Individual reports SCENARIO: In this task, you have been engaged as a consultant to conduct a country attractiveness assessment for an Australian lamb producer which is seeking to expand its business offshore. The company has heard about recent changes in trading relationships with the UK so has engaged you to provide advice on this country as a prospective market. The company is intending to expand into foreign markets by exporting via a distributor. This consulting assignment requires you to assess the country's risks and market opportunities your client faces. You should cover the following topics in your report: international trading, economic and social environments. It is important to note: your analysis should focus on those aspects of the environment that are most relevant and useful to your client. In the conclusion of your report, you should make an assessment as to whether the country is potentially an attractive market for your client, based on your analysis. You need to make this recommendation clear to your client. Please remember that you are not making the country selection decision yourself - that is for the company to do. However, you need to provide some of the critical information which will inform that decision. This is a research assignment so the quality of your research effort, as well as how well you analyze and incorporate your data, is critical. You need to ensure you have evidence for the points you are making in the assignment. You will be introduced to the key library sources you are expected to use for your report, and additional resources for each theme will be posted on Canvas. Your report is being used to help inform a business decision so you need to use quality, trustworthy data from reputable sources. It is a requirement to use an appropriate range of library databases that are relevant to your report. For a list, see: https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/market_intel... The class material and discussion each week will provide essential preparation for the report. A special workshop on the report will also be held. Word length: 3000 words excluding references (maximum 3500). Please state the total word count (excluding references) underneath the conclusion to your assignment. The required format/structure is as follows: Your report should consist of an introduction and conclusion (recommendations), as well as sections on each aspect of the business environment specified above, with appropriate sub-headings. A clear structure, as well as a professional and readable writing style, is an important aspect of this task. The report needs to be properly and fully referenced throughout. Please use the style guide recommended by the Business School recommends, i.e. APA 7th Style. For a comprehensive guide see https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/citation/apa... More details on the assignment will be made available on Canvas. You will need to submit your assignment through the Turnitin link “Individual Assignment” provided in Canvas before the due date.  Late penalties apply as specified in the Business School and University policies and procedures: http://sydney.edu.au/business/currentstudents/policy If you have technical problems submitting the report, please contact the ICT Service Desk below: https://sydney.edu.au/students/learning-in-canvas-and-blackboard.html Assessment Criteria 1. Disciplinary knowledge: - Are the appropriate concepts and frameworks from the course applied to the reported scenario? - Is there a high level of understanding shown of the course knowledge/resources? 2. Critical thinking and problem solving - What is the extent and quality of research effort, including use of library databases? - How have the data been selected, interpreted and critically analyzed? - Is the report relevant and useful to the client? 3. Communication (Written) - Is the written expression clear (including accuracy, spelling, grammar, punctuation)? - Is there clear articulation and justification of recommendations and conclusions? - Does the report conform to instructions (e.g. word length, font, other instructions)

Overview As the business in the simulation goes through various generations, it is faced with various external and internal factors that affect its business model in different ways. You may have also made decisions that affected the company’s business strategy including its value proposition, customer segments, revenue models, and other factors. In this journal, you will reflect on these factors and decisions and discuss how the business model changed across generations, and then determine the feasibility of these changes by running them through the BMC framework. Prompt In your journal, reflect on the different BMC segments, such as value propositions, channels, customer relationships, customer segments, revenue streams, key resources, activities, partnerships, and cost structure, and how they affected the decisions made in the simulation and consequently the company’s growth and direction. In this journal, select two BMC segments to use in answering the following questions: BMC segment changes: How have the selected BMC segments changed over the various generations? The effect of decisions: How have your decisions affected the BMC segments? Explore your decisions: How did you come to your decisions? Assess your decisions: Do you believe you made the right decisions in the simulation? Why or why not?

Developing pro forma financial statements and cash flow forecasts depends heavily upon sales forecasts. Imagine you are a financial analyst working for a major stockbroker, and you are trying to develop a one-year sales forecast for a major national department store. List five pieces of information you want to obtain to aid you in your forecast, and explain why they will aid you in your forecast.Now that you have made your best prediction of next year's sales, you will want to estimate next year's cost of goods sold. Pick two pieces of information you definitely want to obtain in order to help you with this task, and explain why they will be helpful.Just do response each posted # 1 to 3 only down below.Posted 1 Good morning class, When making sales forecasts, it's important to have detailed information about a company. For starters, an analyst would want to know how a firm performed in previous years, as a company's past performance is indicative of future performance. He should also like to have data about similar companies: by having this he is better able to judge his company's performance. Additionally, he needs macroeconomic data to contextualize his company's past performance and anticipate the economic conditions for the future year. Information on marketing, and its correlation with sales, would also be useful. Lastly, the analysts should like to have additional information on how the supply and demand for his company's product(s) is expected to change in the coming year. Two useful pieces of information for estimating COGS would be (1) previous COGS and (2) how much inventory (in terms of quantity) the company plans to purchase. Both data points are necessary for forecasting future costs. Posted 2 When predicting the future sales forecast it is important to consider these five things in order to most accurately depict what is to come. One item would be the economy of which your company is participating in and the the health of the market. The conditions will show the amount of money being traded by consumers in the market and if the market will be sustained or in decline. The next item would be the sales returns in allowances that shows the companies ability to maintain a sale. The next would direct cost as this shows the amount of cost related to the sales to determine part of the gross margin that helps in determining financial standing. Another would be demand sustainability as if the company can maintain the demand of the product or if they are over producing causing a stagnate inventory this could also be looked at through the inventory turnover. Lastly look in the selling price per unit to depict the potential money to be made of each sale and the price compared to the market. To determine the potential COGS you first have to look into historical data that will have a percentage to base the potential of future cost. Another factor would be to look an inventory and fluctuation of the cost of the raw materials that make up the material. As the industry and the economy change the cost will fluctuate.Posted 3 Ff I was a financial analyst, in order to better forecast the sales of next year, I would want to obtain data on competitors within the industry, economic conditions, historical data, the company's budget, and different trends in sales. Obtaining data regarding competitors will help in comparing one company to the other; possibly using one as a benchmark. Monitoring economic conditions will allow a company to see any increases or decreases in supply and demand as well as other circumstances such as interest rates and more. Historical data is probably the first source in forecasting. This is concrete data that is readily available and describes the past. Knowing the company's budget and what they can spend determines what they are capable of (to an extent) in the future. Lastly, looking at trends in sales can put a company in a better position to project future sales. They can look at the percentage increases or decreases that have happened in the past. In order to predict next year's cost of goods sold, the pieces of information that I would want are manufacturing costs as well as salary and wages. Some employees may get raises so knowing this information can help in estimating cost of goods sold. Additionally, being familiar with manufacturing costs or how much the manufacturer is going to raise or lower prices is a good determinant in accurate forecasting. Knowing this type of information will better suite management in forecasting the future.