria for each assignment.
• Integrates established business communication principles.
At the graduate level, you must support your work with established principles in the field. Citations are required.
• Synthesizes relevant information and material to provide evidence of critical thought.
At the graduate level, you must demonstrate that you have the ability to combine various elements to form a coherent whole – not simply stating facts. You also must demonstrate that you have the ability to examine a situation from diverse perspectives before reaching a conclusion.
• Develops ideas with clarity and logic.
At the graduate level, you must demonstrate that you can present your message in a clear and logical manner and not have your message obscured by disorganized facts and information.
In this assignment you will be using a tool called turnitin.com. This tool allows you to check your paper for potential plagiarism before submitting your paper for a grade. Use the results of the originality report to modify your paper as needed before submitting.
Scenario: Your supervisor has asked you to explore a company that your organization is thinking about purchasing. Your job is to begin an initial analysis of the company. You will write a professional email to your supervisor that describes your findings.
Note: This is an individual assignment.
Action Items
1. Review Table 7.1 Tips for Effective Email Messages in your textbook.
2. Review the grading rubric for this assignment.
3. Go to the discussion topic, “Company Assignment”, and see which company your professor has assigned you to analyze for this assignment.
4. Read the two most recent annual reports of the company you have been assigned.
a. Go to the company’s website. Typically, the annual report will be stored on the Investor Relations page of the company’s website.
b. Locate and read the last two annual reports of the company as indicated.
c. Read other reports and press releases posted by the company.
5. Locate the Consolidated Statements of Income (also known as the Income Statement), Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows in the most current annual report. Print them out, or if the firm offers downloadable copies, download them and save to your computer.
Note: You will need the Consolidated Statements of Income for this assignment. Data from the Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows will be used in Write 2: Handout (in-class) .
6. Create a Microsoft ExcelTM worksheet to present the major portions of the firm’s Consolidated Statements of Income. See the sample provided. You are not simply to copy the sample – make your own worksheet and do your own formatting and computations. Format the Excel document to print in landscape view. See the sample for an example of how to set up the reports and the calculations you are to perform.
Note: You will likely note some extra items on the Consolidated Statements of Income – things that you do not know what to do with. Most of these are non-operating expenses or income that should be captured as such, following the sample provided. The items you are most concerned with will be clearly labeled as such.
7. Write a Word document containing a copy of your email to your supervisor that addresses the following items.
a. What is the tone of each report (its appearance, theme, look)? What feelings and impressions do you get from looking at the report?
b. Review the management letters and other front matter found in the beginning of the reports. What stands out? Can you draw any initial conclusions about the state of the business? What do the leaders have to say about their company?
c. What else is contained in the annual reports, and what is the significance of it?
d. Compare and contrast the two consolidated statements of income for the company. Consider the yearly operating performance and environmental circumstances (economy, market, trends, etc) that are readily apparent to you as an observer, and/or those mentioned specifically by the management of the organization.
e. What changes do you notice in tone and content from year to year?
f. What is your recommendation on if this company should be explored further for potential purchase by your organization? Include a rationale for your recommendation.
8. Check your document with grammarly.com. Modify your document as needed. Note: Instructions on how to access grammarly.com is available inSubmit To Grammarly.
9. Submit your document to turnitin.com (see MBA Toolbox). Use your Franklin email when setting up your account. View the tutorials on how to use the tool, especially how the Originality report works and how it can be used to improve your paper.
10. Read the Originality Report you receive from turnitin.com and make any modifications as needed to your document. This may include adding proper citations or better paraphrasing.
11. Include your Excel worksheet as an appendix to your Word document. There are several ways to do this. Here is just one method.
• Place your cursor where you would like to include the Excel worksheet into your Word document.
• Insert an “object” into your Word document at the appropriate location. b
• Select “Create from file” tab.
• A window will appear for you to search your file structure for your .xls or .xlsx file.
• The file will be inserted into your word document. You may need to resize the image to fit the page.
12. Include the grading rubric as an appendix to your document.
elow is what you are supposed to have in the assignment. You will need to note that this is NOT a Group assignment. It is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.
It should be in email format and should address the points as is listed below. I have short explanations in red.
Start with a short introduction about the research that you conducted on the company and say that you will be addressing the contents of the two annual reports to determine whether the company is worth purchasing.
Write a Word document containing a copy of your email to your supervisor that addresses the following items.
What is the tone of each report (its appearance, theme, look)? What feelings and impressions do you get from looking at the report?
Here you look at the two reports and determine how they looked different from each other. It could be that they changed the entire layout to make it look more presentable, or that they have new sections of interest to investors etc. Explain why you like one report better than teh other. or why you felt that there was not much change in both the reports
Review the management letters and other front matter found in the beginning of the reports. What stands out? Can you draw any initial conclusions about the state of the business? What do the leaders have to say about their company?
Here you need to look at the two reports and determine whether the tone of the chairman’s note and other notes by key leaders are positive in terms of how they performed, what were the key achievements, and find what was different from one report to the other.
What else is contained in the annual reports, and what is the significance of it?
