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Write 8 pages of analysis using 6 questions provided (250 words for each question), answer 6 attached Questions by selecting 1 out of answers provided, write 200 words explaining decision chosen: Use Capsim Decision record when writing analysis (Step 5 and 6)Step 5: Evaluate Your Contribution to the Team When you have completed all four rounds, write a post of 200 words or less in your group discussion area explaining the decisions in which you were involved, the logic behind those choices, and how those decisions contributed to the team’s strategy and results. Step 6Submit an analysis of Rounds 1 through 4 of the simulation by answering the questions provided in the Project 4 Analysis Questions template. Link to the Learning Topic from MBA 620 in Question #6 can be found here. Your report should be eight to ten pages (approximately 250 to 300 words per question), double spaced, excluding cover page. Any tables, graphs, and figures should be included in the body of your answers. Your report should have one-inch margins and be double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. In-text citations and references should abide by APA format. Do not delete the questions as you complete the template.Along with your analysis, submit your Team Decision Record. Thus, you will submit two files to the dropbox located in the final step of this project.The next step provides recommended delivery dates and file-naming protocols for Project 4 deliverables.CAPSIMS ROUND 1- 4 results will be sent seperately project_4_questions_1_6.docx project_4_steps_and_guide.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Learning Topic Print Using Financial Ratios for Analysis One way of putting financial data into a comparative context is known as financial ratio analysis. From a financial accounting standpoint, ratio analysis enables external constituencies to evaluate the performance of a firm with respect to other firms in that particular industry. This is sometimes referred to as comparative ratio analysis. From a managerial accounting standpoint, ratio analysis can assist a management team in identifying areas that might be of concern. The management team can track the performance on these ratios across time to determine whether the indicators are improving or declining. This is referred to as trend ratio analysis. There are literally scores of financial ratios that can be calculated to evaluate a firm’s performance. They have a variety of purposes: • Financial ratios enable external constituencies to evaluate the performance of a firm with respect to other firms in a particular industry. • Ratio analysis can help a management team identify areas that might be of concern. • The management team can track the performance of these ratios across time to determine whether the indicators are improving or declining. • Financial ratios can be grouped into five categories: liquidity ratios, financial leverage ratios, asset management or efficiency ratios, profitability ratios, and market-value ratios. Financial ratios can be grouped into five categories: 1. liquidity ratios 2. financial leverage ratios 3. profitability ratios 4. asset management or efficiency ratios 5. market value ratios Because many small businesses are not publicly held and have no publicly traded stock, market ratios play no role in analyzing a small firm’s performance. Liquidity Ratios Liquidity ratios provide insight into a firm’s ability to meet its short-term debt obligations. It draws information from a business’s current assets and current liabilities that are found on the balance sheet. The most commonly used liquidity ratio is the current ratio given by the formula current assets / current liabilities. The normal rule of thumb is that the current ratio should be greater than one if a firm is to remain solvent. The greater this ratio is above one, the greater its ability to meet short-term obligations. As with all ratios, any value needs to be placed in context. This is often done by looking at standard ratio values for the same industry. Another ratio used to evaluate a business’s ability to meet in short-term debt obligations is the quick ratio—also known as the acid test. It is a more stringent version of the current ratio that recognizes that inventory is the least liquid of all current assets. A firm might find it impossible to immediately transfer the dollar value of inventory into cash to meet short-term obligations. Thus the quick ratio, in effect, values the inventory dollar value at zero. The quick ratio is given by the following formula: current assets − inventory / current liabilities. Financial Leverage Ratios Financial leverage ratios provide information on a firm’s ability to meet its total and long-term debt obligations. It draws on information from both the balance sheet and the income statement. The first of these ratios—the debt ratio—illustrates the extent to which a business’s assets are financed with debt. The formula for the debt ratio is as follows: total debt / total assets. A variation on the debt ratio is the ratio of debt to the total owner’s equity (the debt-to-equity ratio). As with the other ratios, one cannot target a specific, desirable value for the debt-to-equity ratio. Median values will vary significantly across different industries. The automobile industry, which is rather capital intensive, has debt-to-equity ratios above two. Other industries, such as personal computers, may have debt-toequity ratios under 0.5. The formula for the debt-to-equity ratio is as follows: total debt / total owner’s equity. One can refine this ratio by examining only the long-term portion of total debt to the owner’s equity. Comparing these two debt-to-equity ratios gives insight into the extent to which a firm is using long-term debt versus short-term debt. The formula for the long-term debt-to-owner’s equity ratio is as follows: long-term debt / total owner’s equity. The interest coverage ratio examines the ability of a firm to cover or meet the interest payments that are due in a designated period. The formula for the interest coverage ratio is as follows: EBIT / total interest charges. Profitability Ratios The next grouping of ratios is the profitability ratios. Essentially, these