Individual essay

  Introduction This unit will examine the breadth and complexity of a modern fashion supply chain and its relevance within international fashion businesses. The unit allows you to demonstrate the theoretical and practical approaches of roles and processes involved in the research, creation, sourcing and delivery of a profitable and balanced fashion product offer that is relevant to the demands of the consumer. You have been part of a team that helped develop a buying and merchandising plan for the opening of a new fashion concept “pop up” store, which opened in London 2 years ago. The project gave you the opportunity to go from an empty shop to a full one. As part of the task you have now been attached to Next the clothing shop for 2 weeks in which you are expected to learn how to do financial analysis and you have been asked to do some financial analysis on the performance of the company and compare that it what you think are the competitors. Using financial reports and accounts attached to this coursework, analyse the results of the organisation highlighting trends in performance using appropriate and relevant ratios and analysis techniques. Your analysis should include: 1. Comparison of latest year results with previous year results 2. Ratio analysis of both latest and previous years (show all workings and provide detailed reference of data sources): This should include; a. Liquidity b. Solvency c. Working capital management d. Profitability e. Asset efficiency You should aim at providing a minimum of two (2) and an average of three (3) ratios under each of the above headings for each of the two years covered. 3. Come up with KPI’s for the company which you will use to design the below. 4. Using the financial information and your workings, prepare a balanced score card suitable for use by the directors and mangers of your organisations to align business activities to the identified vision and strategy and to monitor performance against strategic goals. 5. Build a strategy map to describe and explain how each aspect of the scorecard can assist the company in achieving its goals and targets. 6. Summarise your recommendations to the board 7. Discussion and explanation of the results 8. Discussion of the advantages and limitations of the analysis techniques you have used. MBA International Fashion Management Module Assignment: Managerial Finance M091LON - April 2017 9. Critically discuss and evaluate, with reference to academic literature the use of ratio analysis and the balanced score card for performance management and monitoring. 10. Provide a meaningful executive summary of approximately 200 words at the beginning of your report. Your approach to this task must reflect your ability to carry out research, understand key principles in financial management and apply these to the case study. Individual Management Report (Word Count 2,500) Should include: ï‚· Title sheet ï‚· Executive summary ï‚· Contents page ï‚· Introduction ï‚· Literature review to support your accounting models used. ï‚· Ratio analysis ï‚· Balance Score card ï‚· Evaluation ï‚· Any other Issues to be considered ï‚· Conclusions and Recommendations ï‚· Appendixes Requirements Individual submission of coursework based on company performance and Balance Score card. Coursework Submission should include: Evidence of research. Learning Outcomes 1. Select and apply appropriate accounting techniques to critically analyse financial data in a variety of business decision making scenarios 2. Make informed financial judgements based on the outcome of such accounting analyses 3. Critically appraise the techniques used and the information to which they have been applied 4. Understand the objectives of preparing management information and the need to adapt techniques in a changing commercial environment 5. Apply techniques to evaluate management decisions in relation to costing, pricing, product range and marketing strategy 6. Identify and apply appropriate budgeting techniques to enable management to control the Business Reading Essential Reading Ross, S.A., Westerfield, R. and Jaffe, J. (2007) Modern Financial Management, McGraw Hill Education, UK Recommended Reading MBA International Fashion Management Module Assignment: Managerial Finance M091LON - April 2017 Penman, S. (2007), Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuations, 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill Proctor, R. (2006) Managerial Accounting for Business Decisions Edition 2, FT Prentice Hall, Harlow, ISBN 0-273-68155-9 Students will be directed to additional sources, such as web-links, academic journals, professional and trade publications through the Module Web.