UArizona Quantitative and Qualitative Techniques for Business Analysis Questions

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, carefully review the content found in the “Suggestions for Quarter 4” pop-up screen and read any Quarter Three Internal Emails and/or Memos available through your Growing Your Business simulation. The pop-up will be available at the lower left (Blue Guidelines) of the Executive Summary Decisions Tab and the emails and memos can be re-accessed through the Help section.

As in prior quarters, you will revise and submit your Quarter 4 Decisions. If there is any quarter that requires balancing the short- and long-term this is it. You need not only to meet and/or exceed your Financial Targets within your budget/plan but are creating shareholder value for the long-term.  Reminder, if you have the ability to exceed plan as you saw in the Internal Emails, go for it.

After your fourth quarter results are returned, the first screen you will see will be your Final Quantitative Competitive Ranking.  This will be followed by Guidelines for “When Q4 Results are returned.”  The Winning Chart can always be found on the Quarterly Dashboard under “Winner.”  The ranking you receive from these results will determine your grade for Part I of the Week 5 Assignment.  1st = 10, 2nd = 9.25, 3rd = 8.5.

In your Growing Your Business simulation,

Evaluate quantitative and qualitative techniques for business analysis and decision-making.

Utilize tools from finance, marketing, information technology and human resources management to manage the profitability of overall business operations specific to Quarter 4.

Create specific business tactics to achieve organizational survival and growth.

The Decisions for Quarter Four and Final Qualitative Competitive Ranking

Must be completed through the Growing Your Business simulation.

Must use the Role Play

• It is critical you read the details of the role play very carefully and any questions should immediately be referred to the Help Desk.
• You can gain differentiated competitive advantage through effective use of the role play.
• Some role players only provide qualitative information, while others provide the ability to negotiate with quantitatively.

The role play is a scarce resource because of the limited number of calls per quarter.

Must submit your Quarter Four Budget Plan. 

• Periodically, as you modify inputs, use the “Model My Plan” at the lower right to see the impact of your decisions on the Financial Metrics.
• Dear Students,Regarding the Hisco business that you are managing we see in many businesses that the fourth quarter is usually the most important quarter. It sets the stage for the next fiscal year and in the case of publicly traded companies the final year earnings have a major impact on the stock price.With that said we learn the lesson that catch up is not always easy, so management and performance of every quarter must be maximized. As you do Q4 it will be time to assess where you are through Q3 and to review decisions and role plays you have made to date that will impact this quarter. Some  of you are already there and assume you did that.Have you managed your budget successfully?Is your strategy delivering shareholder value for Hisco?Are you meeting targets for Sales, Net Income ,Market Share, Profitability and Cash Flow? Note market share isn’t the end all in this!Is your pricing strategy working? What is your pricing strategy?What can you do to increase revenue and cash flow?Are you managing Production effectively? How are you doing managing inventory?Is your perceived quality acceptable? Is your TQ acceptable? Competitive? Priced right? Which levers do you push? What is your Quality and Engineering Strategy?Q4 is your Final Quarter. Your decisions this quarter will determine your ranking against the competition. Take the time once again to go to your financial statements and dig deep to understand the correlations in your inputs and outputs that drive your outcomes. Study. Study. Study. Plan. Plan. Plan. ActLeverage the Market Intelligence and the recommended articles and readings which you should be referencing in your AOR This enhances learning and performance.While coming in number 1 is a goal, remember that companies that are lower in rankings today may not be tomorrow. Also, number 2s and 3s in big markets generate cash and create value. So everyone relax and enjoy the rest of the ride as well!Q4 is the quarter where you conduct your Annual Operating Review. You will exercise and practice creative thinking skills as you conduct analysis and evaluation of Hisco performance.As is the case with QBRs , companies perform these AORs every year. The AOR is a tool that helps companies make the necessary adjustments to operating plans, so they can continually improve their businesses. Business units and their leaders present to the CEO and his team annually the results of operations. And that is what you will be doing with your Hisco AOR.Make sure you leverage the articles and sources  in your AOR.Make sure you talk specifics! Leverage the Pre-Tax and CF Walk tools!!Be careful of sentence structure and grammar which should be a given when it comes to points. This is business writing!Make sure you cite references in text or as a separate document.Read the instructions and the rubrics completely to ensure your AOR and later your Final Paper in Week 6 meets all of the requirements. Don’t leave easily achieved points on the table which happens when the prompt is not answered completely.You can reference but I recommend that you do not just recycle content by cutting and pasting.Approach the AOR in Week 5 and the Final Paper in Week 6 with a fresh analytical and content creation approach. Recycled QBR content and irrelevant charts won’t be counted as pages in Your FR which is in week 6.Good luck with the 4th quarter activities.