Management information system
Chapter 2 Runing Case Assignment: Analyzing Financial Performance
Software skills: Spreadsheet charts and formulas
Business skills: Financial statement analysis
As part of your analysis of the company for management, you have been asked to analyze data on Dirt Bikes’s financial performance. Review Dirt Bikes’s selected financial data in the Introduction to Dirt Bikes, which can be found at the Laudon Web site. There you will find Dirt Bikes’s income statement and summary balance sheet data from 2010 to 2012, annual sales of Dirt Bikes models between 2008 and 2012, and total domestic versus international sales between 2008 and 2012.
Use your spreadsheet software to create graphs of Dirt Bikes’s sales history from 2008 to 2012 and its domestic versus international sales from 2008 to 2012. Select the type of graph that is most appropriate for presenting the data you are analyzing.
Use the instructions at the Laudon Web site and your spreadsheet software to calculate the gross and net margins in Dirt Bikes’s income statements from 2010 to 2012. You can also create graphs showing trends in selected pieces of Dirt Bikes’s income statement and balance sheet data if you wish. (You may want to rearrange the historical ordering of the data if you decide to do this.)
Prepare an addition to your management report that answers these questions:
• What are Dirt Bikes’s best- and worst-performing products? What is the proportion of domestic to international sales? Have international sales grown relative to domestic sales?
• Are sales (revenues) growing steadily, and, if so, at what rate? What is the cost of goods sold compared to revenues? Is it increasing or decreasing? Are the firm’s gross and net margins increasing or decreasing? Are the firm’s operating expenses increasing or decreasing? Is the firm heavily in debt? Does it have assets to pay for expenses and to finance the development of new products and information systems?
Software skills: Spreadsheet charts and formulas
Business skills: Financial statement analysis
As part of your analysis of the company for management, you have been asked to analyze data on Dirt Bikes’s financial performance. Review Dirt Bikes’s selected financial data in the Introduction to Dirt Bikes, which can be found at the Laudon Web site. There you will find Dirt Bikes’s income statement and summary balance sheet data from 2010 to 2012, annual sales of Dirt Bikes models between 2008 and 2012, and total domestic versus international sales between 2008 and 2012.
Use your spreadsheet software to create graphs of Dirt Bikes’s sales history from 2008 to 2012 and its domestic versus international sales from 2008 to 2012. Select the type of graph that is most appropriate for presenting the data you are analyzing.
Use the instructions at the Laudon Web site and your spreadsheet software to calculate the gross and net margins in Dirt Bikes’s income statements from 2010 to 2012. You can also create graphs showing trends in selected pieces of Dirt Bikes’s income statement and balance sheet data if you wish. (You may want to rearrange the historical ordering of the data if you decide to do this.)
Prepare an addition to your management report that answers these questions:
• What are Dirt Bikes’s best- and worst-performing products? What is the proportion of domestic to international sales? Have international sales grown relative to domestic sales?
• Are sales (revenues) growing steadily, and, if so, at what rate? What is the cost of goods sold compared to revenues? Is it increasing or decreasing? Are the firm’s gross and net margins increasing or decreasing? Are the firm’s operating expenses increasing or decreasing? Is the firm heavily in debt? Does it have assets to pay for expenses and to finance the development of new products and information systems?