Essays on Forecasts

Introduction

Planning is an important aspect of managing any business. Planning sometimes involves prediction of the future conditions. Forecasting sales is significant in profit planning among other strategic decisions. Several methods are used in forecasting sales. A business should apply the method that most accurately estimates the future sales. Excellent Consulting Group wants to identify the best method to forecast its sales for year two. A forecast has already been made using the regression analysis method. The technique involved developing an equation which gives the monthly sales figure as a function of the number of customers in each month. The ...

Investment Appraisal

Investment Appraisal This report presents the critical investment appraisal of the new coffee shop venture to be initiated by Tesco Ltd. The report includes a thorough analysis of the café market and industry and also attempts to evaluate the target market and market segmentation. Towards the end, the report also includes the appraisal of the investment and financial analysis of the five-year forecast of the venture.

The British coffee market has grown considerably in the past few years that is evident from the fact that approximately $8 billion was spent by Britons in coffee shops last year. In 2015, ...

Question 1

Neil Borden (1965) is believed to be the first to have used the term ‘marketing mix’ suggested to him by James Cullington’s (1948) description of a business executive as ‘a mixer of ingredient’ (Van Waterschoot & Van den Bulte, 1992). The term, therefore, referred to the selection and mixture of various elements perceived to be useful in the pursuant of particular market responses. To facilitate the practical application of the concept to concrete business operation problems, early researchers working on the model sought to itemize the various influences on a market response that business executives at the time needed ...

Abstract

Linear Regression (LR) forecasts the value of a random variable (dependent variable) for a given value of an associated independent variable. The regression equation provides the formula for such a calculation. Simple Exponential Smoothing (SES) forecasts the bases its forecasts on a weighted average of past data, with more weight on the more recent periods. A smoothing factor helps in providing weight. It generally forecasts for the short-term. In the present case, we forecast the sales data for year-2 for ABC Furniture Company using both the methods. For SES, we use two smoothing factors α equal to 0.15 and 0.90 ...

Business Intelligence and Analytics in Higher Education Institutions

Business Intelligence and Analytics

Business Intelligence and Analytics refers to the process of collecting and analyzing data from internal and external systems to produce actionable information to help in making decisions. The process of business intelligence and analytics is driven by information technology and in modern business; there are countless software for this purpose. The users of the simplified actionable information could be management or the people in operations. The current economy is information-driven; producing what has come to be known as the knowledge economy. Modern business is generally driven by having the right information at the right time ...

At the start of 1985, the Pacific Oil Company experienced some key difficulties as they began to regenerate discussions with Reliant Chemical Company. Both companies- Pacific Oil Company and Reliant Company formerly had a fruitful business agreement and the corporations also had a healthy affiliation that they wished to uphold. Jean Fontaine, the marketing vice president for Pacific Oil Company, and Paul Gaudin the marketing manager for Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), both recognized that having a long-standing predetermined settlement and a good association with Reliant Company in the forthcoming days was fundamental for the success of their companies. Upon ...

The Autumn Statement is a traditional statement made by the government that serves as a financial report. It is the second made every year, with the first being the Spring Budget. It is given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who provides MPs with information about the United Kingdom’s taxation and spending (BBC, 2016). Traditionally, the Budget dealt primarily with taxation while the Statement focuses more on department allocation. The information and data used is compiled by the Office of Budget Responsibility, which publishes its information as soon as the chancellor finishes his/her speech. Last year’s Autumn ...

General accounts are accounts that record financial transactions that are not specifically restricted to a particular set of accounts or are not necessary to account for in another fund. The general fund is the only one kept and run by governments all over the world. The Special fund accounts records general government transactions that are normally restricted by law or contractual agreements for particular predetermined purpose other than huge capital projects. This accounts will always exists as long as government has resources dedicated to some special programs and projects. In addition, budget preparation is an important process done every ...

Publicly traded companies such as Verizon Communications are required to prepare and file fully audited financial reports according that adhere to U.S. generally accepted principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) guidelines. The importance of preparing financial reports is to assist users with information regarding a company’s financial performance to make decisions. Financial reporting analysis helps to determine whether financial reports have any material misstatement or omissions that would influence a potential investor’s decision. An analysis of Verizon Communications’ 2015 annual report will highlight whether the company is complying with accounting policies to ensure information provided ...

