Reflection
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Reflection
I must state that I have learned numerous new learnings and concepts from the week’s activities, readings, videos, and other information, which have significantly enhanced my knowledge and provided valuable insights into my future career. In particular, the simulation played an integral role in my new learnings since it contained various valuable strategies and concepts that I previously perceived to be complex for my career progression. Hence, the simulation has provided me with a hands-on experience and approach to undertaking viable business decisions, especially when dealing with different business operations and calculations. Notably, I must note that the week’s activities have been insightful, eye-opening, informative, and educative, which has greatly boosted my confidence in tackling complex business situations and making informed decisions to transform a particular firm’s performance effectively.
On the same note, I have learned valuable concepts regarding SWOT and strategy associated with HISCO Corporation. In particular, I have learned that it is paramount for organizations such as HISCO Corporation to focus on their strengths and opportunities in developing a viable strategy, which would eventually eliminate their threats and weaknesses. Moreover, focusing on strengths and opportunities provides a firm’s management with in-depth insights into how to fully capitalize on these two concepts to elevate their business operations and cash flow status tremendously (Kautish, 2021).
For instance, HISCO Corporation has a primary strength of possessing an excellent product due to its potential market and engineering capabilities. Hence, HISCO Corporation will significantly turn around its overall performance by taking advantage of the potential market and remarkable engineering capabilities and developing unique products to attain a competitive edge against its rival companies. I have also learned that developing a viable strategy will greatly assist HISCO Corporation in eliminating its threats and weaknesses and becoming a market industry leader. I also learned that 70% of firms that had zero profits ended up paying zero amount or nothing as their corporate taxes, according to Mathur (2016).
Furthermore, I have also learned other valuable new learnings, including making informed, viable quarterly decisions, completing the QBR (Quarterly Business Review), reviewing the “Business Intelligence Dashboard,” and examining data analytics trends from competitors. I have also learned how to analyze variances to plan, especially when using the “Variance to SRO,” how to look at the variance graphs to plan, and have an in-depth assessment with the bridge charts, floating bars, or variance walks. I have also learned that it is paramount to review data found in “R&D,” “Sully Chain Management,” “Financial Statements,” and “Internal Emails and Industry News” contained in the “Inbox” (Gelinas et al., 2017).
In principle, I must also note that it was educative to learn how to use and analyze the data contained in the “Business Intelligence Dashboard” DuPont Analysis, especially regarding the ROE (Return on Equity), Financial Leverage, ROA (Return on Assets), Asset Turns, and ROS (Return on Sales) graphs. Subsequently, it was also exciting to learn how to use and analyze the data contained in the “Business Intelligence Dashboard” Performance Analysis regarding the information in the different graphs, including Lost Sales in Units, S Market Share, Unit Market Share, and Sales Per Employee (Kautish, 2021).
In summation, I must note that it was also interesting to learn how to analyze the “Pre-Tax Income: Year Plan vs. Actual (or Actual + SRO)” Chart. I must state that I have previously had numerous challenges trying to analyze this chart since it was complicated for me to comprehend its different concepts, such as the Base Cost, VC (P), VC (I), Actual, Interest, Year Plan, Market Share, and Growth. Nonetheless, I can confidently note that I can now analyze the chart competently, provide factual information regarding the expected Net Income, and analyse whether a particular item is unfavorable or favorable to plan. I have also learned about six ways of measuring the health of a particular business, referred to as the six major financial metrics, including inventory days, accounts receivable days, accounts payable days, quick ratio, current ratio, and pre-tax net profit margin (Biery & Stats, 2013).
References
Biery, M. E. & Stats, S. (2013). How healthy is your business? 6 ways to take its ‘temperature.’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2013/09/01/how-healthy-is-your-business-using-industry-data-to-check-the-temperature/?sh=4a48bf9f704a
Gelinas, U. J., Dull, R. B., Wheeler, P., & Hill, M. C. (2017). accounting information systems. Cengage Learning.
Kautish, S. (2021). Using strategy analytics to measure corporate performance and business value creation. Business Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global.
Mathur, A. (2016). Why 70% of companies paid zero in corporate taxes: They had zero profits. https://www.forbes.com/sites/aparnamathur/2016/04/20/why-70-of-companies-paid-zero-in-corporate-taxes-they-had-zero-profits/?sh=31f0630656e3