Work Report Submission Checklist for Laurier Co-op Students

Please submit your work report electronically on Web CT. (Exception: MABE and MBA Co-op students, please send your report to Laurie Lahn.)

Your submission is subject to Lauriers regulations related to Academic and Research Misconduct.

Note: Incomplete submissions or those made after the due date are normally not eligible to be considered for a work report award and may affect your status in the Co-op Option.

My name:

Prashant Khorana

My supervisors name:

Pam Wilkinson

Please download this form, insert an X beside the appropriate option and submit the form with your report.

__X__ My supervisor has reviewed my work term report and has authorized me to release it to other co-op students.

_____ My supervisor has reviewed my work term report and has declared the contents confidential. After my co-op co-ordinator has reviewed my report, it may not be released to other co-op students.

_____ My supervisor has not yet reviewed my work term report. I have informed my co-op co-ordinator of the situation, and I have confirmed an alternate date with my co-ordinator for the results of my employers review.

The Principle Centered Co-op

Prashant Khorana
At the beginning of my work term, I set up for myself principles rather than learning objectives. In this work report, I walk readers through my experiences as I try to live by them.

ConAgra Foods Inc. 5935 Airport Road, Suite 405, Mississauga, ON L4V 1W5 416-679-4338

8/20/2009

Table of Contents
INITIAL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................................. 4 RECCOMENDATIONS............................................................................................................................................ 9 TIPS FOR THE FIRST WEEK ................................................................................................................................ 9 WHAT I ENJOYED THE MOST? ........................................................................................................................ 10 INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW AND CAREER RESEARCH ...................................................................................... 11 FINAL REFLECTION ............................................................................................................................................. 14 APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................................................... 18 WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A FINANCIAL ANALYST (Sales Finance): ......................................................................... 18 FORMULA SCHEMATICS MAP OF A SPREADSHEET MODEL ............................................................................. 20 DEALING WITH SPREADSHEET HELL ............................................................................................................... 21 PRINCIPLES .................................................................................................................................................... 22

INITIAL ANALYSIS
In the end its all ConAgra Money I started out by following my learning principle of adding value every day at work from day one, but when I got a chance to talk to the President, I realized that thinking how everyone plays an important role as a team is more important than individual thinking. Groupthink is the key to success he said. My supervisor was my mentor during the first month, as my assigned work buddy was busy working for some Fiscal Year end reports. Given that, ConAgra forecasts everything three months ahead, the entire Finance Team was busy. On the first day itself, I received my binder explaining all the industry jargon and special projects that I needed to work on during my work term. The terminology was very overwhelming at first take, but I quickly got down to it. By the end of the month, it became common knowledge for me. But it would not have been possible without several meetings with other analysts who took the time to explain it to me. My first special project was to work on a spreadsheet form that is used to liquidate aged inventory. It is important for the Sales Team to have this tool, so that they can liquidate near expiry inventory and gain approvals for the same as selling at a loss is better than paying to get it removed. After several fine tunings to the formatting, and plenty of weeks developing the links between various spreadsheets to simplify formats and inputs, the form was ready to go. In the process, I also developed an understanding of the use of error handlers and reference functions in spreadsheet modeling, which can be used to clean up busy spreadsheets, develop links to reduce iterative inputs and control variances of inputs in such forms. The key to development of the form was collaboration with one of the analysts, who also worked in Sales Finance, a person who thoroughly understood the key metrics of the form and was willing to work with me. After the form was developed, a detailed process as to how to use the form was needed, so

that the Sales Team could use the document and fill out the form appropriately. The development of this document provided insights as to how the Business Process worked, and at the same time provided me with workflow modeling knowledge using PowerPoint shape and structures. With several decision trees and scenarios, I was very confident that I was also working towards my goal of establishing a working communication and conveying how to use a Business Tool to the general population in the organization. After several revisions, and being caught with the wrong math and inconsistent formatting, I gained an immensely useful perspective on professionalism in the business industry.
I know it looks cool, but the guys around here are pretty old school

These words stuck to my mind, and I realized that sporadic formatting and erratic colors were not meant for the world of corporate finance. Using only the basic ones to emphasize key things was the trend. Formatting also had to comply with the core business trend in the organization. I learned to take a look at several external reports so that I could ensure formatting consistency in my reports. Although the form was ready to go, my supervisor called me in to do some interim reports on Net Price and Gross Margin Analysis.