Discuss four global controls of temperature

The position of ITCZ is an area of low pressure and compliments the characteristics of tropical climate. ITCZ Equatorial Low The Wind converges at the equator making it a low-pressure zone. The temperatures around the tropics area always high throughout the year. The ITCZ along the equator is a low-pressure area. The warmed winds from the tropics blow towards the equator converge and move towards the seas. The result is the balancing of temperatures when the northeast trade winds and the southeast trade winds converge at the warm equator air rises forming a Hadley cell. The winds flowing towards ...

The process of collecting, investing and managing cash is known as cash management (Investopedia, 2010). Therefore, both corporate treasurers, and the business managers that are responsible for the entire management of cash will always seek for software that manages cash to increase efficiency and security. The efficient management of cash involves avoidance of insolvency, reduction of days in receivable accounts, selection of short-run investments, improvement of the financial performance of the company, and increasing the collection rates. All of these will help in cash managements to suit the management requirements. However, corporates are always facing some challenges regarding cash ...

Business

2016-07-28

Introduction

This paper is devoted to the company Nissan Motor Company Ltd. and its management system. The great attention is paid to the operations management, supply chain, inventory management and other aspects, which can significantly impact on the company’s effectiveness. Nissan is currently demonstrating a steady growth in terms of volume of production and sales, as well as developing its technologies in different fields. Nowadays, the company Nissan produces cars in twenty countries around, which include Japan, USA, England, Spain, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and others. Sales are conducted in more than one hundred and sixty countries. Company ...

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Standard Costs Used for Variance Analysis and Favourable/Unfavourable Terminologies with Suitable Examples 8

References 11

Management Accounting Differences between Management Accounting and Financial Accounting and the need for Investing in the latest Accounting Software Audience Served The basic difference between these two accounting fields is that the management accounting is concerned with providing information to internal stakeholders of an organisation such as the senior management, supervisors and employees. In contrast, financial accounting provides information about the financial health of the business to external stakeholders such as potential investors, shareholders (in case of a publicly traded company), tax authorities, lending institutions and ...

Starbucks is one of the most successful corporations in the world. Today, the company has spread to all corners of the globe, and has become one of the most recognizable brand images in the modern consciousness. The brand has grown exponentially since its inception, and this worldwide popularity has led to an increasing complexity in the structure of the supply chain (Cachon & Lariviere, 2001). Most companies have a vested interest in simplifying their supply chain to minimize problems associated with supply chains on a local, national, and global level (Cachon & Lariviere, 2001). The distribution system associated with the Starbucks ...

Organizations apply the analysis of break-even to make price decisions of their products, understand the costs that are involved in the production, and make a decision on the volume of sales achieved that can make the business profitable. In this plan of activities, Mission Hill Wine made total sales of its wine at $12, 500 in 2015 and incurred a variable cost per unit of $700 and a fixed cost of $ 8million. Therefore, the break-even would be determined as: In terms of units, BEP = 8,000,000/ (12,500-700) = 678 units. In terms of sales, BEP =678 units*12, ...

Counter Measures to the Bullwhip Effect

Introduction The bullwhip effect is the unexpected distortion of the supply chain. It refers to the “variability of order rates” (Disney and Lambrecht, 2008, p. 3). This supply chain hazard has its roots in Jay Forrester’s Industrial Dynamics Theory of the late 1950s (Goldsby and Martichenko, 2005). Forrester was the first person to introduce the concept and simulate a model in 1961. There are many solutions to counter the bullwhip effect. The reason why there are many solutions to the bullwhip effect is because it is triggered by multiple causes. For instance, the most common cause is overreacting ...

Discounted cash flow is one of the valuation methods of performance used by a company to pick on a favorable and attractive investment opportunity (Baker and Powell 105). This evaluation analysis method uses future cash flows that are to be discounted to find the estimated present value of the project’s potential to invest. Business evaluation entails a well laid out set procedures employed in the estimation of the owner’s interest economic value in business. Financial market participants use business valuation to arrive at the price they are willing to receive or pay out for the sale of ...

