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.

Hi all,In May 2014, Lady M Confections (Lady M) is experiencing explosive growth. Founded in May 2001 in New York City, Lady M opened its first retail location in December 2004, in Manhattan. Rapid growth started in the 2010’s, with Lady M opening additional NYC retail locations in June 2012 and July 2013 and a Los Angeles location in August 2013. This growth so far underscored the success of the specialty bakery, that had also licensed partners in both Singapore and South Korea. Now, founder and CEO Ken Romaniszyn needs to consider both whether a fifth location in the new World Trade Center, to open in early 2015, makes economic sense; and what to make of an investment offer of $10,000,000 and a line of credit in exchange for an ownership stake in Lady M and exclusive franchise rights in the PRC (People’s Republic of China).As stated in the case, Mr. Romaniszyn wants the World Trade Center store to break even in its first year of operation and to be able to payback its investment costs of $1,000,000 in at most five years. Is that possible? Why or why not? Should Lady M have a location in the WTC?As for the investment offer, the core question is how much of Lady M should Mr. Romaniszyn part with in exchange for the capital infusion. Note that this question ought to include considering the value of the exclusive franchising deal in the PRC. Givenyour estimation of the value of Lady M as it stands right now as well as the potential value of the PRC market, and of the capital needs of Lady M ($1,000,000 to open at the WTC, to begin with), should Mr. Romaniszyn accept the offer, and under which conditions?NOTE: while the case has all the necessary data to calculate cash flows and NPVs, use instead the following estimates of free cash flow for 2015 – 2019 and for the terminal value of the firm. In addition, assume a discount rate of 12%, as chosen by Mr. Romaniszyn.20152016201720182019Terminal (2020 - ++)$1,135,000$2,700,000$3,500,000$4,600,000$6,000,000$6,000,000* ((1+ terminal growth rate) / (discount rate – terminal growth rate))ANOTHER NOTE: The two core assumptions that can be explored with the numbers above are the rate of growth and the discount rate. In addition, you should consider what fraction of the terminal value of Lady M might result from the PRC market, and include it in your analyses.You should develop, with your course partner, a one page report on your conclusions about the above. It should be single spaced, with 1” margins, and preferably Times New Roman 12 pt. Please do not exceed the one page limit. You are welcome to add any Appendixes you believe would be useful. Your name(s) and Cornell email address(es) should be printed at the top of the page; along with the title of the case. The report (and appendices) should be hardcopy, and turned in to your TA at the end of class.Important: Please do not copy case wording onto your report! We know what the case says, and you have precious little space for your recommendation.We will spend Wednesday 2/12 class discussing the case. If you are prepared, it should be fun…

Please read the article in The Economist entitled "The Value of Freeing Ideas, Not Just Locking Them Up", which you can read by clicking this link: Open Future - The value of freeing ideas, not just locking them up | Open Future | The Economist (Links to an external site.)Watch the documentary, "Genius on Hold", which is available on Amazon Prime. You may also find it on YouTube or another online platform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X88UhrKd040Relate the article to the documentary, "Genius On Hold" with the article in the Economist. Should AT&T have a claim to the patents in the documentary or not? If so, why? If not, why? Write a 500-1000 words paper and give your opinion of whether you think the current patent system encourages innovation or discourages it.