Tag: Business Finance

Take a look at the case entitled “Ice Cream Headache” ( ATTACHED A PDF)! This case provides information on what it takes to purchase and operate a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store franchise. I’ve summarized the financial data below, and also provided similar data about purchasing a McDonald’s restaurant franchise; McDonald’s restaurants earn a lot more revenue but require a much larger financial investment to start up.

You have the opportunity to purchase one of these franchises. Considering these two possible business opportunities, respond to the following questions, reflecting:

Questions

1. What do the laws of supply and demand and the concepts of market competition suggest about running a Cold Stone Creamery franchise vs. a McDonald’s franchise? Which franchise would seem more attractive to you as a business, and why?
2. Considering the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility and the various approaches to CSR that an organization can take, how do you feel ethically about the opportunity to own and run a McDonald’s franchise? What CSR approach would you take, and what are some practical ways you would demonstrate your CSR approach?
3. Cold Stone Creamery allows individuals, partnerships, corporations or limited Liability companies to purchase a franchise. McDonald’s only allows individuals (sole proprietorships) – no corporations and no partnerships (not even family members, apparently!). Considering the advantages and disadvantages of each form of business ownership, discuss how these requirements might make one of these franchises more or less attractive to you.
4. If you had the financial resources to purchase either one of these opportunities, which would you choose, and why? If you would choose not to pursue either, what would you prefer to do with the financial resources at your disposal?

Cold Stone Creamery

Franchise Fees: $12,000 to $27,000. Also, you pay 6% of gross sales (royalties) and 3% of gross sales (advertising fees)

Financial requirements: $100,000 liquid assets, and at least $250,000 net worth

Startup costs: $310,375 to $476,975

Training: 11 days

Average annual revenue: $350,000 to $400,000

McDonald’s

Franchise Fee: $45,000, and 4% of gross sales (franchise), and 10.7% of sales (rent)

Financial requirements: at least $500,000 liquid assets

Startup costs: Between $1M and $2.2 Million (40% must be paid by franchisee in cash)

Training: 12-18 months

Average annual revenue: $2.7 Million

• Learn about evaluation of alternative investments
• The case recommendations should be two pages and consist of:
  • (1) your name and the title of the case,
  • (2) the primary question(s) asked in the case,
  • (3) the factors relevant to evaluating the case and reaching a conclusion/recommendation, and
  • (4) your recommendation to the case problem/issue(s). Your recommendation should take a position or suggest a path of action. You should be able to defend your recommendation based upon the information provided in the case

“An American Legend” looks at the 162-year old retail giant, Macy’s.

Macy’s is an iconic American Company, but like many brick and mortar retailers, it has been struggling to maintain market share. For this case study find the company’s most recent financial statements, including the income statement and balance sheet. There are many sources of this data, but one quick source is Morningstar.com. If you enter the company’s ticket symbol, “M” in the quote box, you will find a report on the company’s stock price as well as a host of other information, such as performance, key ratios, and financials. On the financial tab, you can find the income statement and balance sheet for the past five years.

As the case study notes, Macy’s has been struggling to maintain market share, and the entire retail industry has been under increasing attack from Amazon.com and other online retailers.

Also, in February 2020 (just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit us full-force), Macy’s announced a new three-year strategic initiative called “Polaris”, intended to “stabilize profitability and position the company for growth.” You can read Macy’s press release here:

https://www.macysinc.com/investors/news-events/press-releases/detail/1608/macys-inc-announces-three-year-polaris-strategy-to (Links to an external site.)

Whenever Macy’s and its customers emerge from COVID-19 shutdown, the Polaris strategy will seek to turn Macy’s around.

What are the five major components of the Polaris strategy?

Having examined the financial performance and ratios you have calculated in the previous questions, which components of Polaris do you believe will have the most impact for Macy’s? Why? Which components do you think may not have as great an impact on Macy’s performance? Why?

