Archive for category: Business paper

Mini-Case 9-2 (Chapter 9)

Exxon Mobil ( XOM) is one of the half- dozen major oil companies in the world. The firm has four primary operating divisions ( upstream, downstream, chemical, and global services) as well as a number of operating companies that it has acquired over the years.

A recent major acquisition was XTO Energy, which was acquired in 2009 for $ 41 billion. The XTO acquisition gave Exxon Mobil a significant presence in the development of domestic unconventional natural gas resources, including the development of shale gas formations, which was booming at the time. Assume that you have just been hired to be an analyst working for ExxonMobil’s chief financial officer.

Your first assignment was to look into the proper cost of capital for use in making corporate investments across the company’s many business units.

a. Would you recommend that Exxon Mobil use a single company- wide cost of capital for analyzing capital expenditures in all its business units? Why or why not? b. If you were to evaluate divisional costs of capital, how would you go about estimating these costs of capital for Exxon Mobil? Discuss how you would approach the problem in terms of how you would evaluate the weights to use for various sources of capital as well as how you would estimate the costs of individual sources of capital for each division.

Business processes and requirements

Produce Role Activity Diagrams for the given scenario. You should produce two distinct models, one of the current (as-is) process, as described, and one to illustrate your suggested revised process (which will incorporate an IT system). Produce Volere templates, UML Use Case diagrams and SysML Requirements diagrams for the given scenario Business briefing document Produce a professional business document briefing the business owner on

Respond to the questions and complete the problems. Questions In a Word document, respond to the following. Number your responses 1–3. Describe the rights and advantages belonging to shareholders Explain the differences between the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Which is a better measure of stock market performance? Why? Describe the differences between common stock and preferred stock. Use references to support your responses as needed. Be sure to cite all references using correct APA style. Your responses should be free of grammar and spelling errors, demonstrating strong written communication skills.

Standing the Behaviour Finance view presentation of a research article: Anchoring on Credit Spreads (focus on anchoring!!!) 15-20 slides, plus the explanation notes The presentation of a research article should be at least including: • Introduction—summarise what you are going to say and explain the rationale of the article

• Background (Literature Review)—introduce necessary terms (illustrate complex ones with examples); state the hypotheses and theoretical arguments • Methodology—briefly describe the main methodology

• Data—a brief summary of the data utilized by the study • Main results—identify the main results and conclusions. Incorporate subsequent research findings – confirming or contradicting the review paper • Conclusions—summarise what you have said; point out any limitations of the study; make any recommendations for future work (these limitations and/or recommendations are not necessarily stated explicitly in the article). What do we learn from the paper? What are the major strengths and weaknesses of the paper?

Branding and Marketing Communications Background: Knorr is the world’s 9th biggest food brand which has been used and trusted by millions of cooks across 87 markets. The Knorr cooking products range from stock cubes, soups, sauces to cooking chocolate. It is a trusted brand with a heritage stretching back 187 years. Globally, there has been a surge in interest in food so it could be argued that there never was a better time to be a food brand. The traditional category approach to marketing communications, of ‘mum cooking food for the kids’, might have appealed in the past but a different approach is needed for consumers today. Task: 1. Conduct some research into this brand – company, markets, products, sales etc. 2. Write an introduction to the essay where you provide the context for this global brand – the markets, the products, its sales etc. 3. Identify the key consumers of the brand. What are their characteristics? What part does this brand play in the lives of consumers who purchase this brand? 4. Discuss the approach to the positioning of the brand. What alternatives could they have taken? 5. Discuss how this brand advertises – on-line or offline or combinations. 6. Critically evaluate the marketing communication used by this brand. To what extent is it using integrated marketing communication using a range of digital and traditional tools? 7. Identify any circumstances which might have an impact on the effectiveness of the messages. 8. Briefly, evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing communications in achieving brand objectives. (It would be good to identify those brand objectives here first!). You may find it helpful to refer to particular campaigns such as the ‘Knorr: Love at first taste’ campaign as evidence. 9. REMEMBER THIS IS AN ESSAY Notes: 1. The essay should be 1500 words +/- 10% – excluding tables, charts, pictures, contents page, appendices and references. 2. The essay should follow the traditional pattern of introduction, main body of the essay and conclusion or summary. 3. DO NOT NUMBER or LABEL SECTIONS – as this would make it a report!!! 4. Please use paragraphs throughout – and do space between each paragraph. 5. Harvard referencing is to be used. 6. The numbering of each section in the brief above is there as a guide for you – do not number your paragraphs. 7. You can access some useful facts and figures on the ‘Knorr: Love at first taste’ campaign on the WARC site which you can access through the Sussex University library – electronic sources. 8. Why not have a look in a supermarket for the products of the brand.