Business Strategy and Finance (Hospitality and Tourism) Assignment, Bournemouth University

Rationale:   

You are working as an investment consultant and have been given the following brief by potential investors:
We are interested in investing in a company as per the list in Table 1 below at the end of the Brief section. Please prepare a report on a company of your choice from this list. We have five main questions:

• What is the background to this company?
• Is the strategic direction of the company sound, now and for the future?
• Will the nancial performance of the company give the investor a good return?
• Does the company behave responsibly in terms of its business practice?
• Should we invest? Why?

The report must be a ‘management report’ bringing together research and analytical skills on corporate strategy and nancial performance combining to produce a considered investment recommendation based on that analysis.
Your report will have an Executive Summary and four key sections:

• Section A. Strategic Analysis of Company Position and direction including:
• Section B. Financial Analysis
• Section C. Critical evaluation of strategic position in the context of business ESG practice
• Section D. Investment Recommendation with rationale

You are not required to be positive and ‘sell’ the company chosen unless you feel that this is appropriate. You are, however, required to provide a balanced and objective analysis of its current and near term future state and strategies and give an investment recommendation.

You must, where appropriate, employ (or develop) analytical tools to assist in the interpretation, explanation and communication of the information. 

We are keen to see where you have got your information from and therefore would be grateful if you could reference your work using Bournemouth University Harvard referencing.

Brief:  

Students are required to undertake an individual investment recommendation of a company using financial and strategic analysis. The company must be selected from the list provided in Table 1 below.
Students should take the role of a 'business analyst/investment consultant' who is employed to provide a financial and strategic analysis and use this to make an investment recommendation for potential investors interested in the sector.

Students should be able to identify and gain access to materials from secondary research only. You are not allowed to approach the companies directly or contact them in any other way.

Overview of the assignment

A report is a formal form of written communication. It is normally written in the third person and should set out your response to the brief. Normally a business report will have the following sections:

• Title Page 
• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• List of any abbreviations
• Introduction (this outlines how you are responding to the brief) and introduces the company context
• The main body of the report

            External Analysis
            Internal Analysis
            Financial Analysis

• Summary of Strategic Position including Critical evaluation of strategic position in the context of business ESG practice 
• Investment Recommendation
• Concluding Rationale
• References (according to the Bournemouth University Harvard referencing system)

Appendices (this includes information of specic relevance to the report. It is not a dumping ground for vaguely related material. Everything in the appendices should be reference to from the main body of the report).