Strayer JWI530 All Weeks Discussions Latest 2020 JULY

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 1 Discussion

Introduce Yourself

Please introduce yourself to your classmates and professor and discuss your experience and understanding of Finance and Accounting.

Consider the following:

Personal and professional background

What is your level of financial proficiency?

How do you use financial information in your position?

Do you have any finance fears?

What financial skills would you like to further develop?

Do you currently partner with finance colleagues? If so, what "value add" do these partners provide?

This week only, post your initial response by Friday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.??

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 2 Discussion

Balance Sheet Analysis

The discussion questions for Weeks 2 – 4 are designed to help teach you to derive meaning from financial statements. Each week you will select a line item and use Variance Trend Analysis to make some initial assessments about how the company is performing.  Collectively, as a class we will seek to find the “story behind the numbers.”

Let’s start applying what you have learned to a real-life Balance Sheet.

Locate and post a screen shot of a Balance Sheet from the investor relations section of the website from the latest fiscal year for one of the following companies:

FedEx

Target

Pick a Balance Sheet line item from the following list:

Accounts Receivable

Inventory

Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP&E)

Accounts Payable

Long-Term Debt

Total Equity

Retained Earnings

What does this line item measure and why is it important item for Management to understand this number?

From the Balance Sheet, identify the Current Year and the Previous Year closing amounts for your line item. Share these with the class using a data table similar to the below:

Jack’s Toy Shop
(In thousands)
	2018	2017
Inventory	$336.2	$304.5

 

Answer the following questions:

Has the amount for the line item increased or decreased, and by how much (dollar and/or percentage)?

Is this a “good” thing or a “bad” thing for this company?

What might this mean for the organization?

What might management do to improve this line item?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 3 Discussion

Income Statement Analysis

This week’s DQ focuses on the Income Statement. It builds on the insights we gained in Week 2, but goes a little deeper in our use of financial statement analysis skills.

Locate and post a screen shot of an actual Income Statement from the latest fiscal year for one of the following companies:

Sears (Note: use this link Sears Holding Corp 10-K )

Tesla

Pick an Income Statement Line Item or Ratio from the list below:

Line Item	Ratio
Revenue (aka Sales, Turnover) Cost of Goods Sold/Cost of Sales Salary Expense Selling, General and Administrative Expense Gross Profit Operating Profit Net Profit	Gross Margin (%) Net Margin (%) Salary Expense as % of Sales Return on Sales Return on Equity Return on Assets Earnings Per Share (EPS) EBITDA

 

What does this line item or ratio measure and why is it important item for Management to understand this number?

Identify the past 4 years of amounts for your line item or ratio (Note: this will require you to track down additional historical Income Statements to get the older data). Share this data with the class using a data table or chart.

Answer the following questions:

What is the trend for this line item or ratio?

Has the line item or ratio amount increased or decreased?

Is this a “good” thing or a “bad” thing? For this company?

What might management do to improve this line item or ratio?

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 4 Discussion

Cash Flow Statement Analyis

This week we turn to the last of the major financial statements – the Cash Flow Statement.

Locate and post a screen shot of an actual Cash Flow Statement from the latest fiscal year for one of the following companies:

Medtronics

ServiceMaster

Your own Company (or any company you choose)

Pick a Cash Flow Statement line item or ratio from the following list:

Line Item	Ratio
Net Change in Cash Cash Flow from Operations Cash Flow from Investing Cash Flow from Financing Capital Expenditures Dividends Paid Proceeds from Long Term Debt	Cash Flow Return on Assets Dividend Payout Ratio Cap Ex to Depreciation Ratio Free Cash Flow

What does this line item or ratio measure and why is it important for Management to understand this number

From the Cash Flow Statement, identify the past 4 years of amounts for your line item or ratio. Share this data with the class using a data table or chart.

Answer the following questions:

What is the trend for this line item or ratio?

Has the line item or ratio amount increased or decreased?

Is this a “good" or a “bad” thing for this company?

What might management do to improve this line item or ratio?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 5 Discussion

Earnings Call Review

Listen to (or read the transcript of) your organization's or any publicly traded company's most recent quarterly earnings call and respond to the following questions:

TIP: To find an earnings call or transcript, go to the "Investor Relations" section of the company's website. There you will find links to financial reports and recordings of recent calls.

Identify the company you selected.

