Week 3 – Assignment

Decisions for Quarter Two and Second Quarter Quarterly Business Review

Part I: Decisions for Quarter Two. Prior to beginning work on the Decisions for Quarter Two, carefully review the content found in the “Suggestions for Quarter 2” pop-up screen and read any Quarter Two 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 video, emails, and memos can be re-accessed through the Help section.

The Decisions for Quarter Two Assignment

• Must be completed through the Growing Your Business simulation.
• Consider the following questions as you prepare your annual budget/plan (if the answer is “No” to any of the questions you may be at a Competitive Disadvantage and lack critical information to draw inference from):
  • Did you
    • Request/purchase the Marketing Report and Business Intelligence Dashboard (BID)?
    • Utilize the 4 available role plays for Qtr.2?
    • Consider in the R&D Projects?

• 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 Two Budget Plan.
  • Must not have a short-range outlook over the credit limit.
  • 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.
  • Input your financial decision and then click on the blue Submit My SRO button on the bottom right of the Quarterly Decisions screen.
  • You must submit your Quarter Two Decisions prior to moving on this week’s Quarterly Business Review assignment.

Part II: Second Quarter Quarterly Business Review (QBR). You must submit your Quarter Two Decisions prior to moving on to this week’s Quarterly Business Review assignment. Prior to beginning work on your Second Quarter Quarterly Business Review, review the content from the Suggestions for Quarter Two Decisions pop-up and your Business Intelligence Dashboard. The graphics in the dashboard should provide you with the trends (that is the time series data is growing) in data to critically analyze your competitors for the few two quarters their positions for the longer term.

With the completion of Quarter Two, you are responsible for completing your second Quarterly Business Review (QBR).  This is a qualitative and quantitative summary of your competitive performance for Q2. Business reviews (or Operational Reviews) are a routine part of annual corporate activities and are very cross-functional in nature.  A major component of a QBR is around meeting commitments that are embedded in your budgetary planning process. Meeting commitments are seen explicitly in your Variances. These learnings are designed to enhance your performance in future Quarters.

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 in the second quarter.

The Second Quarter Quarterly Business Review Assignment

• Must be completed through the Growing Your Business simulation.
  • After logging in, go to the Quarterly Decisions tab on the top right of the simulation site and then click on the Executive Summary tab to access the Quarterly Business Review section.
• Must be completed and submitted using all of the data provided including
  • Quarterly Pre-Tax Net Income relative to Plan for the Quarter
    • Review the Pre-Tax Net Income Chart Explanation PowerPoint
  • Cash Flow walk
  • Pre-tax Net Income in Plan
• Must show that Hisco is on track to Meet/Exceed its Annual Net Income Commitment through an evaluation of both quantitative and qualitative techniques for business analysis and decision making.
• Must create specific business tactics to achieve organizational survival and growth.
• After completing, check the box and submit in the lower right.
• After completing the simulation, students must save the provided pdf from the pdf found within the Executive Summary tab of the Quarterly Decisions page and submit it through Waypoint. Verify your submission was successful.
  • To access the PDF for submission, click on the QTRLY Decisions tab from the simulation home page and then go to the Executive Summary tab. Within the Executive Summary page, you will find a Download link associated with each quarterly decision you completed.
• Remember, you will be receiving feedback on your QBR each quarter. You should review the feedback prior to submitting next quarter’s decisions, as there may be some critical learning that can help your performance in the next quarter.

• Must use scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Please note that if you are experiencing technical issues with the Growing Your Business Simulation, you will need to contact the help desk within the simulation at HelpDesk@tri-sim.com.