Advanced Technology Enterprise Semester Two 2021-2022 (MCEL30012)

Adding Value Assignment 2021/2022 (10 Credit Only)

In this assignment you will analyse a company of your choice. The company ideally
would be relevant to your subject expertise (but this is not compulsory, you can choose
anything within reason) - it’s more important that you work on something you are
interested in!

You are a consultant, who is aiming to give an overview of how well the company is
currently doing, and to suggest what the company could do to improve including a new
idea for adding value. You are reporting to a manager who may not be a specialist in
your area so evidence for your arguments must be provided by way of references.

The most important thing is that you will need to check that you can obtain reliable
information from reliable sources about your chosen company before you start (Feel
free to check with me on your company choice). This includes financial data – make
sure you have access to Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet for 3 (or more) years
either on FAME, Macrotrends, the company website, or elsewhere before you
start as you will need the financial ratios for Part A (If the site you use has already
calculated ratios use these, if not its fine to calculate them yourself from the financial
statements).

Your report should follow the structure indicated below:

Part A - Introduction, Existing Product and Market (10%)

Briefly introduce your reader to the company and its product range. Do they compete on
quality or price (or something else)? where is most value added in their value chain do
you think ? What do they do well/badly?
What market are they operating in? Who are the main competitors and on what basis do
they compete? What is the market size? Who are their customers? Give the reader a
full understanding of where this product currently sits in the market. Please use graphs
and tables where appropriate e.g. showing how the market size has changed over the
last few years, showing the market share of the competitors.

Financial Analysis (30%)

Perform a financial analysis of the company as to its current state using the main
financial ratios to perform a diagnosis (I recommend 8 ratios), what can you infer from
each ratio – are they similar to general or industry norms - and discuss how well the
company is doing and whether there are any issues to address. You may also use non-
standard ratios if appropriate or you notice something of interest. Look back on the last
3-5 years of data to examine any trends and can you link any changes with real world
events. Also compare with 2 other competitor companies in the same industry to
benchmark your company against the rest of the industry and identify any issues or
areas for improvement (any reasonable competitors of your choice considered).
Conclude with any improvements or suggestions for the company based on your
findings. Please show graphs and tables here to illustrate your report. Best way to
present is to show each ratio v time in a graph (including two competitors) and comment
underneath.
Change to existing product (30%)
Describe ONE change you would make to add value within the company. This could
apply to a single product, or it could be a change which applies to the whole company.

For example, you could add value to a product/service in terms of either design, adding
extra features, improved manufacture/delivery, after sales service, marketing, etc (i.e.
anywhere in the value chain is fine). A change that could affect the whole company
could be saving money on deliveries, reducing waste etc. It could be a change that
attracts extra customers (and more revenue), a cost saving, or could make more profit
per item sold.

Fully explain fully how the change would add value and how it could be implemented
within the company and roughly how much it might cost to the company and to the
product itself. The changes should be based on evidence that you have found such as
market research information, information from trade journals, or where a similar way of
adding value has been shown to work elsewhere etc. Is the cost of the change likely to
be outweighed by increase in revenue? (for example, the change could cut costs,
increase sales therefore increasing revenue, generate increased profit per item sold
etc). You might use your financial analysis to generate ideas, but this is not compulsory.
The change can be anywhere in the value chain. The change could affect the whole
company not just one product – that would be fine.

For the best marks, try to suggest how much money the company might generate from
your idea. E,g if it’s a cost saving, how much could be saved per year ? If its adding an
extra feature, how many more people might buy it? If its using better marketing how
many more customers do you think it could generate?

Part B – Finally, chose one of these three options (30%)

(1) The company is looking at its risk management strategy – chose a risk (hazard,
strategic, financial or operational) to analyse by the EMV method;

Probability - The probability of the risk should be determined and explained using
suitable supporting evidence and references. Please express this as a % (per year
or whatever time period you choose)

Potential impact – The potential impact that the risk could have on the company
should be determined and explained. Again, using supporting evidence or
extrapolating from other companies events or data. Please express in monetary
terms (e.g. £ or $) per year or whatever time period you choose.

