Case Report Assignment #1: Company Analysis
ACCT 3560 - Winter 2021
Due: Wednesday, March 17th at 11:59 PM on Blackboard
Overview:
This assignment will be graded out of 50 points and will count towards 10% of your course grade.
Your completed assignment should be submitted through Blackboard in advance of the deadline
in PDF format. Assignments should be 5-7 pages, double-spaced (not including the title page or
any appendices). Use Times New Roman 12pt font and 1-inch margins.
A Note on plagiarism:
The University of Windsor Policy on Plagiarism states “the source of any ideas, wording, or data
obtained from others must be disclosed and properly acknowledged by citations, quotation
marks, and bibliographic references in the proper format. Using the work of others without
acknowledgment is plagiarism.” (FAHSS Plagiarism Policy, 2014). Use American Psychological
Association (APA) formatting for your title page and any references. You must cite all sources,
including the textbook. APA resources can be found at:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guid
e/general_format.html
Assignment Details:
Students will perform a strategic analysis and create a case report related to a company of your
choice. You will research any company you choose but it will be best to choose a company and
industry that you are most interested in. You will be responsible for writing a background section
on the industry and company that you choose. Based on one of the chapters we have covered in
the textbook, you will write a case report about a potential problem could potentially occur
within the company you choose. Although your problem and solution may be based on any
chapter that we cover this semester, you will need to structure your report on the Five-Step
Strategic Decision Model (first introduced on Page 19 of the textbook). You must select a
scenario that will require you to include calculations for the given problem and provide a viable
solution. The grading rubric reflects how detailed you will need to be (Appendix A). The
assignment contains 4 main components as follows:
1. Background (10 Marks) - This section should be approximately 1-2 pages and include a brief
description of the industry that your chosen company belongs to, as well as of the company itself.
You will include brief SWOT analysis (at least 2 items per category) and a detailed analysis of their
strategy. You will also provide a brief Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map based on what you
find out about the company. In most cases this information will be available on the company’s
web site (don’t forget to cite your sources). You should also add some insight into the company
that you gained through your research that leads into the issue that you will be addressing in Part
2.
2. Decision Model (20 Marks) - Based on the Five-Step Strategic Decision Model, you will create
five sections (one for each step in the model). This section will make up the bulk of your case
report.
Step 1: Identify a problem where a management decision needs to be made. The closer
this is to a real-world problem, the better. You may either find research that talks about
the problem or base the problem off a scenario found in the textbook.
Step 2: Outline what types of information you will need to have to address the problem
named in the previous step and why.
Step 3: Make predictions about the future based on the information you obtain in the
previous step. You will add your calculations component to this step. The actual
calculations will be kept in the Appendix to keep the body of the report short. Only refer
to the results of your calculations in the body of the report.
Step 4: Use the calculations from the previous step to make a choice between
alternatives. You must relate your choice back to strategic reasoning and referencing back
to your Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map. Creating and commenting on your
calculations will be the longest step in this section. You may redevelop calculations found
in homework problems and in the textbook as long as they are adequately modified. You
may also use real-world reports as inspiration as long as they are cited properly.
Step 5: Explain how you will implement your decision and how you will evaluate
performance and learn from it going forward. Ensure that there are feedback provisions
in place to defer any deviance from the strategic direction.
3. Calculations (15 Marks) - In the Appendix section of the paper you will detail the calculations
you performed for Step 3 of the Decision Model. The calculations should be fairly extensive and
detailed, containing multiple elements. They must also be properly performed and formatted.
For example, performing only one component of the strategic analysis of operating income would
be too little, while performing all components would exceed what you would need.
4. Qualitative Aspects (5 Marks) - You will be graded on how polished your report is, how creative
it is and how closely it addresses real-world issues. Make sure to proofread extensively, use APA
properly, and draw inspiration from problems you have seen while performing your research.
The report should be professional looking, contain some visuals, and appealing to read.
Appendix A: Marking Rubric
NAME: _______________________
1.1
Background
for chosen
company and
industry (2).
1.2 SWOT
Analysis (3).
1.3 Bal-anced
Scorecard
(BSC) and
Strategy Map
(5).
2. Use of the
five-step
decision
model (20).
4. Development of
calculations
(15).
5. Spelling,
grammar,
APA,
citations,
creativity,
esthetics (5)
SCORE: _____________ / 50
5
Strong,
concise, with
cited outside
sources.
4
Above average
background.
3
Average
background
information.
2
Some
background but
not strong.
1
Missing most
of the
background
information.
0
Does not
provide background.
Exceeds
minimum
requirements.
Meets
minimum
requirements
and correct.
Does not
provide any
of the
elements.
Draws on all
components of
BSC and
Strategy Map
but lacks some
details.
Good use of the
model, applies
each step
correctly.
Proper
conclusion.
Does not meet
minimum
requirements
and mostly
incorrect.
Draws on more
than one
component of
BSC, but
limited.
Missing most
of the required
information.
Detailed use
of full BSC,
demon-strates
good understanding of
strategy.
Excellent use
of the model,
well
explained,
strong,
feasible
problem and
resolution.
Excellent use
of
calculations,
solutions well
performed
and justified.
Excellently
written, no
errors,
creative and
appealing to
read. Exceeds
minimum
requirements.
Almost meets
minimum
requirements,
and mostly
correct.
Draws on most
components of
BSC. Good
attempt at
Strategy Map.
Draws on one
component of
BSC. Strategy
Map
incomplete.
Does not
draw on BSC.
Lacks
Strategy
Map.
Average use of
the model, lacks
detail. Chosen
issue is feasible.
Uses the model
but not
adequately
applied. Does
not demonstrate full
understanding.
Only limited
steps of the
model used.
Not applied
fully. Problem
not feasible.
Does not
employ the
model.
Strong use of
calculations,
some errors and
based on realworld.
Average use of
calculations,
some errors,
not feasible in
real-world.
Some
calculations, not
applied
properly,
limited in scope.
Limited use of
calculations
Does not
include
calculations
Few errors,
well-written,
creative and
strong
esthetics. Some
visuals.
Some errors,
average
creativity and
esthetics.
Meets most
requirements.
Some errors,
lack of
creativity,
lacking
formality. No
visuals.
Many errors,
lacking appeal,
limited
creativity.
Poorly
formatted.
Poorly
proofread,
many errors,
no creativity.