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Hi all,
I failed last time because I “have not demonstrated the use of a balanced range of sources of research” as the marker commented. Last time I asked my mentor and she said that in this part, only annual reports are needed; others like comments or research from securities companies would be subjective and not my own work. Therefore, my report failed for only using annual reports.
So I want to ask what other sources I can use for my explanations for the ratios?
Because I chose a local company, can I use sources written in Vietnamese on the internet?
Thanks for your answer.
@Ha – you need to supply articles from the business press, onlinenews business pages etc. No you cannot supply references that are not in the English language – you are submitting work for an English University so the marker expects to be able to read all information sources in English. The University never prescribes which company should be selected but this fundamental of being in English is assumed. If the marker cannot access or read appropriate sources then they are likely to fail so base your RAP on a company where information sources in English are available
@trephena Thank you very much for your answer. I do appreciate it.
Dear Bassaniobroke and Trephena,
Thank you very much for your advice. I have 2 answers, could you please answer them?
1. If I have information originated from annual report and an analyst of a bank securities, should I cite both or only one?
2. I do research from 2012-2014. For charts and graphs, I would like to insert 2011 figures to evaluate changes in 2012. Is it OK? (This question was asked in topic: https://opentuition.com/topic/three-years/. However, I wish to have a confirm or an answer from you)Thank you so much
@NTD
1. You may cite both but ensure you do it in the body of the text (do NOT stack references up at the end of the paragraph it drives the markers mad!)
2. I don’t really know what you are asking here – you need to evaluate 3 years performance and the 2014 results being probably the most recent are more important than 2011.You should be attempting to look at the trends over the period and commenting on them and not getting fixated on what happened each year because management strategies cross over years (think about it – the board does not convene on Day 1 of a new financial year, decide to adopt a policy/strategy and then stop it on the last day of the financial year – the implementation of plans overlap years)
hello @trephena
i’m doing topic 8.My research Qs for financial analysis are :
how has been the profitability and inventory turnover of my chosen company with respect to the industry over the three year period.
for this i have used only profitability ratios in ratio analysis i.e. ROCE,GP margin, NP margin, ROE, ROA and EPS and also inventory turnover ratio and inventory turnover days.
i need to make sure if my approach is correct?@zeest – it is not possible for me to be prescriptive about exactly which ratios you should or should not use (for example inventory may or may not be relevant depending on the sector chosen). Remember the ratios themselves are just a means to an end it is the evaluation of the available information and integration of the models and business analysis that makes forhe a successful RAP. The ratios are best shown as graphs and just key figures pulled out to highlight important facts.
This approach is briefly demonstrated in my article on Evaluation and analysis on our homepage http://www.opentuition.com/obu
Dear students and mentors, I am undertaking topic 8 for a company whose latest published accounts are for Dec 2013; therefore, I would like to ask if I could include some points/evidence about recent events i.e in 2014 and 2015 in part 3 of my RAP to reinforce my conclusions and evaluations? or do I to strictly adhere to the reporting period 2011-2013?
Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chy@Chiwdhury – The OBU Rules on p.39 of the Info Pack set out the minimum that must be complied with. Students will never be penalised for introducing more recent analysis work. Whilst the financial analysis will be 2011 – 2013, you can bring up-to-date info in the business analysis or as an update at the end – it depends on the material and company. I would also explain that you have done this because you recognise that although 2013 were the appropriate CD to use, you appreciate that they are now relatively old.
1.My company is listed on London Stock Exchange and its competitor also.
2. My Sector is Industrial Machinery and Sub-Sector is Industrial Engineering.Now the respected members please suggest me about two business models which would be more appropriate based on the above circumstances.
Thank you…
@nesbiit – please read the advice, help and answers above -particularly those from The Learning Luminarium and me.
You will find it useful going forward to use key words in our search facility to locate previous similar questions and answers.
Hello all,
Can anyone tell me how can I find the stengths and weakness of a company? what sources do you use?
Thanks,
Yama.Hello I hv a question abt the pie chart do I need to put information abt the two companies together in d same pie chart if yes then kind of information thanks
@stevr – pie charts are only amenable to be used for something like market share i.e. when you want to show the proportion of something to the whole. They are not appropriate for most comparisons. Bar charts and graphs show relationships such as revenue, profit and share price over time and you should aim to have charts for just about all of your ratios.
As I keep repeating – the markers would much rather be presented with graphs than lots of unnecessary figures and percentages in the text.
@yama – Assuming that a quick Google search doesn’t give you write-ups on the company, we would first suggest gaining a deep understanding of your company by looking at the Annual Report. Does management talk about certain things they are proud of? Certain concerns or areas of focus that they have? That may give hints on the strengths and weaknesses of the company. For example, if they say that they are proud to be the number 1 supermarket, u know their strength is likely geographical networks and reach. You then know how to do a more focused search for information.
Also, a quick way is to look at Analyst reports or business writeups from credible sources like the Harvard Business Review. They may identify strengths and weaknesses.
@stevr- The forum has a lot of information on this question, however, for your convenience, let me give a quick reply here.
Rule of thumb
1) descriptive is anything a person could easily tell by looking at the graphs and figures.
Eg net profit went up by 20%.2) analysis is “How did the net profit go up?”, “Why were the initiatives taken by the company successful in increasing profits? Did an earlier investment pay off? Was the company having a sharp sense of what the market needs?”
It’s basically the How and the Why of a certain figure.
As said, there is even more information within this forum, would encourage you to take a good read.Dear Trephena,
I’m struggling with Part 3 , do I have sub headings under this section for eg have a seperate heading for:
1) Financial analysis ,then sub heading for Profit/Revenue and Investor ratios then bring in in SWOT ,PESTEL factors.
2)Business analysis – bring in all pestel factorsOr do is it all done as one like :
Profit – explain the reason for increase or decrease what swot/pestel has casused the change?
I am so unsure as to how I bring my findings together,can you please advice?
thank you for your help.
Kell AnnHi @kellann,
Trephena is currently on a short vacation, and we are covering for her. Generally, we recommend the following:
Have broad headings for financial and business analysis
– Under each heading, look at the subset of items to be discussed. For example, ratios can be divided into Profitability, Liquidity, Activity, Leverage and Investor. Under each of these headings, file your ratios accordingly.– Non-financial analysis should be kept separate. If you are using PESTEL, then the subheadings should be Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal.
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hi my mentor advised to use only swot model for topic 8 but i had thought to use swot and pestel.would obu fail me for using only swot and ratios with no other model.is there any prescriction as to how many models you can use minimum?
@vanmatsiwo – then you are being ill advised. Please,read my article on Evaluation and Analysis where I stress the importance of models and the role they play in the quality of the analysis.
I will repeat – possibly for the thousandth time – ratios analysis has only about a 10 -20% weighting in Part 3 and using SWOT and PEST analysis appropriately and INTELLIGENTLY is what will get a pass -NOT numbers and percentages…
Thank you very much for your response. Like i said earlier, i am still new here and can’t really access the site well. I am still learning on how to get the best out of here and also make use of it in the best possible way. Please pardon my mistakes.
Please i will like you to help me with this other query, it concerns part 3( business models) of the RAP..
When carrying out business analysis using models in part three, on SWOT factors for example, do i need to compare this factor with that of the benchmarked company i am using? For example, if to say one of the company’s strength is Strong Brands, after analyzing how this affects business performance of my case study, do i need to now comment on the brand of the competitor(Benchmark) or i just need to focus on my case study? Like do i need to evaluate between the brand of my case study and that of the competitor?
Please i really need help
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