Bullwhip Effect

Supply chain management constitutes of complex tasks and includes companies that transfer goods from initial raw material stage to finished goods to retailers. The most common reasons that supply chain companies stumble is when the customer demands and market conditions fluctuate or shift. The bullwhip effect is caused when supply chain companies are not able to manage their orders . The change in consumer demand and market fluctuations cause different supply chain companies to order more products/goods to achieve or meet the demand. The most common reason for the difference in orders is that companies base the demand for goods ...

Executive summary

The stock price of Southern Cross Media Group Limited did not show any reaction to the announcement of the 2015 financial results. The stock price increased days before the announcement and the day after the event but declined two days after the announcement. Financial analysis of firm indicates that it has a strong liquidity, and this has improved over the last five years. Its debt to equity ratio has increased due to the capital reduction in accordance with the relevant statute. The year 2015 saw a decline in the profitability of the company although this did not affect the ...

Final Case Study Project

Introduction In this paper, we will describe and discuss the application of statistics and probability theory to a real-world problem. Our task is to study the impacts of a variety of factors influencing house prices in Prescott, Arizona. As it was mentioned in the previous studies, there are five lakes in the Prescott metropolitan area that provide a number of benefits to those who live or spent their holidays in this area. These benefits include scenic beauty, recreational opportunity, clear water, fresh air and so on and so forth. It is assumed that the property prices should depend on ...

Importance of Entrepreneurial Activity to the UK Economy

Assignments 2 Introduction The constant growth and evolution of economic relations, both between countries and between entrepreneurs within a country, are requirements for the creation of new business forms. Entrepreneurship is an important, but not a sufficient factor in economic and social developments of countries (Waschik, Fisher and Prentice, 2010). However, if left uncontrolled by the state, entrepreneurship can become just as harmful as the administrative-command system in an economy. Entrepreneurship is essential for the development of a competitive economic environment; in order to give the final consumers the freedom of choice, but does not content with goods offered ...

WTTC’s Blueprint

World travel and Tourism Council is the organization of international significance with the overall aim to bring forward knowledge innovation and outline the critical role of tourism as the driver of national and international economic affairs. Comprised of the top management partners from various international companies within the top 100, the organization built on the sustainable internal capacity and experience, able to deliver the important mission of raising the awareness of the population about the impact of tourism and travel activities on generating global wealth and wellbeing (WTTC, 2016). The WTTC's Blueprint for New Tourism was announced in 2003 ...

[Customer's name] [Institutional affiliations]Introduction In the modern society, statistics has become one of the most important national economic management tools. The notion of any management decision requires a preliminary analysis of the current situation, based on a miscalculation of options, comparison of options, assessing the accuracy of the forecasts, the likelihood of errors. Methodological framework for addressing these issues is statistics. Its main task is the calculation and analysis of statistics, allowing the governing bodies receive comprehensive description of the object, whether it is the whole national economy or its individual sectors, enterprises and their divisions. Trends basically ...

Summary of Thinking, fast, and slow by Daniel Kahneman

George Mason University Summary of Thinking, fast, and slow by Daniel Kahneman Introduction The author, Daniel Kahneman, hopes that the readers would benefit from the reading of his book, which is about biases of intuition. According to the author, it can be a tough choice between what we believe and what we want. Friends and colleagues help us in making and evaluating choices. The thinking process is one conscious thought leading to another. The mental work creates impressions and intuitions silently in our minds. We allow our beliefs, feelings and preferences to feel confident about our decision, even if ...

Introduction

The Canadian labor market is abundant with skilled and qualified workers, and hence, the country’s labor market is becoming increasingly competitive. In this context, it is necessary for the government to ensure that all these candidates are employed and getting paid fairly. However, it is identified that Canada’s unemployment rate soared high during the recent recession and it has not yet recovered completely. Since Canada is a well-developed country, it is particularly important for the Canadian federal government to analyze the short-term as well as long-term costs of high unemployment rate to the country’s economy. This ...