List the key elements of the reports and say why they are important. For example the VW reports have extremely clear view of the financial charts that clearly match the balance sheets. This is an indication that the company want to give a better visual feel to their report as investors may not want to take a look at the entire balance sheet.
Compare and contrast the two consolidated statements of income for the company. Consider the yearly operating performance and environmental circumstances (economy, market, trends, etc) that are readily apparent to you as an observer, and/or those mentioned specifically by the management of the organization. – You would have done this comparison in the class and will have a clear understanding of the same. This will help you to answer the next question.
What changes do you notice in tone and content from year to year?
Refer to section above to address this question. For example the VW reports on the capture of market saw a decline from one year to the next. This needs to have a reason. It could have been that another car manufacturing company launched its operations in that region…
What is your recommendation on if this company should be explored further for potential purchase by your organization? Include a rationale for your recommendation.
Based on the analysis, you should be able to say whether you recommend to purchase or not to purchase and why….
The reason should be a solid one.. for example, the decline of foreign manufactured cars in the global market has seen a decline as the countries where there were high sales have begun to manufacture similar cars at cheaper rates, or whatever you deem fit based on your analysis. or if you want to purchase, then state why….
Toyota Summary Executive
Toyota is a Japanese Corporation manufacturing motor vehicles. The Toyota headquarter is placed in Negoya in Japan. It was founded by the Japanese entrepreneur Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. Toyota owns 75 factories & assembly plants and 338,875 employees over the globe. There are five different brands under the Toyota Corporation; Toyota, Lexus, Hino, Ranz & Scion.
Potential Growth of Toyota Market
It is no secret that Toyota Motors sees the next wave of growth coming from developing markets in Southeast Asia and South America. In 2014, it opened its fourth auto plant in Indonesia at an investment of $340 million. With a greater focus on building cars suited to the needs of customers in developing markets, Toyota hopes to generate 50% of its total vehicle sales from developing markets by 2015, up from 45% in 2011. Only in Indonesia, the car sales raised to 1.12 million.
The SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company. Toyota’s SWOT analysis shows the findings below:
Strengths:
Toyota has got the most innovative culture. The brand reputation is valued at $30 billion. It is the industry leader in production and sales of cars due to its strong brand portfolio. Toyota is also becoming the leader in “green” cars development.
Weaknesses:
The hierarchical organizational structure and the secrecy in organizational culture are the only major weaknesses that can be found in Toyota Corporation.
Opportunities:
There are lots of opportunities for Toyota to shine even more, such as its positive attitude towards “green” vehicles, increasing fuel prices, and the changing needs of customers that drive Toyota always to be the first to come up with the newest ideas and designs.
Threats:
The new emission standards have been a threat to all car manufacturers, not only Toyota, as well as the continuous increase in raw material prices, and the intense competition of other car manufacturers.
Competitive Advantages
Toyota has something for everyone in terms of variety, shape and price. Safety is the most important aspect in Toyota, that’s why 1 million USD is being spent every hour for research and development for improving the 6 safety systems of the car and passenger. Toyota is also well known for its high quality and quick service, and the spare parts are affordable and available everywhere. Toyota has got the highest re-sell value among almost all car brands, and that is due to its durability, reliability and very high-quality vehicles.
Toyota’s Efforts is Sustainability, Innovation and Globalization
Toyota is contributing in making the environment healthier and greener, so the vehicles it manufactures are environment-friendly because it started using more natural resources. Studies showed that over 95% of waste was reduced, recycled and re-used in 2014, and with that Toyota managed to minimize the waste and energy, and maximize the efficiency of their cars. Toyota is also famous for its hybrids; cars that have fuel engines combined with electric motors. Over 2 million hybrids were sold in the USA last year. Toyota is the first to lead regarding innovation, it is aiming for a smart mobility society, so they invented the EV; an electric vehicle for one passenger that is totally battery based and doesn’t consume any fuel. Right now the EVs serve certain purposes only like in touristic areas and recreations but will soon invade the markets. Toyota’s plans in globalization are to globalize the quality and safety standards in all Toyota vehicles no matter where the vehicle is manufactured.
Toyota’s Financial Data
2015 is the most successful year in Toyota’s history during the last 10 years, keeping in mind that the year has not ended yet. The net revenues increased gradually from ¥18,994 billion in 2011 to ¥27,235 billion in 2015. The net income also increased from ¥284 billion in 2012 to ¥2,173 billion in 2015. The ROE (Return on Equity) showed an increase from 3.9% in 2012 to 13.9% in 2015. The Capital Investment has been increased gradually from ¥642 billion in 2011 to ¥1,177 billion in 2015. The R&D (Research & Development) Expenses has also increased gradually from ¥730 billion in 2011 to ¥1,005 billion in 2015.
Recommendations
Toyota committed to providing the customer with the highest quality vehicles, at the lowest possible costs, and in a timely manner. The spare parts distributors provide spare parts to dealers quickly, efficiently, and at low cost. It also successfully managed to pass the TMG’s ISO 9001/14001/50001 certifications. Based on all the facts mentioned above, we strongly recommend buying and investing in Toyota.
