There is an old maxim in business: No CEO was ever fired for bad plans. For the FSA project (Individual Written Assignment 1), there are 7 steps:
1) Choose a firm with 2 years of annual reports with audited financial statements (Generally, a mid-sized firm works best). Download both annual reports and save them to your computer.
2) Download the project template from Black board and save it to your computer.
3) Input the financial statement data into the template. Make sure you put the earlier year in the far-right column. Add or delete rows to make it conform to your firm's statements.
4) Go back to the annual report and read the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) for the earlier year (Y1) to ascertain what plans, goals, milestones, or performance metrics they are setting for themselves for Y2.
5) Compare the derived totals in the far-left column (Change in Cost Structure) to the changes proposed in the MD&A of the earlier year annual report. Did the CEO implement the changes? Were the plans successful? Some changes will be obvious (sold a segment, 1) consolidated operations, etc.). Look for changes in cost structure (gross profit, return on sales, debt structure, etc.).
6) Create a new Excel worksheet, select a large group of cells. Select merge cells, align left, and wrap text. Comparing the data from the template to the CEO’s plans from the earlier year MD&A, explain whether you believe the CEO failed or succeeded to implement the plans.
7) Email your spreadsheet to me by the midnight on the day of the Final Exam.
Objective covered: Knowledge, Critical Thinking, Technology