business policy and strategy milestones 4
Financial Performance Analysis
This milestone activity demonstrates your financial knowledge by testing your ability to calculate and assess key financial ratios. This practice corresponds to CLO11 and is included in the Final Assessment Project.
What do I want you to do?
Find 10 common financial performance ratios for your selected company, and evaluate whether your company is performing well based on each ratio. (Kennedy et al., 2020 has a list of some ratios in Table 2.8.)
Why do I want you to do it?
Interpreting financial information is a basic skill in business, and being able to strategize from this information can be an advantage over other candidates.
How do I want you to do it?
What format(s) should the assessment be in?
List the name of the ratio, its formula, and its calculated value (as a numerical figure), followed by a judgment of whether the company is performing well based on that single metric. In either case, describe which component of the ratio (numerator or denominator) needs to improve to improve the ratio and an action the company could take that would likely accomplish that. Be as specific as you can be. Repeat for 10 performance ratios.
What tools or resources might be needed/useful? Investopedia, SEC EDGAR Company Filings, and Macrotrends
What to include in your submission
Your assignment submission should include:
List of 10 financial performance evaluations
Part 2: Balanced Scorecard Analysis
This milestone activity corresponds to CLO12 and is featured in the Final Assessment Project. Practice using a balanced scorecard approach to analyzing strategic performance.
What do I want you to do?
Take a balanced scorecard approach to evaluating strategic performance by assessing these dimensions of your selected company:
Safety - Has your company recently been noted for loss of life related to its business? That could include employee deaths, customer deaths, injuries, endangering others, toxins, hazards, environmental destruction, or other safety-related issues.
Quality - What is the area in greatest need of improvement for your company in terms of delivering value to the customer? In what ways might they be weak at meeting customer needs, defective (other than ways already noted in the safety section), or involved in scandal that harms its reputation?
Productivity - In what ways might your company be more productive? Consider how it might use energy, water, or materials more efficiently or how it might minimize waste and implement a circular economy. Look for best practices in the industry to surpass.
Cost - How might the product or service be made more affordable? Lowering price can only work if costs are lowered, but how might your company do that specifically? Do you see any ways to simplify or make their product easier to purchase without damaging quality (a higher-level priority)?
Human Development - What is a way to improve the company's employees' professional or personal lives that could make a meaningful difference beyond simply giving them higher wages? (Remember, cost is a higher-level priority in this design. That is not to say that you can never pay your employees more or give them something that would cost the company, only that the value provided to them should "balance" with other gains from it, such as more productive workers since they are happy.)
For each of these dimensions, include at least one professional source or unbiased news source related to the case.
Why do I want you to do it?
It is good to evaluate a company from a multidimensional approach and in ways that other stakeholders can appreciate. That is a quality-based form of strategic management. Often, this more operationally focused approach to management can be a springboard to greater customer focus and a more favorable orientation toward sustainability.
How do I want you to do it?
What format(s) should the assessment be in? A short essay including the five sections requested and list of citations in APA 7 format.
What tools or resources might be needed/useful? See the examples provided in the module and benchmark competitors to imitate best practices.
What to include in your submission
Your assignment submission should include:
Balanced Scorecard Analysis
Part 3: Ethics Analysis
This milestone activity allows you demonstrate that you can use managerial power responsibly. It relates to CLO13 and can be helpful when creating the Final Assessment Project.
What do I want you to do?
Analyze the ethics related to a controversial case and the ethics of your company.
Research to find an ethics scandal in your company's industry. Describe in what ways your company can act to avoid this scandal. Cite the source of your case study in APA 7 format.
Analyze your company by asking these questions as a type of survey:
Is your company's interaction with the surrounding community (neighborhoods in which it operates) a strength or a concern?
Is your company's quality and safety of their products a strength or a concern?
Is your company's relationship with diverse populations a strength or a concern (consider such characteristics as people of other genders, races, abilities, and other key demographics)?
Is your company's relationship with employees a strength or a concern (consider within company facilities and within the greater supply chain)?
Is your company's relationship with nature a strength or a concern (consider nonhuman creatures like plants, animals, fungi, and microbes as well as inanimate things such as air, water, and soil quality)?
Is your company's treatment of executives and other leadership a strength or a concern?
Are there actions that your company takes that are disproportionately affecting people in negative ways?
Are there actions that your company could take that could significantly benefit people in positive ways without significant cost?
Are there actions that your company's competitors take that make the world a better place that your company is not yet taking?
Are there actions that your company has taken recently that demonstrate controversial intentions?
Are there actions that your company has taken that seem to force people to act in ways that they otherwise would not act voluntarily?
Are there actions that your company could take that would position it as a role model for other businesses in its industry or even beyond its industry, simply as good business?
Are there actions that your company has taken that would seem extreme to an outsider? In what ways might it be said to have gone too far?
Is your company stuck in bad habits?
Is your company violating human rights?
Is your company one that is partnering with more businesses to grow its sphere of influence, or generally, one that works in an isolated manner?
Why do I want you to do it?
Managements are expected to serve as role models, and they have a formal role in establishing the company culture. So, as stewards of ethics, they have a strong ethical responsibility as decision-making agents within the firm.
How do I want you to do it?
What format(s) should the assessment be in?
The example you find can be described in a few sentences, and the comparison can be a few sentences.
The list of questions can be copied into your file in bold, with answers in regular font. The answers can be approximately two sentences each. Cite any sources that you use to support your claims in APA 7 format.
What tools or resources might be needed/useful?
Your company's code of ethics
Your company's corporate values
Your company's Corporate Social Responsibility Report or Sustainability Report
What to include in your submission
Your assignment submission should include:
Case comparison
Ethics survey