ConAgra works on the simple model depicted on the

Simplicity

diagram on the right. Keeping my goals in mind, I have advanced towards getting clear about priorities and being ROI driven. Understanding what the goal is and anything that doesnt achieve the goal we shouldnt do was the work culture. In such a big organization, with so many management reports, I learned to ask myself the question
Collaboration

Accountability

ConAgra Leadership Model, ConAgra Principles , www.ConAgrafoods.com

Is this report actually adding value, or is just something extra that I have to maintain and spend time updating every month. By the fourth week, I knew I could seek out work from the team, and they knew that they could count on me to get it done. When the Sales Finance team needed a chart for a meeting next day, they knew I could handle it and represent the data appropriately. But I also learned that charts can be used to emphasize what people want to see. The spotlight was on what we wanted to project to the audience. Meetings were another one of the interesting experiences that I had in the first few weeks. It was important for me in achieving my goal of mutual understanding. I did not want to give out advice without gaining an understanding of the situation and the speaker, for I knew that any premature advice would be rejected. Thoroughly understanding the speakers concern increased my chance of establishing a working communication. After sitting in on Annual Account Plan Meetings for various Business Teams, I was ready to share my ideas about my projects with them. In the same step I knew I was building on my goal on developing Communication skills and Business Writing. I always ensured that every word in an email and every word spoken to senior management was thought about carefully.
Between stimulus and response, we have the power of free will to choose our response. -Steven Covey

Over lunch with the other co-ops one day, a friend brought in a mango, and he was slicing it with a knife so he popped the question-I wonder what the seed looks like? So I said-Its an elliptical parabola. I knew it would be difficult for me to apply my knowledge from theoretical math to a business finance job, but I proactively used to seek out opportunities to deliver my mathematical thoughts in situations be it either casual or formal. My analytical skills, ability to work with and interpret data in spreadsheets, and numerical mindset helped me develop several short pieces of code, which could help simplify others work. With a copy of VBA for dummies (excel programming) at hand, I made a genuine effort to learn and build on my existing knowledge of excel. With computer programming knowledge from CP 6

104 backing me up, I applied logical problem solving skills to develop spreadsheets. The most useful knowledge was that I gained through the Administration Option courses. From business writing & group work to theoretical accounting concepts, which I used to understand financial statements, all have been indispensible tools every day. In a small company, individual development needs can usually be taken care of by changes in the scope of a persons job. ConAgra Foods Inc., at 6.1 Billion Dollars in Market Cap in the States, had the same profile of a big Consumer Packaged Goods company, but the Canadian division provided me with the learning a small organization provides, i.e. excellent cross functional learning and development. The answer to what ConAgra expected from me is not the catch phrase answer A fair days work for a fair day of pay, but active dedication to take responsibility for the enterprises results. I would often find myself working late with the team on weekdays, as well as Fridays, when the other teams enjoyed their early days off. But it is during these extra hours that I understood how I met my needs of personal development and fulfillment of status and function in my job. I achieved this target by developing an NPR and Volume quadrant automation tool for the other two analysts who I worked with. It cut down their time in setting up these reports by half. ConAgras Individual Development Plan (IDP), although targeted towards full time employees helped me assess my goals and develop a plan for personal development. The IDP expects users to assess themselves on several categories and put them in quadrants. My personal quadrants look as following:

STRENGTHS

GROWTH AREAS

Spreadsheet Modeling Degree of positive impact Proactiveness Initiative

Degree of positive impact

Accuracy and Consistency

Speed of development of reports

Degree to which strength is possessed

Degree of Ease to Develop

RECCOMENDATIONS
The most important tip that I received from my supervisor was Be detailed oriented, in Finance, you never want to put out the wrong numbers. You lose all credibility that way. Every cent counts. One of the things I will always remember from this work term is to think of a cent as not a cent, but a cent times a million cases sold, which actually equals millions of dollars. It took me a while to appreciate that I really needed to develop an aptitude for being detailed oriented. I believe that over 17 weeks of my term, I have started ensuring even in my personal finances that all formats, symbols and decimal places are consistent and look professional. My recommendation to anyone working in Corporate Finance would be to develop the skill of being extremely detailed oriented. Something that I wouldve changed about the term would be a chance to work with a student team or do a joint project with people at the same level as I am. With two other co-ops sitting right beside me, I always felt that there should be more cross functionality between us. I couldve brought to the table my quantitative skills, while the other co-ops could have contributed to my learning of the core business and marketing, which are important business concepts if we had a chance to do a group project.

TIPS FOR THE FIRST WEEK

Ask for help from Financial Planning & Analysis people whenever needed. They are generally willing to share ideas and advice. Use online research to help work with any software skills that need to be brushed up. Make sure that formatting is consistent with the external reports already issued Make sure that the math is right Be extremely detailed oriented Ask how to reconcile youre work and balance with other cross reference reports. In such a big organization, there are so many reports and views of looking at the same thing; if youre off by even a cent, they know it.

Over the term of 4 months, I had researched over 100 websites for tools, tips and tricks to do the impossible with Excel. From dynamic charting, to multiple conditional checks, I could always find something online to help me out. Ive included in the appendix a list of 12 websites that I found to be the most useful in what Ive learned to term as Dealing with Spreadsheet Hell.

WHAT I ENJOYED THE MOST?

No man should be given made work Peter F. Drucker The best part of working under Trade Performance was the chance to directly work under the Sales Finance Director. With a strategic oversight of the company, and being a veteran here, I found that this was the most important part of making my experience rewarding. The other two analysts who I worked with very closely were also important in my development. Without their expertise and willingness to contribute time towards my learning, it would have been impossible for me to understand the numbers that I crunched. Another factor which contributed towards a rewarding experience was the fact that I worked on things that will be used by the company for real work. From spreadsheet models for Trade spend, Gross Margin Analysis and Product Pricing to documentation for reports and forms, all the work I did was real life, and it makes me feel that I really added value through my work.

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INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW AND CAREER RESEARCH

Being a Financial Math major, the sole purpose for students to stay in the program, is to advance towards the field of quant finance, where the complex world of investments comes into play. But as the weeks went by, I gained an appreciation of management and other functions in the organization. If I were to split my job by business functions I would put it as following:

Spreadsheet Models for Product Pricing General Accounting & Operations

Sales Finance Corporate Finance

COGNOS Reporting Environment Business Intelligence (Technology)

Product Mix Analysis & Promotions Marketing

To get started in managerial finance, I found that the step in the door was to do some general accounting. Students with an accounting and finance background usually find positions in accounts receivable and reporting departments in any company, as all of them have to do this work for compliance and to understand their P&L situations. Financial Planning and Analysis people are paid more, as they deal with breaking down the forecasted P&L of the company at a lower product level, which is what makes it challenging and satisfying. But the top level guys usually have a CA, CMA or a

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CGA so its a lot of schooling, but worth it in the long term.

KEY POINTS FROM MY INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW

1. The biggest trends in the field of Corporate Finance and especially the grocery finance industry

would be the use of Business Intelligence (BI) Software, which helps bridge the gap between the IT side of things, and the business side of things, but most importantly, improves productivity and efficiency.
2. Some of the major advantages of the working in corporate finance is the great learning that you

experience in the development of tools for analysis, which offers crossover possibilities into fields such as Sales, Marketing, Financial Planning and Analysis and other numerically oriented jobs. But the disadvantages are that these positions require timely reporting of how the business is performing on a monthly basis, so they dont tend to be flexible in terms of vacation timing. You also tend to have some long hours during reporting period ends, but they are predictable to a great extent, so they let you plan ahead.
3. ConAgra offers an excellent working environment and offers development as well as crossover

