Posted: September 13th, 2017

Informational Reports

Informational Reports

Message Strategies: Informational Reports
The partners in your accounting firm have agreed to invest some of the company’s profit in the stock market. A previous effort identified two leading companies in each of four different industries:
1.    Boeing; Lockheed Martin (aerospace, defense)
2.    Hewlett-Packard; Dell (computers and software)
3.    Barnes & Noble; Amazon (retailing)
4.    UPS; FedEx (delivery and logistics)
The partners have already done an in-depth financial analysis of all 8 firms, and they have asked you to look for more qualitative information, such as:
a.    Fundamental philosophical differences in management styles, launch and handling of products and services, marketing of products and services, and approach to e-commerce that sets one rival company apart from the other
b.    Future challenges that each competitor faces
c.    Important decisions made by the two competitors and how those decisions affected their company
d.    Fundamental differences in each company’s vision of its industry’s future (for instance, do they both agree on what consumers want, what products to deliver, and so on?)
e.    Specific competitive advantages of each rival
f.    Past challenges each competitor has faced and how each met those challenges
g.    Strategic moves made by one rival that might affect the other
h.    Company success stories
i.    Brief company background information
j.    Brief comparative statistics, such as annual sales, market share, number of employees, number of stores, types of equipment, number of customers, sources of revenue, and so on
Your task: Select two competitors from the preceding list, or choose two companies in the same industry on your own, and write a long formal informational report comparing how the two companies are addressing the topics outlined by the partners. The partners will invest in only one of the two companies in your report.
Requirements: All the sources used have to be creditable and reliable, from data base and books only; online resources from websites of .edu, .gov, or .org. only are preferred. One of the resources has to be a face-to-face interview.