ratios look at the amount of profit that is being generated by each dollar of sales (revenue). Remember, from the review of the income statement, we can identify three different measures of profit: gross profit, operating profit, and net profit. Each measure of profit can be examined with respect to the net sales of a business, and each can give us a different insight into the overall efficiency of a firm in generating profit. The first profitability ratio examines how much gross profit is generated by each dollar of revenue and is given by the following formula: gross profit margin = gross profit / revenue. The next examines operating profit per dollar of sales and is calculated in the following manner: operating profit margin = operating profit / revenue. Lastly, the net profit margin is the one that is mostly used to evaluate the overall profitability of a business. It is determined as follows: net profit margin = net profit / revenue. Asset Management or Efficiency Ratios Asset-management or efficiency ratios are designed to show how well a business is using its assets. These ratios are extremely important for management to determine its own efficiency. There are many different activity or efficiency ratios. Here we will examine just a few. The sales-toinventory ratio computes the number of dollars of sales generated by each dollar of inventory. Firms that are able to generate greater sales volume for a given level of inventory are perceived as being more efficient. This ratio is determined as follows: sales to inventory = sales / inventory. There are other efficiency ratios that look at how well a business is managing its inventory. Some look at the number of days of inventory on hand; others look at the number of times inventory is turned over during the year. Both can be used to measure the overall efficiency of the inventory policy of a firm. For simplicity’s sake, these ratios will not be reviewed in this text. The sales-to-fixed-asset ratio is another efficiency measure that looks at the number of dollars of sales generated by a business’s fixed assets. Again, one is looking for a larger value than the industry average because this would indicate that a business is more efficient in using its fixed assets. This ratio is determined as follows: sales to fixed assets = sales / fixed assets. Another commonly used efficiency ratio is the days-in-receivables ratio. This ratio shows the average number of days it takes to collect accounts receivables. The desired trend for this ratio is a reduction, indicating that a firm is being paid more quickly by its customers. This ratio is determined as follows: days in receivables = accounts receivable / (sales / 365). The 365 in the denominator represents the number of days in a year. Financial ratios are extremely useful for small business owners who are attempting to identify trends in their own operations and see how well their business’s stand up against its competitors. As such, owners should periodically review their financial ratios to get a better understanding of the current position of their firms. Market-Value Ratios The last category of financial ratios are the market-value ratios. One common market-value ratio is the market-to-book ratio, given by the following equation: Market value of equity / book value of equity. Finally, the price-earnings (P-E) ratio is calculated as market price per share / earnings per share. Check Your Knowledge Balance Sheet 2011 Assets: Cash $10,000 Accounts receivable (net) 6,000 Inventory 8,000 Long-lived assets 12,000 Less: Accumulated depreciation (4,000) Total assets $32,000 Balance Sheet 2011 Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity: Accounts payable $ 5,000 Deferred revenues 1,000 Long-term note payable Less: Discount on note payable Common stock Retained earnings Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity Income Statement For the year ended December 31, 2011 10,000 (800) 12,000 4,800 $32,000 Revenues $42,000 Cost of goods sold (24,000) Depreciation expense (2,000) Interest expense (3,000) Bad debt expense (2,000) Other expense (including income taxes) (9,000) Net income $ 2,000 Question 1 The return on assets for Ellicott Industries is 6.8 percent. 13.5 percent. 10 percent 12.3 percent. Question 2 The return on common shareholders’ equity for Ellicott Industries is: 15.2 percent. 13.5 percent. 10 percent 11.9 percent Question 3 The profit margin for computing return on assets (ROA) for Ellicott Industries is 9.4 percent. 13.5 percent. 4.8 percent. 12.3 percent. Question 4 Ellicott’s asset turnover is: 1.3. 1. 1.58. 1.44. Question 5 Ellicott’s accounts receivable turnover is (assume that Ellicott makes all sales on account) 7.0. .53. 11.2 10. Question 6 Ellicott’s basic earnings per share is .22. .13. .25. .30. Licenses and Attributions Financial Ratio Analysis from Modern Management of Small Businesses is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported license without attribution as requested by the sites original creator or licensee. UMUC has modified this work and it is available under the original license. Project 4: Simulation as a Tool for Strategic Decision Making—Part 2 Step 2: Decide on a Global Strategy Starting from scratch, your team will make decisions about how to run your client’s company, which designs, manufactures, and sells genetic testing devices—this time by following a global strategy. As you pivot to a global strategy, you will examine the elements of target market selection to ensure you choose a strategy that is suitable for MediCorp. Also review the blueprint for international expansion laid out in the article, “Going International.” Recall the eight strategies in Capsim. Your team will pick one of the four global strategies and use the same global strategy for the four rounds in this project. No two teams can use the same strategy in the same project. Reserve your team’s choice of strategy in the Capsim Strategy Choice discussion area by 11:59 ET on Tuesday of Week 7. Strategies will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Then continue to the next step, where you will apply your strategy to make key decisions for MediCorp. Step 3: Make Your Decisions Your team is now ready to help MediCorp compete in the genetic