Accounting and Financial Analysis

MBA 520 Module One Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric Overview: For this task, you will choose and examine a publicly listed company that you are considering analyzing for your final project. You will provide the reason you are choosing to analyze this company for your final project, introduce the key goods and services provided by the company, and explain how the company is organized. Prompt: First, review the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric document so that you understand the scope of the final project. Then, visit the webpage SEC EDGAR Company Filings, and select a company for your final project. Research the company’s background using the corporate website and other web resources. Be sure to cite your sources in APA style. Next, identify the company and address the following critical elements:

 Company Selection: Explain why you have you chosen this company for your final project (personal interest, business interest, professional interest, etc.).

 Financial Context: Key Goods or Services/Features: Describe the key goods and services your selected organization provides. Include information about where, why, and for whom they are provided. Separate the financial interest of the company into financial and nonfinancial features. For example: Are they a manufacturer offering their own financing to customers? Is the company currently facing any financial woes? Explain how these features of the organization (e.g., major products or services, customers, location) help set the boundaries for business decisions.

 Financial Context: Organized: Describe how the company is organized (by product groups, geographic region, function, etc.). Explain how the organization of the company affects accounting and financial information and subsequent business decisions. Hint: A good place to search for this information is in the notes in financial statements. For example: Is the company filing using GAAP, and are there any provisions for non-GAAP filing? Or, how are revenues treated from foreign subsidiaries?

Note: This paper and the instructor’s feedback will inform Final Project Milestone One, which is due in Module Three.

Rubric Guidelines for Submission: The short paper should follow these formatting guidelines: 1 to 2 pages in length (excluding title and reference pages), double spaced, with 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and citations in the latest APA style.

Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Company Selection Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates sophisticated understanding of the selected company

Explains why the company was chosen for the final project

Explains why the company was chosen for the final project, but explanation is cursory or lacking in detail

Does not explain why the company was chosen for the final project

30

Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Financial Context: Key Goods or

Services/Features

Meets “Proficient” criteria and draws particularly insightful connections between organization’s financial and nonfinancial features and business decisions

Describes how key goods or services and features of organization help set boundaries for business decisions

Describes how key goods or services and features of the organization help set boundaries for business decisions, but response is cursory or contains inaccuracies, or links to decision making are weak or illogical

Does not describe how key goods or services and features of the organization help set boundaries for business decisions

30

Financial Context: Organized

Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates especially keen insight into relationships between organization’s structure, how financial information is recorded, and impact on business decisions

Analyzes how company is organized and managed and the effect on accounting and financial information and subsequent business decisions

Analyzes how company is organized and the effect on accounting and financial information and decisions, but response is cursory or contains inaccuracies, or links between organizational structure, finance, and decision making are weak or illogical

Does not analyze how company is organized and managed and the effect on accounting and financial information and subsequent business decisions

30

Articulation of Response

Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy-to-read format

Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas

Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas

10

Total 100%