Introduction

Business growth requires the adoption of various corporate levels strategies such as diversification into new markets. With that, it is necessary to identify the most suitable market regarding market demand and policies. That is because the country’s productivity determines the living standards, hence, the demand while policies determine ease of doing business and the productivity level. In that view, this report presents a recommendation and analysis of the most suitable country for Apple to expand to for its iPhone brand. To achieve the objective, the report presents a summary of the country of choice followed by an overview ...

Finance is an evergreen field with a variety of career options for aspiring students and professionals. With job titles such as financial controller, credit manager, treasurer, financial advisor and management accountant, the nature of work carried out by employees in this field is both diverse and comprehensive. Be it banking, financial sector companies, trusts or business consultancies, there are numerous job opportunities in each sector. Finance industry in particular is backed with critical factual information, data computations and analysis. It’s important to use reliable resources to collect this data. As internet beaming in the 21st century, it has ...

Article Review

The US economy is well known for the wide range of detailed data that is available through various organizations like the Fed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Affairs and many others. The world’s largest economy has a high reputation on the quality and reliability of the data that it provides. Though the data provided by the government organizations have a high degree of accuracy the data is not a real time one. This is because the organizations need updated statistics on the various macroeconomic variables. For this reason there is a time lag in ...

The two-line element set coordinate system for the satellite DMSP-19 looks in the following way:

DMSP-19 1. 25063U 97074 A 476849 0.00001428 0000-0 56564-3 984 15 2. 25063 34.9848 213.37 213.37 234.2325 124.0029 15.74091 18836 DMSP satellites are used to gather more data for weather models of NOAA – the organization that creates life-saving forecasts to save people’s lives during severe weather. The DMSP-19 satellite is a LEO satellite. LEO orbit (180-2000 km) is commonly occupied with the things that are used for scientific needs. The height of the orbit influences on the shape of the orbit of a satellite. So, the satellites that are working on a low orbit usually move in a ...

Introduction

Myer is Australia's largest departmental store with more than 60 outlets and an online shop, where customers can order products from the comfort of their homes. The company employs 125,000 people and makes use of 1200 suppliers worldwide. Myer is embedded in the culture of Australia, as it has operated for more than 100 years in most cities. The company has a broad range of products; eleven in total, ranging from men wear to apparel and electrical goods. On the opposite, Myer has had mixed fortunes in the last five years. The company peaked in 2013, with revenues ...

Introduction

Planning is a time-consuming and tedious process that is still important in the business world. Almost all of the successful businesses in the world have managed to stay on top of their game by engaging in structured and careful planning processes. Drafting a well though-out plan reduces the likelihood of making mistakes that are potentially costly. The aviation industry, just like any other business entity, thrives through informed decision making that is executed in the form of plans. Planning for the future provides a platform for the people involved to educate themselves on the strengths and weaknesses of each ...

Evaluation of Corporate Performance: Apple Inc.

Apple, Inc. is a U.S. based company that has its registered office in Cupertino, California. The company has a long history of innovative progression and it will not be wrong to state that the company has changed the ways of telecommunication. It has opened up new arenas of technology development and competition between electronic companies has become fierce in the last 15 years or so due to the company’s ability to develop new and unique products. The company sells computers, laptops, hard drives, tablets, music accessories, phones, etc. The company has its own operating system that runs on ...

Summary Report on the Transfer of the Main Warehouse

Problem Definition Customers in the northern and eastern central regions of the US have been complaining of delays in their shipments. With the weakening of the defense sector, there had been a boom in the commercial aviation sector and the suppliers are also having a hay day. The two largest plane makers Boeing and Airbus had orders of 10,000 planes since 2014 which can last them up to 2014. One reason for the boom was attractiveness of the financing rates at that time and coincided with the state of the aging planes of both. The other reason is ...

The recent weather forecast of cold summer is not good news for the business. With the predicted cold summer, the company might not sell a lot of residential air conditioners (ACs). The sales volumes might further dip if the company fails to come up with strategies to increase sales even with the predicted cold summer. A dip in sales volume will affect the company’s anticipated profit since the profit margin is very small. This can be done by addressing areas of weakness. Even with a fierce domestic market, there are some short-term measures which can be implemented to ...

