People Management

Leveraging Diversity

Organizations often discuss the benefits of diversity; however, in many instances, these organizations simply hire a more diverse workforce and then expect the benefits to follow.

Based on this week’s readings and your own professional experience, respond to the prompts below:

· What is the difference between hiring for diversity and leveraging diversity?

· In what ways, if any, does your organization leverage the diversity within its workforce?

· Does the leadership in your workplace understand the importance of equity and inclusion? Provide an example to support your position.

· What changes would you recommend to improve the benefits gained through diversity and equity in your workplace?

Income Statement Analysis

The discussion questions for Weeks 2 - 4 are designed to help teach you to derive meaning from financial statements. Each week you will select a line item and use Variance Trend Analysis and Ratio Analysis to make some initial assessments about how the company is performing. Collectively, as a class we will seek to find the "story behind the numbers." Let's start applying what you have learned to a real-life  Income Statement .

1. Locate and post a screenshot of an actual Income Statement from the company’s latest annual report (which can be found in the investor relations section of website) for one of the following companies:

· Royal Caribbean Group

· Nike

· Boeing

2. Pick an Income Statement Line Item  and a Ratio from the list below: 

Line Item	Ratio
· · · Revenue (aka Sales, Turnover) · Cost of Goods Sold/Cost of Sales · Selling, General and Administrative Expense · Gross Profit · Operating Profit · Net Profit	· · · Gross Margin (%) · Net Margin (%) · Return on Sales · Return on Equity · Return on Assets · Earnings Per Share (EPS) · EBITDA

3. What do this line item and ratio measure and why is it important item for Management to understand thesenumbers?

4. Identify the past 4 years of amounts for your line item and ratio ( Note: this will require you to track down additional historical Income Statements to get the older data). Share this data with the class using a data table or chart.

5. Answer the following questions:

. What are the trends for this line item and ratio?

. Have the line item and ratio amounts increased or decreased?

. Is this a “good” thing or a “bad” thing? For this company?

. What might management do to improve this line item and ratio?