opportunities to different divisions. It coaches people in their products and their development, which not all Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies offer. Most companies make you do the math without actually knowing what the big picture is. But since the head office is located in Omaha in the States, you need to travel to explore opportunities at the head office.
4. Things that affect youre growth in the organization is what youre educational background is and

how you complement that knowledge with continuing education. You also need to understand core competencies and work towards them. After my informational interview, I gained an immensely useful perspective on graduate studies, which I initially planned on pursuing right after my undergrad. Now after working at ConAgra, pursuing full time employment for 2-3 years after my undergraduate degree seems like a strategic decision. I understood that such a decision would be strategic since it would: 12

Improve my understanding of the real business world Provide real world experience and prepare me for applied work Help improve my prospects for employment as some fields such as Private Equity where recuruiters dont hire starters

Give me expertise in a specific industry which I can exploit later

Although short term, Im open to anything in corporate finance, long term, I plan on getting an MBA and working in management consulting, as the work profile relates very closely to what I did over my work term. Over the short term, the money I make or the time I put in is not a consideration, but the learning I get is what matters the most to me. Im willing to stare at my screen for 16 hours a day; anything that helps me gets me faster to the 10,000 hour mark2.

10,000 hour rule, Outliers Malcolm Gladwell

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FINAL REFLECTION
My overall learning experience at ConAgra was excellent. At the end of my term, I wished I could stay longer and work for another month or two, but unfortunately my academic work awaited me. Directly working under someone who understands the Strategic position of the company was imperative in providing a learning experience. Over my work term, I helped the small but mighty Sales Finance Team develop a set of tools they will be using throughout the Fiscal year to track promo allowance spending. I worked on 3 key models during my term: PROMO ALLOWANCE EXCEPTION SPENDING: This model helped the Sales Team analyze and gain approvals for spending beyond the lowest allowable pricing strategies, by featuring products on certain promotions and for certain frequencies. There was so much in one screenshot of the model that I was overwhelmed in the beginning , but after a few weeks working on other ad-hoc reports and analyzing numbers and business trends, I redesigned the model and made the improvements that Sales Finance wanted to see and track. LOWEST ALLOWABLE PRODUCT SALE PRICING: This objective of this model was to price products and audit their performance on a monthly basis for lowest pricing levels. The idea was to capture the top product styles that were selling below the lowest allowable levels and to question as to why they were performing so. With this model, Sales Finance could track top product performance and could notify the Sales team on how they were doing related to promo allowances. PRODUCT MIX ANALYSIS: NPR RATE RECONCILIATION ANALYTIC BREAKDOWN OF THE RATE CHANGE: The third, very interesting but also very challenging model that I set up, which will be issued on a monthly basis as part of the Sales Finance reporting package was an analytical report on how the 14

Gross Profit could be broken down into three components List Price Effect, Mix Effect and Trade Effect. The most interesting part of this analysis was that it tied concepts from marketing such as Product mix and promotions with corporate finance. My perception of marketing was theoretical and subjective before, but after actually quantifying these things in a model, I understood how a companys functions work together as a whole. Developing these analytical models was the most enjoyable parts of my work term. From extracting data from the COGNOS Reporting environment, to setting up the spreadsheet model for different products, and analyzing prices and rates; every stage in the development provided immense intellectual stimulation. One of the other things that provided an in depth understanding of the core business at ConAgra was the ad-hoc analysis that I did. Special reports, charts and analytical work helped develop an understanding of the Role of Sales Finance and how it related with FP&A, marketing and Sales.

