Use an extended example to critically discuss how a company’s annual report and accounts are useful in understanding and analyzing its market, productive and financial performance.
Annual report and accounts like the income statement, the cash flow statement and the balance sheet, are financial accounting statement. They comprise numerical data over the past year and indicate the company’s prospect for future financial performance. The information would allow user groups to understand and analyse the company’s performance and to make decisions of their own interests. Through looking at the annual reports and accounts of Nokia, I’ll explain how the report can be useful in understanding and analyzing its market, productive and financial performances.
There are two ways to measure the market performance of a company; physically and financially. By analyzing the sales of the company in different regions that shows in its annual report, we can determine its market performance physically.
5 major markets, net sales; EUR m | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | China | 5898 | 5916 | 5990 | 7149 | India | 3684 | 3719 | 2809 | 2952 | Germany | 2641 | 2294 | 1733 | 2019 | Russia | 2012 | 2083 | 1528 | 1744 | USA | 2124 | 1907 | 1731 | 1630 |
(Table 1.1, source from http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/263824/data/1/-/Request-Nokia-in-2010-pdf.pdf http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/264254/data/1/-/Request-Nokia-in-2008-pdf.pdf)
Table 1.1 shows the net sales of 5 of their major markets from 2007 to 2010. Simply by comparing the figures throughout the 4 years, we can see that sales have generally had a decreasing trend except for China.
(Table 1.2, Source from http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats)
Table 1.2 shows the market share and annual sales growth of the mobile phone market (2G) in 2010. Although Nokia had a 4.9% annual sales growth and leading market share, its market share had been decreasing for a few years
Bibliography: Financials - Nokia - Nokia.com. 2011. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/investors/financials/financials/ Investopedia.com - Your Source For Investing Education . 2011. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.investopedia.com/#axzz1eftoyZGu. [Accessed 07 December 2011] NOK - NOKIA CORP Balance Sheet - Forbes.com Nokia annual report. 2010/11. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/263824/data/1/-/Request-Nokia-in-2010-pdf.pdf. [Accessed 07 December 2011] Nokia annual report 2009/10.