Some suggestions

 Structure  Design  Component (Essential)  Engine  Chassis  Door  Steering wheel  Seats  wheels

 Begin in the design and engineering room  Blueprint  Start assembling the components  Assembly plant  Add the essential parts first  Add unique design features that separates this model from any other model  Test the car for usefulness  Send it for sale

1. develop a framework 1. Prepare a structure of your report 2. Start gathering the components 1. Add the information in each relevant section. Do the calculations, research, analysis 3. Put them all together in a systematic way 1. Start writing the report in a structured format 4. Add unique features to your report 1. Insert charts, graphs, research information, pictures, appendix, references

 if someone gave this report to you, would you read it??  (is it interesting, informative, attractive and understandable?)  What is my main message in this report?  What have I recommended or suggested to be done?  Am I clear about my references, sources and calculations?

 Cover page/ title  Table of content  Introduction  Detailed description  Your findings/analysis  Your conclusion  Appendix  reference

 Write a formal report on your analysis. The report should be in good business reporting format (i.e.,  Title Page;  Introduction;  Discussion;  Summary; and  Statistical Sections

 What type of company is WHSmith.  Where do they do business.  What is their core business.  What are the different sectors they are involved in.

 How have they been doing as a business in the past few years..  How do the different stakeholders see this company.  Discuss how some of the internal and external stakeholders see this company.  Critically appraise published financial information in terms of its quality, applicability to interested parties, and value in terms of the organisation’s planning and/or control function.  mention what limitations this type of information may have.

 Discuss how they present their reports,  How often do they produce reports.  What standards, rules and regulations they follow.  Explain if the accounting standards have influenced the way they present the reports.  Describe the concepts and conventions, using most of the proper language.

 Divide this part into sub-sections.  Do the financial analysis on the major ratios of : Profitability Ratio, Efficiency ratio,Gearing,Liquidity, and Investment (at least 2 in each category).  Only use summary and graphs in this section. Put the detailed ratio calculations in appendix.  For your analysis, explain what the trend is, how the ratio have changed and especially explain why the ratios have changed.  Explain which ratios would be useful for which stakeholder, and the relevance of such analysis in the benchmarking process.  Also, offer a basic interpretation of company performance through consideration of share price, dividends and price/earnings ratios

 Conclude the paper with the answer to the questions:  What do you think will be the future financial condition of the firm? Better than now? Worse than now? Explain why you think so.  What should the company do in the future to improve?

 Details of ratio calculations. Other printout of newspaper articles, reports or analysis you used for reference

 List of books and website used for reference.  Use Harvard Reference method.  Mention at least 2 books, 2 newspapers and 3 websites. More the better. It shows that you have done a lot of research.  Make sure all reference is properly mentioned in your main report too.

 Do not give definitions of the ratios, we all know it already, you can put them in appendix if you want  Put your calculations in appendix. Only the summary and graphs in the main body

 See pdf file!!!

 Profitability  Efficiency  Liquidity  Gearing  Investment

 Ability to make profit  Reduce cost, operating, financing, procuring,  Margins  Gross profit  Operating profit  Net profit  ROE  ROCE

 How liquid the assets are  Do they have enough cash to run business  Acid test  Current ratio

 How efficient they have used their assets and investments  Any waste of resources?  Business cycle management  Stock holding  Debtor collection  Creditor payment

 Amount of loan and can they pay it  Are they paying off debt from the profit?  Debt / equity  Profit /Interest

 What incentives do the investors have?  Do they want to invest in the company  Dividend per share  Dividend payout ratio  Earnings per share (EPS)  PE ratio