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Accounting for Management M 5011
SP2 2023
Problem solving assignment
Learning Objectives addressed in this assessment:
CO1: Apply basic accounting principles and concepts in order to understand what accounting
information is, what it means and how it is used;
CO2: Explain the significance of accounting information in the business environment;
CO3: Read and interpret financial reports and apply knowledge to critically analyse
corporate financial and non-financial information.
Graduate Qualities developed by this assessment:
GQ1: You need to operate effectively upon fundamental accounting practical knowledge;
GQ2: You are prepared for lifelong learning and professional practice;
GQ3: You are working to be an effective business related problem solver;
GQ4: You can work autonomously and independently;
GQ5: You are committed to ethical action & social responsibility for business activities.
GQ6: You can communicate effectively in written language.
This assessment involves two parts: 1) a written business consultation report (80%); 2) an oral
presentation of your consultation report to Company A (20%). Your total marks for this
assessment will be based on the successful completion of both tasks.
This assessment can be completed individually, or in a group of no more than two students
(These two students must enrol in the same class so as to complete the oral task together).
Context:
You have recently joined Business Smart, a finance and business consultation firm. Your
manager Mr. James Brown will be taking family leave. He has asked you to prepare a
consultation report for an important client, Company A, before he returns on 21 April 2023.
Company A sells food and household products, many of which are essential products for
consumers’ daily life. Company A recently announced the appointment of a new Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) – Ms Alice Lee. Alice reviewed the recent annual report and raised
some questions on both financial and non-financial performance of the company. To obtain a
fuller picture of the company’s financial health, Alice decided to conduct a comprehensive
investigation and analysis on the company’s financial performance and risk in the past three
years. In particular, this review aims to provide a better understanding of how Company A’s
financial performance is benchmarked against other rivals with similar profiles in the food
industry. Company A considers this analysis very important and timely in assisting the new
CEO to set out new plans for its future performance development.
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In addition, Alice noticed that Company A has recently gone through increasing public
scrutiny on its non-financial, especially sustainability, performance. Investors and
shareholders constantly query the company’s social and environmental related impacts and
the potential financial implications associated with these impacts. As a response, several
board members proposed to increase and improve the company’s reporting on sustainability
performance at recent board meetings. However, a few board members disagreed because
they were concerned about the risk associated with the negative impact of providing such
reporting. Given the current economic downturn, high energy cost and low consumer
confidence caused by the Pandemic, they argued that the company should focus on business
and profit growth in this difficult time. The issue is pending for Alice to resolve.

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Report submission:
a) This report must be submitted online. Hard copies are not accepted.
b) This report can be completed individually or in a pair of two students. If the report is
completed by two students, only one student needs to make the final submission. This is
to avoid a high similarity result in Turnitin if two submissions are identical. The selection
of companies can follow any student’s name in the team.
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c) Please submit one single Word document only (any pdf file is not acceptable). On the title
page, clearly indicate student name(s) and ID(s).
d) You may ask your lecturer/tutor for help while completing this report, but they will only
answer general questions and will not ‘check’ your answers. You may only discuss this
assignment with other students at a general or conceptual level, that is, you may talk
about the issues, not the details.
e) You should not prepare your report together with other students or teams, nor should you
compare your final answers with other students or teams. It is not acceptable to share files,
templates, or electronic versions of assignment questions with other students or teams. To
ensure Academic Integrity, all submissions will be checked through Turnitin databases
which include online publications, internet resources and past student submissions.
f) Remember, your report must be all your own work. If you present material that is not all
your own work, you have engaged in academic dishonesty which is taken very seriously
and dealt with very severely. Please refer to the Academic Integrity section on the
Learnonline course website.
g) Report submission due date: Friday, 21 April 2023 @ 11am
2. Present your report to Company A
(1) Attend a simulated Board meeting of Company A which will occur in class in Week 7 and
brief the CEO and the Board of Directors (a role play) your key findings and
recommendations from your written report.
a) The brief should be concise but precise. In no more than 3 minutes, you need to
summarise what you have done and found for Company A, and what main issues you want
to raise or what recommendations you want to make to the Board of Directors.
b) Presentation slides or handouts are not required. If you decide to use them, please keep
them as short as possible in order not to divert the Board’s attention away from your key
points.
(2) Based on your report, the CEO and the Directors may ask you 2-3 questions, seeking
some clarity either on the main points you presented, or on your analysis in the report.
The focus of this Board meeting is on your report to Company A. All questions asked will be
on the report that you have submitted and nothing outside of this. Therefore, you are expected
to thoroughly know your report and be confident in presenting and answering questions about
it.
If the report is written individually, you will present and answer all questions during this oral
defence process. If the report is completed by a pair of students, you can decide who will do
the briefing (either one or two of you can do this). However, each student will be asked
questions and therefore needs to prepare for answering questions on your report.
Please read the marking rubrics to understand the criteria used to assess this assignment.