Overall rating – Using the information on the probability and potential impact the risk
should be rated using EMV for the time period you have chosen.

Potential solutions and strategies to address the risk -This section should discuss
what strategies the company could adopt to address the risk to either minimize the
impact and/or eliminate the risk. Back up with evidence. What methods have other
companies introduced? How much will it cost vs the cost of the risk? Ultimately the best
course of action is that which has the lowest EMV. If you feel countermeasures are too
costly, it would be reasonable to recommend no further action.

OR
(2) Discuss measures you think the business could employ to cut costs in order to
prepare for organic growth (30%). Try to use specific examples here (can see what
other companies in yours and other industries have done for hints) and to
quantify the savings where possible

OR

(3) The company has asked your opinion on how it could finance an ambitious
expansion plan. Use the Beauhurst database to select three different sources of funding
and give your reasons for your choices (30%) *For (3) you must either email the
details of the company to me order to create the list of sources, as only I have
access (which will be in a 2 separate pdf files) and you will need to pick your best three
options and your reasoning behind your choices and overall strategy.

Assignment Length
This assignment should be approximately 4000 words in length (10% more allowed if
needed) excluding appendices, diagrams, graphs, tables etc. If you add an
abstract/executive summary and/or final conclusion, this also won’t count as part of the
wordcount. There is no penalty for a low wordcount, but clearly your report will lack
depth if you are significantly under.

References are required in order for you to add credibility to your arguments and
a report of this type would be expected to contain around 30, although there is no
upper limit. These references are likely to be a mix of academic references, internet
sites, market research databases such as Mintel, Frost and Sullivan, Keynote or even
product comparison sites or blogs. You can also use emails or discussions you may
have had with experts – reference this as “personal communication” with the experts
title and date discussion took place. You can also reference social media if necessary.

Your report will be expected to contain a large number of tables, graphs,

diagrams and references which will not count towards your wordcount.

Through completion of this assignment you will demonstrate:

 An understanding of the concept of added value

 Your ability to identify added value and how the way it is added to the products
 The ability to carry out business research and formulate conclusions and
recommendations based on your findings
 The ability to look at costs in the context of comparing spending to potential gain
from savings or increased sales
 Understand and weigh up risks or identify funding strategies for expanding the
business.
 An ability to research information from a wide variety of sources and synthesise a
strategy based on what you have found.
 An ability to deal with uncertainty by suggesting what might happen in the future
(with regard to risk and adding value) rather than searching for a yes or no
answer.

DEADLINE
The assignment should be submitted electronically via Blackboard before 16.00
on Friday 13th May 2022.

The submission link is on the main page for the BB site for this course. In the
unlikely event that BB site is down when you submit, please send me an email
copy before the deadline (IT services need to verify there was an outage)

If you have mit circs you will need to contact your school as soon as possible, as
unfortunately I am not able to grant extensions. I am happy to agree to any decision
your school makes regarding this.

The 10 credit unit Advanced Technology Enterprise is assessed by:

Individual assignment1 (Adding Value) 100%

Formative work
There are two opportunities for you to have individual feedback on your work via the
consultancy sessions (see lecture timetable on Blackboard). It is expected you will use
both these sessions to improve your work and act on this formative feedback.

BlackBoard submission
In BlackBoard, please upload a copy of your printed work in PDF format. Your work is
marked anonymously so you must give the work a Submission title made up out of
your student ID and the Unit code:

Check that you are completely happy with your document and that you are
submitting the correct version before you submit.

Blackboard will produce an electronic receipt with a unique number which you should
note and retain for your records, as this is proof of your submission.
Instructions on how to submit your work to Blackboard via Turnitin (the online plagiarism
detection software) will be provided in the Blackboard unit space.

