Your aim is to find the following elements of the corporation’s business:
Company Overview
- Include brief history, specific products/services produced and other key statistics you see as relevant to the overview.
- Key statistics might include things such as previous year's sales figures, number of operations, number of employees, industry ranking, etc.
Company Situation
- Complete a thorough assessment of the company’s current situation using a SWOT analysis. In addition to identifying opportunities and threats in the external environment, examine trends, competitive forces and other factors which could have a significant impact on the future direction of the company. For example, consider the impact of technological change, government legislation, globalization, and major ethical issues.
- Identify and discuss critical issues your company is now facing. Examples of critical issues are: a shortage of skilled workers, a major ethical issue facing the company, introduction of costly new government regulation, erosion of brand relevance, declining sales/profits, inability to penetrate foreign markets. Identify the issues unique to your company.
- Conclude the situation assessment with a discussion of the major implications for the company in terms of future strategy. Discuss how the company is addressing the critical issues identified above.
Strategic Direction
- What are the vision, mission and value statements for your company? Evaluate the vision statement against the following criteria:
- Is it directional? Has management clearly described what it wants the company to look like in the future? Is it specific enough to provide managers with guidance in making decisions and allocating resources?
- Is it engaging? Or is it bland and uninspiring?
- Is it easy to communicate?
- Is the company actually living up to its vision? Why or why not?
- Describe the company’s key long term objectives for the next 3-5 years. These objectives might relate to increasing sales, profits, return on investment, stock price, number of locations, international expansion, social responsibility, employee development and other areas. Focus on specific outcomes the company has identified that it would like to achieve.
- Discuss how the company intends to achieve (strategies) the above long term objectives. For example, if one of the company’s objectives over the next three years is to grow sales by 10% per year, what are the strategies to achieve this (e.g., product development, international expansion, increasing the number of outlets, adopting a new advertising strategy, joint venture with another firm etc.)?
- Assess the company’s strategies. Is it likely they will achieve the stated objectives and move the company towards achieving its vision?
Organizational Structure
- How is the company organized (functional, product, matrix, etc.)? Provide an organization chart for your company. Discuss the rationale for the structure. What type of incentives or opportunities are offered to motivate the staff?
- How many (list in Appendix) members are there on the board of directors for your corporation? Does the board appear to have a good mix of skills and background? How independent is the board of directors? Which committees does the board have?
- Identify the company’s Chief Executive Officer and describe his or her background, given the nature of the business. What assumptions would you make about his or her leadership style? How much did the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) earn (salary, bonus and other compensation) in the most recent fiscal year? What was net income over the same period? How does this compare to other CEOs in this industry? Does the CEO’s compensation appear to be reasonable and justifiable?
Marketing Strategy
- Discuss the company’s marketing strategy, focusing on all elements of the marketing mix.
- Provide a list (in your Appendix) of all product lines offered by your company and the specific product offerings within each line. Using a chart format, identify and discuss three different products or services offered by your firm and provide the following:
- Describe the target market segment served. Be specific about the target market in terms of all the demographics, psychographics and behavioural characteristics which apply.
- Describe the “Value Package” for each product or service (the bundle of value-adding attributes). Describe the features (tangible and intangible) built into each product or service and the corresponding benefits provided to attract buyers.
- Describe the promotional mix employed by your firm for each product/service, including advertising (include media strategy), personal selling, sales promotions and public relations. You may want to download advertising commercials from its web site to present in class. Describe the company’s use of YouTube, Facebook, product placements in movies/video games, blogs, etc. as part of their communications/marketing strategy.
- Describe the pricing objectives and strategies pursued by your firm for each product or service.
- What are the distribution channels for these product lines marketed by your firm (i.e. what are all the ways the customer can obtain your product or service)?
- Describe how the company has attempted to position each product or service in the minds of its target market. In other words, how has the company tried to create an image or identity in the minds of its target market relative to its competitors in the same category?
Financial Performance
- Describe the company’s financial performance over the last three fiscal years. Your analysis should include the following:
- Revenue, net profit, stock price, earnings per share and return on equity trends.
- The current ratio, debt/equity ratio and profit margin ratio trend for the last three fiscal years.
- A comparative financial analysis of your company with a key competitor.
- A description of your company’s sources of capital. What is the company’s capital structure (i.e., proportion of debt versus equity)? How does the capital structure compare to the capital structure of the key competitor? Which firm is more highly leveraged and potentially carries a greater financial risk?
Company Outlook
- Discuss your conclusions with respect to the outlook for the company. What is your forecast in terms of the company’s growth and financial performance for the next three years? Discuss your forecast in terms of future revenues, net profit and stock price.
- Describe the forecast of at least two market analysts for your company. How does their forecast compare to yours?
Recommendation
- Based on your research provide your recommendation to the institutional investor. Fully explain your recommendation. Your team’s recommendation must be justified by the FACTS provided in the report. Your conclusion is the culmination of your research and therefore should be based on ALL aspects of your report.