I’m working on a management discussion question and need support to help me learn.

Name an entrepreneur that you personally admire.

Why do you consider this person to be an entrepreneur? What sets him or her apart from other business leaders? What path did this person take to entrepreneurship? What personal sacrifices or investments did this person make in the journey? What people were important to this person’s success?

In this first course assignment, you will create a description of your selected company and a SWOT matrix that includes trends, strategic positioning, distribution channels, and risks. You’ve already begun this assignment in your discussions.

In the Week 1 discussion, you chose a company (whether your own or the snack food company scenario) and created a description and mission statement for it. In this assignment, you will need to revise your selected company’s description and mission statement based on the feedback you received in the discussion thread. You will also include a brief narrative that provides the rationale for including each component of the mission statement.

Likewise, in the Week 2 discussion, you began work on your SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) matrix. Your task in this assignment is to revise your SWOT matrix based on the feedback you received in the discussion thread. You will also summarize the key learnings from your SWOT matrix.

Reminders and Notes

• Before beginning this assignment, you may find it helpful to review textbook Chapter 3, “Making Your Plan Compelling.” This chapter provides useful information about how to organize the information in your business plan.
• Your chosen company will operate in a 100-mile radius from your home address. Your goal is to reach $1 million in sales by the end of the second year.
• Be sure to follow the guidelines, whether you are using the snack food company or the company of your choice.
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    REQUIREMENTS

    The specific requirements for this assignment are to write a 3–5 page paper in which you:

    1. Describe the product or service on which the company is focusing, including the company’s name and its significance.
    2. Revise the company’s mission statement based on feedback received in the Week 1 discussion thread, including the rationale for each component of the mission statement.
       • Place the mission statement within quotation marks.
       • Use the Mission Statement Worksheet on pages 72–73 of your textbook as a guide.
    3. Describe the trends in your specific industry, focusing on your particular type of product or service.
       • Research and outline industry trends. Be sure to consider the size and growth rate for the overall industry and for the specific product or service on which you are focusing.
       • Search the Strayer Library, industry associations, and reliable websites for recent data.
    4. Select the strategic position from the course textbook (pages 146–147) that you believe is the best one for your chosen company and explain how you will implement it to distinguish your product or service from the competition.
       • Consult Chapter 9, “Strategic Position & Risk Assessment” of your textbook for help in crafting this portion of your business plan.

Students will provide a brief overview of the political system in their target countries as well as analyze the internal and external risks facing the countries and determine if/how they are related to their company/product. Some ideas for relevant sources include:

1. A global corruption index
2. A human rights index
3. A political stability/instability index

Your tasks:

• In addition to the identification of the risks, this paper should explain why the risk is relevant to the company, its potential impact, and its likelihood. This information should be presented in both text and graphical form. See attached example.
• Political Risk Assessment Metrics.pdf Political Risk Assessment Metrics.pdf – Alternative Formats 

• Chose a company to analyze (it could be your present or past employer). Students will use the same company for all four assignments/sections of the Course Project.  
  • Write an overview of the organization  you are analyzing.  Include the background of the company, mission statement and vision statement, and include its products/services, size, location etc.

This project is not due until the end of Week 8, but you’ve already learned the key concepts covered by the project so you should begin working on it this week. During this culminating project, you will complete a professional PowerPoint presentation consisting of seven slides. In each slide, you will choose a leadership theory or motivational theory from your book, and describe why your chosen theory would be the most suitable to meet each of the company goals as listed below. Please select a different theory for each company goal using any leadership style or motivation theory in the book. You may chose any company you like, as the focus of the project is on your understanding of how to evaluate and use different leadership styles to meet business goals, not the details of the company.

• Motivation theories are discussed throughout Chapter 10.
• Leadership theories are discussed in Chapter 7.

Why is it important to identify all the paths that users are likely to take at a website before creating new content for a new website? Can you think of a website that is well planned?

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