Late Penalty
BlackBoard will record the date and time of submission. Work arriving after the deadline
will have a penalty applied. Work handed in over one week late will NOT be marked.

Penalties for late submission:

(i) a penalty of 10 marks will be deducted from the mark for the piece of
assessed work if the work is submitted after the designated deadline but on the
same day of submission;

(ii) a penalty of 10 marks will be deducted from the mark for the piece of
assessed work each day thereafter.

After a week (7 days) a mark of zero will be given. Weekends will count as two
days.

Extensions for Exceptional Circumstances

Please plan your time carefully as extensions to the hand in deadline are only granted
for exceptional circumstances (such as lengthy illness or bereavement). Any event
which could reasonably have been predicted to occur within the assignment period is
not legitimate grounds for an extension (going to parties, days off, working, religious
observance, minor sickness, event attendance or loss of data). Your request for an
extension must be in writing (e-mail) to the mitigating circumstances officer of
your home School. Do not delay. The request must be submitted as soon as you
identify the need for an extension. I am not able to grant extensions.

Please also e-mail your unit lecturer to alert us that you have formally made a request to
your School.

Plagiarism and Referencing

Your assignment demonstrates to the marker your level of understanding and analysis
of the subject. It is essential that the assignment which you hand in is written in your
own words. If you do use even a few words from another source, then you must
reference exactly where the quotation has come from. A quotation must appear
inside ‘quotation marks’ and be followed by a full reference. A full reference is one
that allows the reader to go directly to the precise page in the document that you have
obtained the information from.

Information must never be ‘cut and pasted’ into the body text of your assignment.
Do not start to draft your assignment work by collecting cut and pasted
information into a rough document that you then edit and hand in. This is poor
academic practice and will be heavily penalised.

Each and every table, graph, chart, photograph and diagram, unless created from first
principles by you, must be clearly and fully attributed to the original source.

Unless otherwise indicated, you are expected to work individually on your assignment.
Any assignments which appear to have similarities with each other will lead to
disciplinary action under the University rules. Allowing your own work to be copied is
treated as severely as the act of copying from someone else’s work.

You must not submit any work for assessment that you have previously submitted for
assessment. (This is called self-plagiarism)

You will agree a statement that you understand these rules when you upload your work,
stating that it is all your own material. Your attention is drawn to the University policy
and guidelines on plagiarism:
http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2870

All electronic copies of assignments submitted via Blackboard will be checked for
plagiarism

Feedback
Formative assessment tasks are designed give you an early indication of how well
you are working in the subject area. You will receive feedback, however the mark for
formative work does not get used in calculating the unit final mark.

Summative assignments are marked and feedback is given. The summative mark is
used in calculating the final unit mark.
.
All assignments which are handed in before the deadline will be marked within a target
time of 15 working days from the hand in date. Individual feedback comments and
marks will be made available for you to view in the BlackBoard unit. General
feedback points may be given to the whole class group as a hand out or within a
lecture/ tutorial. These feedback comments are intended to help you to improve your
approach to future work tasks.

It is important to note that the mark awarded is not negotiable. The mark you are
given has been through a strict marking and moderation process. The mark is subject to
further checking and moderation by the external examiner and exam board. Once you
have handed work in, you cannot re-attempt or re-submit an assessment in order to try
to achieve a better mark a second time round.

All MEC staff are willing to meet with students, on request by e-mail, to give brief
personal feedback. This is additional to the written assessed feedback and should be
undertaken no more than 4 weeks from the written feedback being made available.

If you believe that there has been a numerical mistake in the marking of your work you
can e-mail me to request that the assignment be re-checked stating where you believe
the mistake has occurred.

Note: The University of Manchester ‘Policy on Feedback to Undergraduate and

Postgraduate Taught Students’ may be viewed at:
http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=6518

Updated 19.7.21