Internal report on PB
Research based on the company British Petroleum and write a business report on it.
Format
1 Intro
Which market(s) is the organization operating in? Identification of major SBUs
How does the organization make its money? Think outside the obvious – look at past examples of practice.Provide some information about the company and answer what industry it belongs to.
3 marks
2 Financial analysis – with conclusions (you should identify the core competence (CC) and unique resources (UR) as you do this section).
A full financial analysis is required including a segmentation analysis. Look at the examples of good practice for the level of detail. Remember to use industry specific ratios where relevant.You do not need to calculate the ratios, you can use good quality sources (listed below) to get the ratios. Your job is to interpret the values in the ratios and explain why the company got that value. Please see the example of good practice to gain a further understanding of what is required here.You must cover a five year period.Remember industry averages are essential in this section.Please look at how many marks are allocated to this section, you must produce a professional financial analysis at level 6, year 3. Remember it is the story behind the numbers that gets you the high marks. 10 marks for 5 year financial analysis – it’s the story behind the numbers that gets you the high marks, 5 marks for the segmentation analysis, 5 marks for the competitor analysis. 10 marks for a five year financial analysis with supporting information to explain the trends,Good sources: Google Finance, company annual reports, case study, Financial Times, 20 marks
3 Marketing analysis – with conclusions (you should identify the core competence and unique resources as you do this section). Cover price, product, place and promotions (these four Ps are required).
For extra marks can you see how much they spend on promotion (advertising)? Can you find out where they are positioned on the brand league tables? Many web sites offer brand league tables, so have there been any changes?. When you discuss pricing, what is the type of pricing applied known as? Provide an example to support what you have stated.
Remember: any information you use must be evidenced. Please note that the marketing analysis is not the same as the market analysis! One example of a good source http://brandirectory.com/league_tables
5 marks
4 HRM analysis – with conclusions (you should identify the core competences and unique resources in this section). Core values, skills, change in management, pay, additional compensation, culture, number of employees, recruitment and company structure are all important aspects of this section. You must also include a corporate governance section.
Good sources: http://www.bestcompanies.co.uk/Lists/BestCompaniesLists.aspx
and www.glassdoor.com to find out if it is a good company to work for and average pay extra for extra marks.
5 marks
5 Operations analysis
with conclusions (you should identify the core competences and unique resources in this section).This is a difficult section and you must discuss how the organizations operations create value. You can use the value chain or value system (or both) to help you here. If you like you can draw it. The important thing to discuss here is which categories of activities best describe the operations of the organization. Which of these categories are most significant in delivering the strategy and achieving advantage over competitors. Also you must discuss what business model they use? What form of integration? What are the key value adding activities? Remember this must be company specific so the evidence you use will be about the company you are analyzing. You must decide what type of model is required here. Only use the appropriate one!Good sources: company annual reports, investor relations website.5 marks
6 Strengths and weaknesses
(S&W)– prioritised and distinctive competences / unique resources Should come from your own analysis – everything you list must come from your own finance, operations, HRM and marketing sections – nothing new should be introduced here. List 5 in each section, i.e. 5 strengths and 5 weaknesses.For each S&W you should use a footnote to signpost the marker where this has come from (see examples of good practice). You could add the page number to be very clear that this comes from your own work.Good source: your own internal analysis, nothing else!