While there was no formal program set up for me, since I was the first Finance Co-op student ConAgra ever had, I realized that the whole nature of non-recurring activities I did was very challenging and stimulating. I knew that my experience would not be something that was being done just for corporate social responsibility. ConAgra and I both wanted as much as possible out of the short term resource I was to be. Towards the end of my term, I also had a chance to present my work to the Creative Leadership Team, which is a team of top executives. With only half hour allocated to my team, I worked as much as I could towards delivering an effective presentation. During this phase, I sharpened my PowerPoint and visual development skills. Collaboration is the functional skill that I have started developing as an individual while working at ConAgra. Business classes teach you how to work with others, they only go so far in teaching you the true meaning of a team. In the first few weeks itself, I realized that no idea was an unintelligent one, 15

and anything that I thought could add value, even though being shot down by one of the analysts, was still worth presenting to my supervisor .Being a Financial Math major, it might seem a bit off, but I do agree in the principle of 1+1=3. The result of teamwork will exceed the sum of the individuals as a whole was something I grasped later into the term, but nonetheless at the right time of my overall work profile. Building on divergent strengths, valuing differences and collaborative decision-making, I believe at ConAgra, I have leveraged innovation with my work, in a short period of 4 months. On one occasion, the VP Finance asked me Do you find that the 8 hour days are a lot more intense than school? To that I said- I wish I could stay here longer, because I find these 8-10 hour work days rather relaxing and tranquil. I dont particularly want to go back to the 3 hour sleep, multiple assignment days that I deal with in school, and she burst into laughter. Laurier Math had already prepared me in terms of the work ethic required. Being in math, one thing I have learned is-the more work you do, the more you learn and the better the results. This ethic provided me with the ability to do more for the team than I was officially brought in for. My feelings towards returning to school are mixed, as a part of me doesnt want to leave this realistic work environment, but the other part wants to go back to harness the greater potential that I have.

Something that I would change about my experience would be the ability to gain an appreciation of the fact that I was working for the Sales Finance Director, who had intense experience and strategic insight about what was going on in the organization. As a finance professional for a long time, she understood that everything from the method of rounding every cent, to styles of formatting and presentation had to be perfect. But I was never a perfectionist; more of a snap judgment person, I usually found myself with wrong calculations, but I think thats something I need to really work on as I go along through stages of personal growth. Although Im no genius, I believe an organizations ability to make the common do uncommon things is what makes it dynamic and challenging. For the supply of genius is scarce and tends to be unreliable.

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ConAgra had let my common mind gain a colossal amount of knowledge, which cannot be quantified, in a very short span of time. I encourage all co-op students to live by principles, as a principle centered common mind can change lives, change organizations and change the world.

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APPENDIX
WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A FINANCIAL ANALYST (Sales Finance):
Monday: 8am: Run NPR Reports. Ensure that the customer and brand reports have the data properly populated and they reconcile with current analysis. 12pm: Networking lunch with the co-ops 12:30pm: Update the Mix analysis for the month. 3pm: Meet with the other analyst to discuss and tweak the model. 4pm: Ensure that the model works and prepare for final review.

Tuesday: 8am: Update the Lowest Allowable Pricing Model. Ensure that the data is correct. 10am: Send supervisor the model with updated data, so she can analyze how the business is doing. 12pm: Revisit the NPR Mix analysis. Charts need to be updated with the new data. Ensure NPR Rates are correct. 3pm: Meet with the other analyst for discussion regarding the report. 4pm: Sales Team needs a report on some customers and products. Run the reports and send them the data. 6pm: Time to head to absolute comedy for some downtime.

Wednesday: 8:30am: Morning update with the Team. New ad-hoc analysis required. Analyze all the products which are selling below 99c each on stores. 10:00am: Extract the Data from the COGNOS reporting environment and build the model. Spreadsheet issue: Adding the even lines. Time to research formulas on how to do it. 12:00 pm: Model works, some product have unit counts incorrectly built in the model. Fix the problem, 18

and check with the other analyst on whether the numbers make sense. 4pm: Long weekend ahead, time to grab some ice-cream on the Fourth floor. 5pm: Work on the Trade spend exception model. Some products are not loading properly. Fix so that users can do a what-if analysis on products sales/frequencies. 6pm: Off to the Jays game

Thursday: 8:30am Grab some coffee and breakfast. 10am: Period end reports due tomorrow. All models must be updated. Understand the Retail and Feature selling prices on products. Set up a summary listing the same for major products. 2:00pm. Supervisor gets back. Needs some changes on the summary. Formatting inconsistency. Shouldve known that one. Time to fix it. 5pm: Set up documentation for promo allowance exception tool. Use workflow modeling in PowerPoint.

