Business Analysis and Decision Making
MN101: Business Analysis and Decision Making 2011-12
ESSAY SUBMISSION DATE: 12 noon on 10th January 2013 Coursework You must submit 3 word-processed essays (word length: maximum 1,500 words for each essay, excluding any exhibits and references) from the list below. Answer any THREE questions. 1. To what extent are a company’s annual report and accounts useful in understanding and analysing its market, productive and financial performance? Discuss using an extended example. 2. To what extent can improvements in productive flow and product quality lead to an increase in sales and profit? 3. “Product market cyclicality exerts a powerful influence on a car assembler’s sales, value added, cashflow and profit performance”. Discuss using an extended example. 4. “Satisfying all stakeholders when the business is competing in mature product markets is difficult”. Discuss. 5. During the 1980s and early 1990s recessions, British manufacturing management restored profitability, sacked employees, and transformed productivity. To what extent does the British experience differ when compared against the major competitors? 6. Describe the methods used to calculate value added. How does value added contribute towards understanding the connections between the business and its product markets? 7. Discuss how structural and institutional factors in Britain and America may have limited the scope for improving corporate performance. Use examples to illustrate points. 8. “Henry Ford at Highland Park and Toyota during the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate that a growing car market is the necessary precondition for achieving superior productivity”. Describe the methods used to improve productivity and critically discuss whether a growing market is a necessary precondition. ESSAY SUBMISSION DATE: 12 noon on 10th January 2013
ESSAY SUBMISSION DATE: 12 noon on 10th January 2013 Coursework You must submit 3 word-processed essays (word length: maximum 1,500 words for each essay, excluding any exhibits and references) from the list below. Answer any THREE questions. 1. To what extent are a company’s annual report and accounts useful in understanding and analysing its market, productive and financial performance? Discuss using an extended example. 2. To what extent can improvements in productive flow and product quality lead to an increase in sales and profit? 3. “Product market cyclicality exerts a powerful influence on a car assembler’s sales, value added, cashflow and profit performance”. Discuss using an extended example. 4. “Satisfying all stakeholders when the business is competing in mature product markets is difficult”. Discuss. 5. During the 1980s and early 1990s recessions, British manufacturing management restored profitability, sacked employees, and transformed productivity. To what extent does the British experience differ when compared against the major competitors? 6. Describe the methods used to calculate value added. How does value added contribute towards understanding the connections between the business and its product markets? 7. Discuss how structural and institutional factors in Britain and America may have limited the scope for improving corporate performance. Use examples to illustrate points. 8. “Henry Ford at Highland Park and Toyota during the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate that a growing car market is the necessary precondition for achieving superior productivity”. Describe the methods used to improve productivity and critically discuss whether a growing market is a necessary precondition. ESSAY SUBMISSION DATE: 12 noon on 10th January 2013