ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

1.1 Reasons for Selecting Topic
There can be many reasons for performing a research. I was in search of topic related with numbers and
calculations as my course framework covers subjects related to finance. Hence after having experience
of many papers I can say that I like to play with numbers like rations calculations and then commenting
on the results. After careful examination I discovered the topic “ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS AND
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE” most interesting. Dealing with ratios and financial performance is not an
easy task but my real aim is to make those numbers meaningful and valuable.
1.2 Reasons for selecting Morrisons PLC
After selecting the topic for research analysis project the thing which was left was to select an
organization for researching. For that purpose I had to analyze firstly which of the industry in UK
generates revenues for the economy. On getting the findings it was discovered that retailing sector in UK
is the dynamic sector and has a major contribution towards the economy. It is a source of employment,
livelihood, and satisfaction for the people. Hence I decided to select the company from the retailing
industry for the project. I want to work on a organization which is surrounded with high level of completion
with other firms. After careful evaluation I decided to choose Next PLC for the research. Currently the
organization is surviving with the changing market conditions hence it will be exciting to go with the
company.
Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer (M&S) is a key British retailer Multinational which has its own headquarter in City of
Westminster, London. The company specializes in the selling of home products, clothing, and luxury
products of food. M&S was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884 at Leeds. The
company became the first retailer of Britain to make a pre-tax profit over £ 1 billion in 1998. Subsequently
the company went into slump which took its shareholders, including hundreds of thousands of small
investors of the company and nearly all analysts of retail and journalists of business, by surprise. But the
company came up quickly and steadily due its value driven business operations and activities that took
company towards success (MARKS AND SPENCER Annual report 2013). Marks and Spencer is
committed to delivering standards of quality excellently as well as consistently with a value aiming to be
delivered exceptionally to its customers. Mission of company is to provide new quality products in
clothing, food, home as well as financial services’ areas and delivering of high quality goods. It offers
affordable prices and this is also its aim in order to provide customers with good value for their money.
ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
1.3 Aims & Objectives
The major aim of the study is to analyze the business and financial performance of the Morrisons PLC. It
can be source of useful information for the potential and existing shareholders and stakeholders of the
organization. For that following objectives are been laid down:
To offer the shareholders of Morrisons an overview of the financial and business performance for
making effective investment decisions
To compare Morrison with the competitor Marks & Spencer plc. to evaluate performance, both
financially and from business strategy perspective
To recommend actions for improvements in business of the Morrisons.
Hence for the achievement of the above objectives I applied the technique of ratio analysis to figure
out the financial performance. I also used the financial information of the competitor so that effective
comparison can be made between the two companies. On the other side for the purpose of the
business analysis techniques of SWOT, PESTEL and PORTER were used. Hence it can be said that
these methods and techniques will definitely help in analyzing the performance of the company
efficiently.
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PART 2 INFORMATION GATHERING AND ACCOUNTING/BUSINESS TECHNIQUES
There is no problem in obtaining the financial information and data for the project as Morrisons is a listed
company in FTSE. For this study information is collected from the secondary sources.
2.1 Sources of Information
Financial statements
Audited financial statements are the great source of financial information through which the data can be
used for the evaluation. Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement were used to
determine the financial ratios. These documents were compiled from corporate websites of both the
organizations. Along with the statements of directors were also used to examine the business strategy
with the results derived by the entity.
2.2 METHOD USED TO COLLECT INFORMATION
Databases
Databases such as FAME 2, ONESOURCE and RDS have been used in British Library.
Library
Acquiring information and facts from the online sources is not enough completely. To fulfil that it is
essential to visit the library. There I used the company research journal, business and strategic analysis
books. Libraries in college and residential areas and British library was visited frequently to gain the
learning.
Miscellaneous research
It is important that to perform the research one should make use of authentic and reliable information
sources. Online search engines were used to derive the financial information and business data for the
related organizations and also I faced the difficulties in filtering out the valuable information from the data
set. Some people believed that online source have the negative reputation because of the absence of
reliability and validness. Keeping this into mind I tried to maintain the ethical framework throughout the
study and data is gathered from trustable sources. Hence in order to fulfill this information is taken from
the official websites of the company. Meaningful outcomes have been made from the facts provided by
the directors. Information through the internet is the most common technique of grasping the knowledge
in the research analysis project.
Reflective statement
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The project was about the analysis of business and financial performance of the Morrisons. The learning
from the project was the assessing the criteria for the selection of the organization. The objective of the
project was to provide the overview on the financial performance of the Morrisons and the comparative
analysis of the organization. From the comparison of the skill of the analysis has been enhanced for
providing the qualitative information to the shareholder of the organization. For the determination of the
purpose of the business the techniques are applied of SWOT, PESTEL and PORTER for efficiency in the
analysis and making it more purposeful. The information of the research of the selected entity in the
project is done from the published audited financial statement of the organization, printed and online
articles about the organization and the books are referred. For the qualitative research the primary data is
utilized and limited secondary data is utilized. The limitation of the secondary is because the data is
modified according to the user, so data is relatively less authentic comparative to the primary data. For
the financial analysis of the organization and for the better presentation the figures and the trends are
represented through the graphs. The comparison for the financial information is done with organization M
& S simultaneously with the data of the previous years. The simultaneous comparison makes it easy for
the user especially the share holders to take decision about the investment whether to hold or to take out
the fund from the organization. Evaluation of the market position is done to determine the growth and the
market share captured by the firm. It includes the description of the strategies adopted by the Morrisons
for the expansion of the business and the success by the adoption of those policies.
References
Ahrendsen, B.L. and Katchova, A.L. 2012. Financial ratio analysis using ARMS data. Agricultural
Finance Review. 72(2). pp.262–272.
Argouslidis, C. P., 2008. Determinants of the speed of elimination decision making in financial
services. Journal of Services Marketing. 22(3). pp.237 – 254.
Arnold, G., 2005. Corporate Financial Management. 3rd ed. Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
Atrill, P. and McLaney, E., 2008. Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists. 6th ed. Financial
Times/Prentice Hall.
Bragg, M. S., 2010. Accounting Best Practices. 6th ed. John Wiley & Sons.
Brigham, F. E. and Ehrhardt, C. M., 2011. Financial Management: Theory and Practice. 8th ed.
Cengage Learning.