Effective Business Communication

Effective Business Communication 3360: Project 4

This project entails creating a Written Team Report that you and your team will prepare for a team of executives in the Sales Division at Apple, Inc.(https://www.apple.com/careers/us/sales-and-business-development.html) The goals and purpose of this assignment allow you to demonstrate:

• competence using Excel to create charts and graphs
• strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• effectively interpersonal/team communication skills
• the ability to design and create a professional business report.

Scenario and Requirements:

You are working as part of a sales team for Apple. Your supervisor has asked your team to create a written report and to present, summarize and analyze recent sales data for the company. You’ve also been asked for your report to include at least a single recommendation to the sales division based on the data you present in your report. You and your team will be delivering your written report to an internal audience of Apple sales executives. You should consider this an internal, persuasive document in the format of a report. Your report will need to include at least 3 charts or graphs that summarize some part of the company’s overall financial/sales performance or the performance of individual product groups.

NOTE: You are not expected to summarize and present all of the data on the spreadsheets as part of your report. Only focus on the most important data necessary and related to your specific recommendation(s). Hint: Don’t avoid the bad news (If there is any bad news in the data to report, that could be the basis of your recommendation.)

Here are some potential areas that you and your team could investigate and consider as the focus of your report. However, you are not required to focus on any of these areas, specifically. You and your team will decide what story to tell and what recommendation to make based on your team’s analysis of the data. These are just some suggestions:

• net sales growth from 2013 to 2017.
• top four product groups from 2013 -2017.
• net sales for all product groups from 2015- 2017.
• unit sales by product groups
• a comparison of US to specific foreign market sales

Required Written Report Components:

Your report must include:

• a minimum of 5 pages (including the cover page).
• a Title page with each team member’s name, your company name (Apple, Inc.) https://www.apple.com/, and the date.
• Findings: At least 3 graphs/charts with clear, brief summary of any data you present. (Do not just present a chart without explaining the data on it.)
• Conclusions: This is where you analyze your data/findings. What does the data that you are representing on each slide illustrate about Apple’s overall or individual product sales trends? You must explain the significance of the data and draw some conclusions based on the data you present.
• Recommendation(s): A final page with overall recommendation(s) or recommended options for the team of sales exectives to consider.

Important: Your report must include three key separate sections (each with its own clear header): Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations. No chart or graph should be more than half a page and must be clear and easy to read and interpret. You report should not be less than 5 pages (including a cover page). I don’t expect a lot of text. Be concise. The sales executives prefer clear, direct, concise and thoughtful analysis.

Grading Criteria:

10pts   Title descriptiveness (for each chart/graph you present)

10pts   Clarity of writing

10pts   Information sufficiency

10pts   Conciseness/Ease of processing

10pts   Audience-centered approach

10pts   Spelling/Grammar/punctuation

20pts   Professional appearance and design of overall document

20pts   Clear and correct design of individual charts and graphs

_________________________________________________

100pts Total Points available

ANSWER

Findings

Net sales growth

From the data provided Apple Inc. has been experiencing steady positive sales growth from 2013 when its sales stood at $42.9 billion to 2017 when its sales hit an all-time high of $170 billion. The company defied all pressures to post actual growth of around 50% annually indicating a sales expansion that went largely uninterrupted.

Net income vs net sales

Apple Inc. experienced consistent positive growth in its net income to net sales ratios between 2013 and 2016. However, this growth came to a halt in 2017 when the company posted a 22% increase in the ratio, a decline from 27% the previous year and the first drop in the previous five years.

Total liabilities vs Shareholders equity

The total liabilities to shareholder equity ratio has been fluctuating between 49% and the all-time high of 68% in 2017. This is an indicator as to how much the company has been borrowing against how well it has been building equity for shareholders.

