This is a very brief and heavy assignment and it has finance, accounting, and management tasks involved. I have not posted the case yet. The attachment is just a list of introductions that need to be

Its word count (including executive summary) is: (Not to exceed 2800 words)

Its page count (including executive summary) is:(Not to exceed 9 pages)

The Assignment

1. Mastercard’s CEO Michael Miebach and his team, aware of your skills in strategic analysis, have asked you to help them assess the situation and to recommend a strategy for the company for the next five years. Please prepare a report for them giving your appraisal of the situation and your recommendations, considering strategy formulation as well as implementation issues, and using the format given in the “General Guidelines for Analyzing and Writing Cases” provided at the UM Learn website of the course. Please do not limit yourself to the alternatives, if any, given in the case so you may build other strategic alternatives and consider them before making a recommendation.

2. The case is available for purchase at the Ivey Publishing’s website. Its title is “Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash” and its number is 522001. The case is from Harvard Business School. Be sure to buy the case mentioned above because there are other cases on Mastercard.

3. As mentioned below, you may conduct external research on the case up to April 20, 2022 (i.e., the date of the case). Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

C. External Research

1. You are required to access the company’s annual financial information (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flows, and Stock Prices) from the Internet for at least three years (2019-2021). As you may know, this information is easily available at several websites, e.g., Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, Marketwatch, Macrotrends, Wall Street Journal, etc. Some of these websites may also have key financial ratios of various companies available for several years. Usually, trends of these ratios for the most recent five years is sufficient. You may use the ratios from these websites in your report but be sure to provide the reference. As you know, it is more important to know how to interpret these ratios than how to calculate them.

2. This assignment is primarily based on the case and the financial information. Thus, you are not required to conduct any other external research on the company and its industries. You may search for other information up to April 20, 2022, if you would like to. Even if you are searching for information from external sources, external research should not be the focus of the paper. Moreover, search for or use of any information or data regarding this company and its industries after the above-mentioned date will be subject to hind-sight bias and will be considered a violation of university policy on Academic Integrity.

3. Be sure to provide references on a separate page for any search before the date given above and attach this page at the end of the paper. This page may contain only references and can be in addition to the text-pages and exhibits. The words on the reference page are not included in the word count of the paper. You may use the APA (American Psychological Association) format for the references rather than simply providing the links. You may provide the citations (e.g., when you are providing Assumptions and their Justification exhibit) by the name of the author and year (e.g., Smith, 2020). If the source material does not have an author, you may use the name of publication (e.g., Wall Street Journal, 2020). Please note that there is no need to provide citation or reference of the case.

4. Please use your own words throughout the paper and do not use any direct quotations from the case or from the external sources.

1. The paper must be between 2,000–2,800 words and printed on a maximum of nine (9) pages in double-space with 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch (2.54 centimeters) margins on all sides (maximum 23 lines per page).

2. You must use paragraphs and headings in keeping with appropriate business writing form. Use a tab at the beginning of the paragraph to clearly distinguish it from previous paragraphs. Do not use any footnotes. You may use either left justification or both left and right justification.

3. The word-count limit and the nine-page limit do not include the Title Page or any exhibits. However, they do include the executive summary. Therefore, ignore the Title Page and begin page number one with the Executive Summary.

4. Please do not use fancy fonts. Avoid extended use of bold or italics also.

5. Papers that grossly violate these guidelines will receive a failing grade (e.g., using a font smaller than the one specified here or using single space text in the body of the paper will receive a failing grade). Points may be deducted for other violations (e.g., at least ten per cent points will be deducted for each additional page or part thereof {Hint: “part thereof” here means at least ten per cent points will be deducted for any part of the tenth or any subsequent page}). Ten per cent deduction means that if you receive 80 per cent marks in the exam, violation of one page (or part thereof) will reduce it to 70 per cent.

6. Please be sure that the text of the paper as well as the exhibits are readable. It may be better to copy and paste exhibits from Excel to Word rather than use their pictures or screenshots. As you know, pictures or screenshots make the numbers difficult to read and are not professional quality.

7. Clarification: Stop when you reach 2,800 words or nine pages in the given format. In other words, the paper must meet both conditions: Not more than 2,800 words and not more than nine pages in the given format. Include the Word Count and the Page Count on the statement of integrity and the title page (as shown above). Keep in mind that the word count and the page count include the headings and subheadings that are part of the text of the paper. You may underline or use bold letters for the headings of various sections to show them clearly.