Kazoo & Company Business Case

Opening a new business is a challenging task for anyone, irrespectively of the type and the size of business. When it comes to building a business, which is new to you and in a way to the market, this challenge becomes even more evident. Economic and social arena outline the profile of the industries. The industries, in turn, shape the behavior and strategies of individual companies that operate in a particular market segment. In spite of the fact that all the companies are different and they choose to compete in ways that give them unique r, at least, rare ...

Driving Forces of Change

As the final waves of developments take up momentum, the manufacturers in the 21st-century face situations that could create competitive advantages or opportunities. Companies such as Toyota and Ford are making significant improvements to keep up with the 3-D technologies. The firms are looking for new techniques to respond to risks and sustain a competitive edge. This essay takes a succinct look at the trends and operations within the automobile industry. The changes that have risen in the vehicle industry emanate from several forces within and outside the corporations. The first one is the rapid emergence of new production ...

Inventory Management in Supply Chain

Inventory Management in Supply Chain

Inventory management

Inventory management is about specifying the percentage and shape of the stock goods. Inventory management is necessary on several places to keep the orders, store them and use it for production use. Inventory is the asset of the company and it remains an asset until it is sold and cleared (Salvo et al, 2002).

Inventory system

It is a system in which a company check over its stock. The activity done by the employees to check the company’s stock is known as inventory system. Inventory control majorly refers to logistics, operations management and supply chain ...

Dat

Stock Research: Oneok Limited About the company Founded in the year 1906, ONEOK Inc. is a diversifed entity that is engaged in gathering, processing, storage and transportation of Natural Gas in the mid-continent areas of the United States. The company operates through natural gas gathering and processing, natural gas liquids and natural gas pipeline segment. The company is a mid-stream energy pure play company that owns 32% in Oneok Partners and thus, the effective control over the partner company and its cash The company is also one of the largest limited partnership involved with natural gas industry.

Oneok Limited is headquartered in Oklahoma and is listed on NYSE under the ticker symbol of ‘OKE’.

Alarming Financials ...

Industry: Online Retailing in China

Driving forces of change The innovation and technological advancements are considered as the major drivers of change in the retail industry of China. Furthermore, the preferences of the consumers in China are also found as the driving force of change in the retailing in China. The technological advancement is resulted in the trend of online retailing that is increasing day by day and the competition for the offline retailers is increasing (Lam, Li & Gong, 2013).

Relevant economic trends & forecasts

The online retail market of China has become the leading in the top markets of the world. The online industry of retailing in China ...

BRICS effect on global capitalist economy

The debates about the increasing role of emerging economies became more vigorous since the global financial crisis that became a start for a new global framework with the developing countries surfacing as a major hub. The most attention is given to the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and the South Africa (BRICS) that had demonstrated high growth during the last decade against the global recession. The future dominance of the BRICS may shift the economic center towards the multipolar model. Changes in the matrix of competitive forces (finance, resources, technology) lead to a decline in the economic, political ...

Part 1: Research Proposal

Introduction The Constitution has always protected the privacy of citizens, but the increased advancement of technology is becoming a threat. Technology is threatening to redefine the privacy of individuals for it to operate efficiently. One of the inventions that have collided with the individual expectations of privacy, which are protected by the Fourth Amendment, is drones. These devices can be used for surveillance (especially against terrorism) and aid in the achievement of the requirements of the Patriot Act. The drones can capture high-resolution images and videos from a distance and transmit them to the source. The American citizens fear ...

People always wanted to know something about future events. However, after the development of business and industrial production, forecasting became the necessity. Numerous real-life tasks require data on future trends as well. In the XXI century, forecasting is performed using mathematical modelling with computer programs. Extrapolation methods use the data of the previous periods to generate information about the future. This means that the past movements of the variables are used to obtain the future values. There are extrapolation methods based on the regression models, exponential smoothing, moving averages, etc. Although some methods require complicated calculations, when the software ...

Zara is using the Microsoft Disk Operating System (DOS) which has become obsolete since Microsoft is no longer providing support. With the withdrawal of support, it is risky for Zara to continue using DOS. In case, they encounter a technical problem, or the system fails, the entire operations of the company could stall; from selling points at the stores to inventory management, as well as productions would be slowed down. The only result from this is a reduction in the number of sales volumes or no sales at all which will be a crippling loss in revenue. Besides, the ...