Conclusions

Net sales growth

The net sales growth that the company has been experiencing since 2013 is an indication of the growing popularity of its products globally, which is evident in terms of territory as well as by product category. Growth in sales is especially evident in terms of territory where the far east has experienced phenomenal increases between 2015 and 2017. Greater china (which includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) has witnessed a 100% increase in sales from $12.6 billion in 2015 to $25.4 billion in 2017 powered by increased demand for products among China’s rapidly expanding middle class. Japan has witnessed even more phenomenal growth with sales increasing from $5.4 billion in 2015 to $13.4 billion in 2017 on bundled sales deals that actually subsidized iPhone sales, enabling more Japanese to buy the company’s phones. The mainstay remains the America’s where the company’s sales have grown 64% from $38.3 billion in 2015 to $62.7 billion in 2017, driving the bulk of the sales for the company.

In terms of product category, the company has witnessed a steady growth in demand for iPhones which have grown in popularity to constitute 53% of the company’s product sales in 2017 from 40% in 2015. iPad sales have remained constant, constituting between 18 to 20% of the company’s product sales in the period under review while Mac’s share of sales has continued to decline from 20% in 2015 to 13% in 2017. iPod share of sales are also on the decline from 7% ($7.4 billion) in 2015 to 3% ($4.4 billion) in 2017. This drop is not just a decline in share of sales but also an actual decline in actual sales revenue, indicating a waning popularity for the product which is probably no longer a novelty in the devices and tech space considering the iPhone itself can conduct the iPod’s functions just as effectively.

Net income vs net sales

The net income to net sales ratio suddenly declined in 2017 at a time when the total assets and long term debts also suddenly increased. There is a possibility some acquisitions took place in the year as the company invested in assets critical to its operations such as acquisitions of several cutting edge tech firms around the world. These acquisitions aim at sharpening the company’s edge over rivals in the devices space where it has successfully increased the gap with its rivals. The acquisition, made in debt financing as well as cash payments may have contributed to the decrease in the income to sales ratio evident in 2017.

Total liabilities vs Shareholders equity

The debt to equity ratio assesses the financial leverage that a company has based on its resources. It is an indicator of the extent to which a firm is capable of funding its operations using debt against available cash. This ratio also displays the capacity of shareholder equity to contain the company’s debts if there is a downturn in business.

In the case of Apple Inc., the Debt to Equity ratio hit an all-time high of 68% in 2017, which means that debt now constitutes that proportion of cash available to the business.  Ordinarily this would be a worrying sign, especially if it is a continuous trend of positive growth because it should suggest the company is sinking into debt. However, Apple Inc. also happens to have accumulated the biggest cash reserves during the period owing to stellar performance, a rising share price and almost zero interest bonds that it has issued to get free money from investors. This impressive war chest has increased the company’s leverage to unimaginable levels, such that it can easily acquire any asset it needs at a moment’s notice and invest in any aspect of its businesses with no delays or bureaucratic challenges.

In essence, the company has accumulated long term debts for virtually no interest and converted these into cash reserves that have given it the most incredible leverage in corporate history.

Recommendation

With respect to the net sales growth, this report has a number of recommendations. First, Greater China, Japan and the Far East are promising markets with huge populations. Outside China, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the huge Asian population provides exciting markets that can sustain incredible sales growth. Countries like India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore have stable middle class consumers who have enough income to purchase iPhones. Partnering with telecoms in those countries like the case of Japan would provide smooth entries into great sales avenues. Second, Apple Inc. needs to leverage the European market further to increase sales because this market has been showing the most sluggish growth rates despite its potential. Without a popular European phone to compete with, the iPhone should be dominating the rich market more aggressively than it is doing as of 2017. Third, with the explosive growth occurring in online video and music streaming services, Apple Inc. needs to reposition its iTunes, software and services sales segment which is not contributing as much as expected in sales and which should be the leading source of income due to the shift of consumers from hardware to software based service provision.

With respect to the net income vs net sales, Apple Inc. needs to consider retiring some debts it accumulated during acquisitions considering its huge cash reserves. This decision would be to reduce the country’s exposure in the event of a global economic downturn or unexpected calamity such as a pandemic which can suddenly depress sales and destabilize business.

Finally, with respect to debt equity ratio, the company needs to apply its increased ratio to acquire assets that boost cash income as a way of minimizing debt exposure.  Holding cash reserves that are not being deployed brings an additional cost even if it is just interest rate payments.

To get your original copy of this completed paper, please Order Now