Friday: 8:30am: Time to ensure that all the reports are OK to be issued to everyone. Supervisor is working on period end package. 2:00pm: Finalize presentation for the senior team on Monday. Time to print off the decks You dont want to leave this off till Monday. Never trust the printers. 4pm: Work on Volume trend summary for the President. Every number better be correct. Automate the model so that it is easy to update. Use Index- Match in excel so as to prevent lookup faults. 6pm: Time to head home after a challenging day.

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FORMULA SCHEMATICS MAP OF A SPREADSHEET MODEL

Spreadsheet Modeling Skills Tree

Error Handlers

Data Referencing

Advanced Charting

If() ISNA() ISERR() IFERROR() IF(cell=TRUE) IFERROR() AND() OR()

VLOOKUP() HLOOKUP() ADDRESS() INDIRECT() MATHCH() INDEX() OFFSET() VBA!

Data Validation Scroll bars LISTS - Table presets Dynamic data referencing

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DEALING WITH SPREADSHEET HELL

1. www. mrexcel.com 2. daily-dose-of-excel.com 3.Data Referencing Index(), Match(), offset() http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/11/19/vlookup-match-and-offset-explained-in-plain-english-spreadcheats/ http://www.excelforum.com/excel-general/686946-repeating-variables-vlookup-or-index-match.html 4. Dynamic charts() http://www.expertsexchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Excel/Q_23576257.html http://www.webanalyticsindia.com/2008-12-17/dashboard-design-tricks-using-combo-box-for-a-neattreat/ 5. YTD Data totals: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Excel-1059/2008/7/Calculate-YTD-based-available.htm 6. Creating dropdowns: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/ms-office-tips/how-to-use-data-validation-inmicrosoft-excel-to-create-dropdown-lists/ 7.Checkboxes http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1041101.html 8. Using Spin Buttons:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012265211033.aspx 9. http://www.cpearson.com/excel/topic.aspx 10 . A better Vlookuphttp://www.cpearson.com/excel/FlexLookup.aspx 11. Using INDIRECT to create a dissection with two Data validations :http://www.cpearson.com/Excel/indirect.htm

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12.Add odd /even rows: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57558

PRINCIPLES

PRIORITIZATION & EXECUTION: o o o Do more of what really matters and trust self judgment on issues. Turn uncertain issues into clear actions and indentify how to prioritize. Keep in mind that short term goals, although seem urgent, may not be as important as long-term project goals. o o Focus on carefully chosen priorities and use meetings to tackle issues and not share basic information. Be ROI driven and add value in everything.

GROUPTHINK AND WIN/WIN: o Tap others knowledge and inform others on what could be potentially useful for them. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. o o Listen non-defensively, understand different perspectives and share credit. Coach others in using Spreadsheet modeling skills.

BE PROACTIVE: o o o o Actively engage and seek out opportunity. Offer help and engage others. Take initiative and let results follow. Understand that between stimulus and effort, there is free will which can be tweaked appropriately.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND EXPECTATIONS: o o o Take responsibility, accept feedback and set aggressive goals. Clearly understand the-who what when where and how of expectations. Learn how to under promise and over deliver.

LEADERSHIP: o o o o o Observe and learn from senior management how to lead a team and delegate effectively. Develop leadership qualities by delivering differentiated performance. Be approachable with no hidden agenda. Take smart risks, speak up and reach out for help. Display humility-Do not have to know everything every time.

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COMMUNICATION: o o o Thoroughly understand the situation and the task and think before reaching conclusions. Practice effective listening to prevent ideas from being rejected. Learn how formal and informal chains of communication can be used effectively.

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