Abstract

Establishing a business requires considering the opportunities and risks that it could face given the industry trends and prospects. That is because the industry trends determine competitiveness as well as the ability to meet the business goals. With that, this analysis presents a financial analysis of a business proposal for a coffee and bakery café based in New York City. The café caters to the youthful segment and serves products that consider the increasing health concerns over the effect of beverages and bakery products’ ingredients. Further, the analysis, involve an analysis of the most suitable approach regarding the space ...

Zara

Introduction and Background The case of Zara, a famous fashion clothing manufacturer, has been considered with the focus on inventory management and lean operations. The major aim of lean manufacturing (Just-In-Time) is to reduce the cost through having control over inventory and reducing waste. Zara is a fast fashion retailer and fashion changes rapidly. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the demand for products. Hence, Zara procures the material in bulk and cut the clothes into pieces. However, when fashion changes and demand for any specific design rise, the retailer prepares the dresses on demand (Just-In-Time). In this way, ...

Summary

Chesapeake Energy Corporation was incorporated in 1989 and trades at the New York Stock Exchange under the Ticker Symbol (CHK) (Bloomberg). The company operates in the oil and gas industry. The company share price has declined form a 52-week high of $16.98 to a 52-week low of $1.50. As at April 4th, the share closed at $3.86. Over the past 1 year investors have lost 74.46% of their wealth. The share performance is 75.40% lower than the market return (S&P Index). The share price is likely to experience further declines and therefore recommend investors to sell of the company ...

Introduction

This report demonstrates how Uno Homes (UH) will respond to their operating environment through the use of PESTLE analysis, which can be used as a basis for future planning and strategic management. Such analysis of the surrounding environment is designed to point out the specific opportunities and threats that will impact the future strategy of UH.

Organisational Profile

Uno Homes are homebuilding specialists, one of several house builders operating in the city of London. Uno is the commercial brand of Uno Homes Group, one of the leading providers of homes in East London that was formed to meet the growing demand ...

Identify different users of accounting information and discuss the varying information needs of these users.

Users of accounting information are both - internal & external to the company in question. Internal users are the primary users of accounting information. They are company managers, employees and proprietors. Managers make use of the accounting information for analysis purpose regarding the company’s output and ranking so that suitable measures could be taken for bettering company performance. Next-in-line internal stakeholders are company employees. Their information needs are different from that of company managers. They use company information for measuring the earnings made by the company and deriving results thereof for relating with their future income and job safety; ...

INVESTMENTS

Economic overview The economy of Jamaica greatly relies on services that accounts for over 70 percent of its GDP. The Nation continues to earn most of the foreign exchange from remittances, tourism and alumina/bauxite. Both tourism and remittances accounts for 30 percent each, whereas alumina/bauxite exports contribute roughly 5 percent of the GDP. The alumina/bauxite sector was the greatly affected by global downturn whereas the remittance flow and tourism industry remained resilient. The economy encounters several challenges to its growth including soaring corruption and crimes, huge-scale underemployment and unemployment as well as a debt-to-the-GDP ratio that is about 130 ...

Objective and subjective forecasting

Forecasting is act of predicting the future by use of (time series related) data that are available in order to make objective decisions. According to Fides and Bernard there are two basic types of forecasting models- subjective model and objective model. This paper aims to make comparisons between the subjective forecasting method and the objective forecasting method. Objective models refer to those methods in which there are a specific and well defined procedures of obtaining the forecast. This forecasting method is usually quantitative with alo0t of data involved in completion of the process. At other times the specifications in ...

IoT Technology: Market Potential and Likely Impact

Introduction Internet of things is one the most emerging technologies that have taken the technology world into a new era of innovation and applications. Internet of things or IoT for short is a ubiquitous technology powered by devices that are connected to each other. IoT is a paradigm that is based on the power of radio frequency tags making the devices interact with each other through a central server that monitors and collects all the data. The devices can sense, network and process information with other devices. The whole process of devices communicating over the internet to achieve a ...