BBI2O0 Introduction to Business
Independent Project
The “Business Research” independent project is a mandatory part of the course. It counts for half of the
summative (final) evaluation and is worth 15% of the final mark. (The in class exam counts for the other half.)
Some of the work for this project will be class time, however, you will be expected to do some of the work on
your own time. The projects will look similar to each other only in that they will have the same content. The
originality and display will be representational of the effort and imagination that is put into the project.
How Will It Work?
Everyone will choose a multinational company that is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, NYSE or Nasdaq.
Your assignment over the last weeks will be to investigate your company and then begin to play the role of a
financial analyst who is charged with the responsibility of writing a corporate profile report that justifies a buy,
sell, or hold recommendation for a client interested in investments. The display will be a culmination of all of
the research that you have done on your company. As part of your display for the project, you will produce a
PowerPoint that contains research and analysis of the company. You will research the company’s history,
their people, their products and their financial situation. We will do the project in several parts:
Part 1: Corporate Profile Outline
A corporate profile outline to follow and begin to gather some basic facts related to your
corporation.
Part 2: Data Gathering
Gathering data and information related to your selected corporation’s products, markets and
customers.
Part 3: Finances
Compiling shareholder information and data related to their corporation’s income statement
and balance sheet. Analyzing the information in order to assess the company’s current and
projected profitability.
Part 4: Public Image
Is your company a good neighbour? Here, you will gather information and data related to your
corporation’s treatment of the environment, women, minorities, and the family; its position
on workplace issues; its relationship with the community; and how it communicates to the
public. You will analyze the information and assign either a pass or fail grade to the
corporation in regards to how well it treats others and the community.
Part 5: Project Preparation and Presentation
You will prepare your PowerPoint, with all of the information that you may wish to include
and present it in the last week of classes.
Evaluation:
Everyone will be evaluated on the day of their presentation using the rubric that is attached. Refer to it as you
go through the project to help maximize your mark.
BBI2O0 Introduction to Business
Independent Project
Part 1 - The Corporate Profile Outline
Instructions
You are a financial analyst who specializes in ethical investments. You have been asked by one of your clients
to produce a presentation profiling a leading corporation. The purpose of your profiling research is to provide
you with enough facts to recommend that your client sell, buy (more), or hold the corporation’s stock.
Your company has a standard format for research that you must follow. There are five (5) parts for you to
complete before you begin to prepare your presentation. You must submit your research using a word
processor. Use bulleted lists where appropriate, full sentences everywhere else. Some of the information you
gather is repeated in more than one section of your profile for the sake of clarity and easy reading.
Use this outline as a checklist. Pay attention to all details. Remember that eventually, all or most of this
information is going to be displayed on your webpage, so always try to think about how it will eventually look
for the public (and gather images as you go).
Corporate Fact File (a good place to start your research is google finance or yahoo finance or even Wikipedia
might have the info you need for this part)
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Company Name
Web Address
Corporate (Global) Head Office Address
Year Founded
Primary Industry Sector - find on google finance
Main Product(s)
Chief Executive Officer (Name) - find the company 2013 Annual Report or on website Investor
Relations Section or About Us
Board of Directors (Names, Position) if there are many, look for a familiar name(s), state how many
people are on the board. No need to name all the directors, pick 2 or 3 impressive ones. Found in
Annual Report as well.
Number of Employees Worldwide (by country if possible)
BBI2O0 Introduction to Business
Independent Project
Part 2 - Data Gathering and Product Profiles
Part 2 of the project is gathering data and information related to your selected corporation’s products,
markets and customers.
You should now research:
1.
Products and/or services - what does your company sell mostly. If it sells many similar things, pick
one or two to research. What is the price of these products for consumers? Is the product a
necessity or a luxury. Get some images.
2.
Markets - where in the country / region / world are your country’s products sold and or produced.
If your company is very transnational(everywhere in the world), try to pick 4 or 5 interesting
locations and be specific what they do there (sales, manufacturing etc.)
**Remember: always be thinking about how you are going to use this information as part of your
webpage. Keep gathering pictures.
BBI2O0 Introduction to Business
Independent Project
Part 3 – Finances
This part of the project involves gathering information on your company’s finances, compiling shareholder
information and data related to your corporation’s income statement and balance sheet. Analyzing the
information in order to assess the company’s current and projected profitability.
Items to include in the “Finances” part of your project:
1) Charts or graphs on your company’s past performance (and, if possible, their projected future
performance.) check google or yahoo finance or their annual report. Then use the snipping tool to
get the image
2) Does your company have different divisions (Eg. Men's/Women's/Children's Clothing OR
Cars/Trucks/Hybrids). Try to find the sales of each of these divisions or an idea of how large each of
these divisions is. Results might be in a graph or might be in numbers. Check the income statement in
the Sales or Revenues or in the annual report
3) Dividends paid out recently and in the past. Check google finance - we've seen the "D" on the
graph in class.
Every public company must make their financial statement available to the general public. Most are posted on
the company website. You will have to look around their website to track down the financial statement. Look
for links like:
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Investor information
Annual report
Google – “Apple Consolidated Balance Sheet 2013” or “Sony Consolidated Balance Sheet 2013”
The TSX website and most company websites will give viewers graphs to show financial trends.
Incorporating graphs into your project is a great way for people to see your company’s performance. For
example, here is the Magellan Aerospace trend for the last year. It gives a lot of information and it is easy to
follow. A variety of graphs, short term and long term are ideal
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Part 4 – Is your company a good neighbour?
Social Responsibiltiy
Your Company’s website should provide some information on what they do to give back to the
communities in which they operate. Do they have a foundation with many activities, or do they focus
their efforts on one main charity (eg. Heart Research, Children’s diseases, Cancer etc).
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Do employees rank them highly as an employer? What types of perks do employees get? Google
surveys like “Best companies to work for 2013” also the site "glassdoor.com" shows how employees
rate many businesses. Best to search for "Ford employee Reviews" and then click on the glassdoor
link
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Is there any BAD PRESS on the internet about your company (using sweatshops?, damaging
environment? Treating employees poorly?) Look into the company’s past, info doesn’t have to be
recent.
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Again, gather images.
PowerPoint Final Check...
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Compile your research into a properly formatted PowerPoint
Use as many features as possible (animation, transitions, music, download and insert a video file)
Your Final Advice slide should suggest your opinion on BUY, SELL or HOLD and be the 2nd last slide
Your last slide should be your sources listed - Should have at least 3
Prepare yourself for a 5 minute presentation – know some of your information by heart, use cue cards
to help