Week 2 Assignment - Decisions for Quarter One and Quarterly Business ReviewPart I: Decisions for Quarter One. Prior to working on your Decisions for Quarter One, review the following through the Growi
Suggestions for Q1 and Preparing your Annual Plan (Budget Commitment)
Your Decisions in “Quarterly Decisions” need to be linked to (support) your Strategy and involve all 4 quarters to complete your plan. The data currently in the “Quarterly Decisions” when you first open the tab (start the simulation) is the prior management’s plan, and rolls up to a net income commitment of $235,683. Anything can be changed in these decisions across all 4 quarters to create your plan for the year.
Review the data found in “Quarterly Dashboard,” “Financial Statements,” “Supply Chain Mgt,” and “R&D.” The time series show both actual (A) and proforma (P) based on your current decisions (the current quarter). For example, you can find all price details at the bottom of Distributor Financials (found in Financial Statements). All competitors had identical pricing through end of prior year (the retail price - which includes distributor margin - was $611; the price to the distributor was $550). It will also benefit you to review the “Internal Emails and Industry News” in “Inbox”.
Role play is available immediately in Q1, and should be used before you finalize your plan. Read the details very carefully. Keep in mind there can be economic benefit to qualitative and quantitative information. Consider the impact of role play on achieving your strategy, net income, and the impact on cash flow. Role play is limited each quarter so have a plan prior to reaching out to any of the characters.
Your Net Income commitment for the year needs to be in the range of $300,000 to $400,000, as directed by your owner. In creating your plan, consider all the basic essentials of budgeting from your Accounting and Finance courses, as well as the TRI Corp Critical Equations found in “Help.”
Your budget (plan) starts with assumptions you make from the “Market Forecast” Graphic in “Quarterly Decisions.” Your estimate of “Units Sold” in decisions is driven by your share assumption. The “Units Sold” estimate drives many of the subsequent decisions, most importantly, making sure your supply chain is in balance. Remember there are numerous lag relationships in the decisions. You can model your plan (the “Model Your SRO” button) at the bottom of the “Quarterly Decisions” as often as you like, and you will see any production constraints after modeling your plan (e.g., not enough raw material), as well as the revised plan for the year. The financial statements will also be updated when you model your SRO.
It can always be of value to review the original memos and emails. We also highly suggest you subscribe to (i.e., check off) the “Market Report” and “Business Intelligence Report” for all 4 quarters at the bottom of the decisions. Failure to do so will create a lack of comparable competitor data. The cost-benefit tradeoff is for accepting.
Only when you have your finalized Net Income plan (between $300,000 and $400,000 ) will you check “Check here then click the below button to submit your SRO.” found at the bottom of Quarterly Decisions. This will submit your Annual Plan and Q1 decisions for competitive interaction.
