2024 – Week 2 Journal Assignment Assignment must be at least 200 words unless otherwise noted

Week 2 Journal Assignment

Assignment must be at least 200 words unless otherwise noted. Please read all attachments and follow ALL instructions.

To receive full credit you must include at least 2 citations of scholarly support to your answers for each discussion post (i.e. Discussion One – 2 citations, Discussion Two – 2 citations).  Citations should be within your post and include (Author, year, page number) if you are using a quote, page number is not required if you are paraphrasing.  Just listing references and not using them in your post does not count as a citation or support.  You can use your textbook as scholarly support and remember to include a reference for the support cited.  

In your responses to the discussion questions, journals, assignments and the final paper please avoid contractions. Examples of contractions – I’m, I’ve, isn’t, hadn’t and all the rest. Also, avoid etc since we do not know what it is. Avoid starting a sentence with “And.” The usage of the above mentioned would result in a lower grade.

The simulation learning experience will consist of the following: You will be managing and leading a business, called HISCO (in the Medical Equipment Industry), for an entire year (four quarters) and will have to deal with numerous issues in balancing short- and long-term priorities. The terms Qtr. 1 and Q1 are used interchangeably throughout and refer to Quarter 1 of your business. You will have a wide variety of resources at your disposal (Help Desk, faculty, review videos, and data). There will be a pre-test to ensure that you are prepared for the year, Quarterly and Annual Operating/Business Reviews, and finally, the development of an annual report after you have lived the excitement of creating the results through your decisions each quarter. Playing a quarter competitively and analyzing results of your decisions will be the primary source of formal knowledge. Naturally, you will be expected to keep up with the weekly activities which build upon each other.

There is a need to present peer review Journal articles for the discussion questions, assignments and final paper.

Journal Entry

Include a cover page and 1 page of reflection regarding what new learnings you’ve taken away from the week’s activities, readings, videos, and other information you found noteworthy. For your Week 2 Journal consider the importance of having quality information to make decisions associated with creating and implementing strategies in your current place of employment.

Required Resources

Text

There is not an official text for this course. Instead, there is a variety of selected reading materials that will be reviewed to ensure your success and meeting the learning objectives of the capstone.

• Selected TRI Corporation      Critical Equations for Business Leaders
• Selected videos on strategy,      developing an annual plan/budget, and variance analysis
• Selected MBA materials in      prior classes

Articles

Biery, M. E. (2013, December 22). What are your financial statements telling you? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2013/12/22/understanding-financial-statements/#72daac5822b0

The full-length version of this article is available through the Forbes.com website. This article provides information about analyzing trends associated with data used in financial analysis and will assist you in writing your Decision for Quarter One and also writing your First Quarter Quarterly Business Review this week. How you think about the data and then develop decisions based upon your analysis drives overall performance.

 

Pal, N. (2015, April 9). Why financial dashboards matter, and five pointers to get you started Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2015/04/09/why-financial-dashboards-matter-and-five-pointers-to-get-you-started/#4f6e2f5f2520

The full-length version of this article is available through the Forbes.com website. This article provides information about using financial dashboards used in graphical analysis of company financial data and will assist you in becoming familiar with tools used that help with analyzing information for your Decision for Quarter One and also writing your First Quarter Quarterly Business Review this week.
 

Sampson, L. (2015, March 13). Turning bean counters into difference makers: How corporate finance is changing with the times (Links to an external site.). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2015/03/13/how-corporate-finance-is-changing-with-the-times/#1aaa9ab639d1

The full-length version of this article is available through the Forbes.com website. This article provides information about using a wide variety of skills along with financial analysis that would be useful in digging deeper into the data generated by operations and will assist you in considering your Decision for Quarter One and also writing your First Quarter Quarterly Business Review this week.
 

Multimedia

Cadrain, S. (2017). Pre-Tax Net Income Chart Explanation                     [Presentation slides]. Retrieved from https://ashford.instructure.com

This PowerPoint presentation covers information about how to analyze HISCO’s financial metrics specifically pre-tax and after-tax income. The presentation can be used as a tool to better understand the “Pre-Tax Income: Year Plan vs. Actual” graph located in the Grow Your Business” (GYB) simulation.

TriCorporation. (n.d.). Preparing your financial commitments: Guide to developing a budget as the leader of HISCO [Video file]. Retrieved from https://qa.trisimulation.com/Simulation

This video provides information about the budgeting process that will be used within the Simulation and will familiarize you with what you will need to do in Week 2 for making budgeting decisions and submitting those decisions in the Simulation this week. The budget video will familiarize you Dashboards to be used in the Simulation. The video is found by clicking the (I) tab on the Simulation navigation bar and then clicking on the Supplementary Review materials tab.
 

Required Technology

Website

“Growing Your Business” – A Management Simulation. (https://ashford.trisimulation.com/canvas)

• This website is where you      will conduct your readings and work to complete the Decisions for Quarter      One assignment and the First Quarter Quarterly Business Review (QBR)      assignment.