Week 4 - Assignment

Decisions for Quarter Three and Third Quarter Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

Part I: Decisions for Quarter Three.
Prior to beginning work on the Decisions for Quarter Three, carefully review the content found in the “Suggestions for Quarter 3” 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 video, emails, and memos can be re-accessed through the Help section.

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 3.


• Create specific business tactics to achieve organizational survival and growth.]

The Decisions for Quarter Three 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 3 available role plays for Qtr.3?
    
    
    • 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 Three 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 Three Decisions prior to moving on this week’s Quarterly Business Review assignment.

Part II: Third Quarter Quarterly Business Review (QBR).
Due by Day 7. You must submit your Quarter Three Decisions prior to moving on this week’s Quarterly Business Review assignment. Prior to beginning work on the Third Quarter Quarterly Business Review, review the following content from the Growing Your Business Simulation, the Suggestions for Quarter Three 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 first two quarters their positions for the longer term.

With the completion of Quarter Three, you are responsible for completing your third Quarterly Business Review (QBR). This is a qualitative and quantitative summary of your competitive performance for Quarter Three. 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.


• Assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with the corporate strategy & policy process.


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


• Create specific business tactics to achieve organizational survival and growth.

The Third 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 pdffound withintheExecutive Summary tab of the Quarterly Decisions pageandsubmit 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 thengo to the Executive Summarytab.Within the Executive Summary page, you will find a Download link associated with eachquarterly 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.