Have you ever listened to an earnings call?

What topics were included? Which were most helpful or insightful? Were there topics you wished were included or expanded upon?

Was there a discussion of profit or EPS by Company Management? Explain what this implies, what is the driving force, and what actions you would recommend?

Were the analysts' questions aggressive and challenging or supportive and respectful? How well did management respond to the questions?

What additional insights were you able to gain in regards to the company's financial health, forward guidance, and strategic financial decisions?

Was there any information or perspective shared that a competitor could benefit from?

If you were an employee of this company, how could you leverage this resource to benefit you or your company?

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.?

 

 

 

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 6 Discussion

Costs

Option 1

Your team has been assigned to design and launch of a new product or service. This could be an external product for sale or an internal service to support other departments. As you prepare for your first team meeting, you know that identifying and classifying costs will be an essential part of the project.

Briefly explain what the new offering is (Note: this can be hypothetical or based on your current role at your company; you should not share any proprietary information)

Identify and describe one fixed cost and one variable cost in your department, and explain whether they are controllable or non-controllable.

Identify whether these costs are traceable to direct materials, direct labor, or overhead.

- OR -

Option 2

Consider your current organization, describe how costing is used or could be used to better understand the financial breakdown of products and/or services delivered. Would this information support you in your current role and/or aspired-to role? Have you seen instances where costing is not used effectively or could be better leveraged?

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 7 Discussion

Costing Systems and Analysis

Option 1

Discuss the usage and creation of standard costs by an operation. How are these costs developed? How can they be used in the creation of a forecast? How can these be used in an individual or organizational measurement system?

- OR -

Option 2

Discuss a current business activity that you or your department does that could be improved by leveraging Variance Analysis. Discuss the perspective you could gain, and what a "favorable price" and a "favorable quantity" variance mean in this application.

 

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 8 Discussion

Cost Benefit Analyisis

Option 1

As we discovered this week from our readings and video’s, not all cost-benefit decisions can be made from strictly financial data.  Thinking about a project you have worked on or proposed, or a project which you feel is critical in your company or community, give an example of a non-financial metric which should be considered and why you think that non-financial metric should result in the approval of the project.

- OR -

Option 2

Your New Product Development initiative is at the stage where a Cost-Benefit Analysis is needed to prepare for the final presentation to management.  There are multiples metrics you could use to quantify the benefit of your proposal (incremental sales, nominal payback, discounted payback, NPV and IRR).  Choose the one that you feel is most crucial and would best help Management see the value in your proposal. Explain what the metric shows and then discuss how you would go about gathering the data and calculating this for your new initiative (and, if you have already done this in real life, share what you did and what response you got from Management).

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 9 Discussion

Forecasting and CBA

Option 1

As we are discovering, Cost Benefit Analysis is based on assumptions about financial forecasts of future cash flows and expenses. Since the future is unknown, getting consensus on inputs can often be the most challenging part of running a Cost Benefit Analysis.

In Assignment 2, we find five colleagues who each have very different views of the future. Referencing our readings this week and drawing on your own personal experiences, answer the following questions:

Why do skilled professionals working in the same business often have significantly different forecasts and views of the future?  Share an example from your own work experience where your colleagues had very different forecasts for the same item.

How can we make better use of data (past performance, industry outlook, etc.) to improve our forecasts and resolve disagreements?

Would “sensitivity analysis” have helped Management understand the potential variations driven by changes in assumptions?

After the forecast is complete, describe the communication process you would use to convey results and successes to stakeholders, lenders, and employees.

- OR

Option 2

As you're learning in Assignment 2, a key technique in managerial accounting/finance is the use of “Cost Benefit Analysis” to help management make better business decisions.

Define this approach in your own words and discuss 2 applications of this concept in your current work environment (examples might include make vs. buy, plant location, new product or packaging, downsizing, acquisition/divestiture, etc.).

Discuss a variable or assumption within the project where the data was difficult to obtain — and what you did to develop a reasonable assumption for the project economics.

Additionally, share or create one example where using financial data and cost benefit analysis that did, or could have, led to a better decision.

Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates' initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.?

 

JWI530 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT I

Week 10 Discussion

Budgeting

Describe your company's annual budget process.

What is your involvement in the process?

What works well? What doesn't work?

If you were CEO/CFO, what changes would you make and why?

How would you communicate to employees the value that the process brings to the business?