testing device industry by making strategic decisions through the Capsim platform. Your decisions will direct four calendar years of your client’s operations. On December 31 of each year in your simulation, Capsim will produce a report that reflects the results of your decisions. Your team will use these reports to make further decisions for the following calendar year. First, consult your Round 0 Report to understand the starting position of MediCorp’s business. Use How to Find Reports in Capsim to locate the Round 0 Report and reports for all subsequent rounds. Then, begin making decisions for your client, consulting Capsim: A Systematic Approach to Making Strategic Decisions for direction. Tips • Teams should make their decisions in the following order: (1) R&D, (2) marketing, (3) production, and (4) finance. In this simulation, your team is unlikely to be successful if it makes decisions in a different sequence. However, coordination between the four areas during all decisions is also critical, and you may have to revisit decisions based on input from other departments. • For your own benefit, it is advisable to individually take notes on the decision-making process, which may help you analyze your team’s results later in this project. Download a fresh Capsim Decision Record and use it to take notes at the conclusion of each round. Proceed to the next step for more information on finalizing your team’s decisions. Step 4: Save Your Decisions When your team is satisfied with its decisions, the team coordinator will submit the final decisions to Capsim. Your Round 1–4 results will be available immediately after the round is processed as per the deadline in the table below. Project 4 Decision Deadlines Round Deadline Project 4 Round 1 8 p.m. ET on Thursday of Week 7 Project 4 Round 2 8 p.m. ET on Saturday of Week 7 Project 4 Round 3 8 p.m. ET on Monday of Week 8 Project 4 Round 4 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday of Week 8 Classes in Europe and Asia will follow the schedule set by their faculty. Only one set of decisions needs to be made by each team. All team members will have access to the decision areas for all other members. You only need to make decisions for your assigned area, but you can see what decisions other team members are making, if needed. For example, before making decisions in marketing, where you have a primary role, you can click on the R&D tab to see what decisions have been made. When you are done, be sure to select File, then Save Decisions from the dropdown menu when you are done, or else your team members will not be able to see your decisions. You must select Save Decisions and exit Capsim before your teammates can view your decisions. If you decide that you need to make a change, you can make the necessary adjustments to your decisions and select File and Save Decisions once again to overwrite the previously saved decisions. Choose Exit to return to the Participant Dashboard. Once a round is processed, you can then begin to make decisions for the next round. If you miss the deadline, your round will be processed with the decisions from the past round, unchanged, or with any partial decisions your team has made. After Round 4, your team role ends, and you will begin your individual analysis of the decision-making process spanning the past four rounds and the outcome of those decisions. Proceed to the next step to begin analyzing your contribution to your team as well as your team’s results. Step 5: Evaluate Your Contribution to the Team When you have completed all four rounds, write a post of 200 words or less in your group discussion area explaining the decisions in which you were involved, the logic behind those choices, and how those decisions contributed to the team’s strategy and results. Step 6: Analyze Your Team’s Decisions and Results INBOX: 1 New Message Subject: Report From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS To: You Hello, I think we’ve learned a lot about MediCorp’s capacity to compete internationally. Well done. Let’s take a moment to reflect on what we have learned by employing a global strategy for our client. Again, I have compiled some key questions about how the decisions you made for MediCorp affected the company’s performance. Please use the attached template and prepare an eight- to ten-page analysis for me by the end of the week. Type your answers directly in the template. Thanks, Jillian Attachments: Project 4 Analysis Questions You have now finished working with your team on implementing a global strategy for MediCorp. At this point you will transition into an individual role of an analyst for MCS. Each person on the team will do his or her own analysis of results without any consultation with other team members or with students on other teams. Submit an analysis of Rounds 1 through 4 of the simulation by answering the questions provided in the Project 4 Analysis Questions template. Link to the Learning Topic from MBA 620 in Question #6 can be found here. Your report should be eight to ten pages (approximately 250 to 300 words per question), double spaced, excluding cover page. Any tables, graphs, and figures should be included in the body of your answers. Your report should have one-inch margins and be double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. In-text citations and references should abide by APA format. Do not delete the questions as you complete the template. Along with your analysis, submit your Team Decision Record. Thus, you will submit two files to the dropbox located in the final step of this project. The next step provides recommended delivery dates and file-naming protocols for Project 4 deliverables. Step 7: Submit Your Work Take note of the recommended delivery dates and file-naming protocols in the following table: Recommended Project Delivery Steps Submission Deliverable Submission instructions and file-naming protocol Entry strategy discussion Submit your post and responses in the Entry Strategy discussion area Week Step 1 Week 7 Step 5 Week 8 Individual contribution Submit your post in the group discussion area Step 6 Week 8 Project 4 analysis questions lastname_firstname_Project4_Analysis.docx teamname_capsimdecisionrecord_project4.docx ... Purchase answer to see full attachment