ACC702

ACC702 Managerial Accounting

T1-15 Assignment Task Specification

1.

Group Report: Generating and measuring value The role of management and
the management accountant.

There is a strong emphasis in this course on the role of Management Accountants providing
information to decision-makers to create and manage value. The concept of the Value Chain
suggests that value can be added at all levels of an organisation, both upstream and
downstream of manufacturing operations. Customer value can be said to be the perceived
features and benefits of a product for which customers are prepared to pay. The better a firm
delivers such value it could be reasonably expected that in a well-managed business, this
should translate into improved financial performance and ultimately into increased
shareholder value.
This thinking is reflected in the attached article Jeff Bezos named world's best-

performing CEO, despite Amazon losses (SMH Thursday 6 November 2104)

Whether the rank as best CEO in the world is justified or not, the article and the focus on
this CEOs perceived ability to consistently generate Shareholder Value as opposed to
Profit as measured annually is recognised as much more valuable for the long-term
success of enterprises around the world.
Task:
You are to research one major corporation (Company must be approved by Lecturer in
Week 7) that either has a CEO/Board of Directors/Management Team who consistently
generates value for shareholders. You are to research and detail in your report the following:
1. HOW that shareholder value has been measured and assessed;
2. WHAT management characteristics are in place or developed to assist in this
process;
3. WHAT key factors are considered critical to the ongoing success of this business;
4. HOW the Vision and Strategic Goals are communicated by the Management of
the business (Check the Vision Statement and the Chairman/President or CEOs
Report in their Annual Report for specific details as well as other available
information from their website.)
5. Complete a BASIC comparison to their nearest competitors (if applicable) to compare
how this business has created a competitive advantage or differentiated itself from
those competitors.
6. Review how the role of the Management Accountant is likely to have an impact in
supporting management in the chosen company by providing information for creating
customer and/or shareholder value.
The group is to research, (using an academic search engine such as EBSCO), ONE of the
following topics and find three (3) academic journal articles and case studies that explore the
concept of MEASURING SHAREHOLDER VALUE.
Your report must include a summary of the academic journal articles you have found and
your subsequent research findings and include a full bibliography in the Harvard Anglia style.
Research requirements:
Groups need to notify the lecturer of their chosen company topic in WEEK 7. PLEASE
HAVE THREE (3) COMPANIES/CEOs SELECTED AS ONLY ONE GROUP MAY DO ONE
COMPANY NO DUPLICATES AND SOME COMPANIES SUCH AS

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IKEA/APPLE/STARBUCKS ARE NOT PERMITTED! Please see the list of excluded

companies available on the Moodle Subject Page.
The Group Presentation will give the lecturer the opportunity to ask questions of each
student to clarify and points raised in their report that may require clarification and to
demonstrate their higher level of critical evaluation of the topic and its application.
2.

Student assessment:
Group report (15 Course mark weighting):

The Group Report carries a course weighting of 15 Marks.

You must use Microsoft Word to format and complete the task.

Oral presentation (10 Course mark weighting):

Oral presentations will take place in Weeks 10-12 where the group will have an
opportunity (no more than 15 minutes IN TOTAL for each GROUP) to
demonstrate further their understanding of the entities and the work you have
done in researching these entities. (Order of presentations will decided by
random ballot held in-class (lecture) on or before Week 8.)

All group members should be part of the presentation and typically, MS

Powerpoint presentations are prepared and printed.

Outline copies of the presentation should be given to the lecturer BEFORE

the presentation begins to allow marking and note-taking to take place.

At the end of the presentation time, students may be questioned on various aspects of
the Assignment including research methods and sources, information within the report
and the presentation and about the organisation under review. All members should be
able to demonstrate their contributions to the report at this time. Note that your Group
Mark will be finalised AFTER the presentation as this will contribute to your
demonstration of your understanding of the topic.
Oral presentation grading:
The presentation will carry a mark out of 10 which will be based on how well students
demonstrate the following presentation skills and technical skills. You will be assessed
INDIVIDUALLY during the presentation based on the following:
clear communication
engage the audience
use eye contact to involve audience members
appropriateness and use of visual aids
ability to answer questions convincingly
Note that a full copy of the presentation slides (and any other class handout) must be
provided at the beginning of the class to assist in assessing the presentation. Each
slide should have the NAME OF THE PERSON PRESENTING on every relevant slide.
Note that this will take a little time however, given this part of the assessment task
carries a value of 10 marks, it is well worth allowing time to create and present well.
3.

Submitting your written group assignment

The Report will require that you use Microsoft Word to format and complete the task.
This assessment task is marked progressively. There are THREE steps to submitting
your assignment:
1)The Group is to form by Week 6 any student not in a group will be subject to a
2 Mark Penalty from the final group score.

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2)The groups selected Company MUST be reported to the lecturer at the lecture in
Week 7. (2 Mark penalty to the GROUP MARK if not advised.) This should be
sent by email to the lecturer.
3)The DRAFT Group Report is to be submitted using Turnitin BEFORE your
Tutorial in Week 8 to obtain a Turnitin Score and then PRINT the Turnitin score
and submission receipt. Once you have a printed copy of your submission
receipt and Turnitin score, you MUST bring this as a printed copy to class
along with a hard (printed) copy of your report as submitted to Turnitin. (5
GROUP Mark Penalty if the draft is not submitted and the above complied with
in Week 8.)
Your draft report will be briefly reviewed in class in Week 8 (Students in multiple
tutorials should submit it at the EARLIEST tutorial) and an acknowledgement
certificate will be issued as receipt of your DRAFT. Please note that this is a hurdle
requirement for final submission of your assignment. (That means, that you MUST
show your draft AND Turnitin receipt with Turnitin Score in Week 8 to qualify to have
your assignment submission marked after final submission on the due date.)
The Turnitin Score should be less than 30% as at DRAFT date (Week 8) and the final
Turnitin Score should be below 20% in your final submission.
4)Final due time and date is Week 10 8.00pm Monday 25 May 2015. (Please
consult the Library for instructions if necessary WELL BEFORE the due date
and time.)
ONLY ONE soft copy (E.g. MS Word Document) per group is to be uploaded to
Turnitin on or before the due date and time. Updated reports may be submitted
up until the due date and time however ALL copies MUST be submitted by the
SAME GROUP MEMBER. (Nominate who in your group will be responsible for
this uploading so mistakes are not incurred.)
The Turnitin link will be open shortly before the final due date.
Students MUST accompany their submitted copy of the assignment submission
with a completed and KOI Group Assignment Coversheet. Please note that
marks will be awarded to all members of the group based on their input. The
lecturer should be consulted if a group member is not contributing to the task
WELL IN ADVANCE of the due date so action may be taken.
Only ONE person in EACH GROUP (someone very reliable) should be nominated
to make the GROUP lodgement to Turnitin. Do NOT lodge multiple copies of the
GROUP assignment from each group member.
The Total Assignment will be marked out of 100 Marks and this written component of
the Group Assignment carries a course weighting of 15 COURSE MARKS.

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4.

Late submission and penalties:

As detailed above there are multiple late submission penalties as summarised below:
a) Late formation into a Group by Week 6 2 Mark - INDIVIDUAL PENALTY.
b) Non-submission AND APPROVAL of Groups chosen Company by Week 7 2
Mark Penalty.
c) Non-submission of the groups draft report in Week 8 (with Turnitin Score less than
30%) will incur a 5 mark penalty.
d) Please note that late submission (any time after the due date and time) of the final
assignment will incur an initial 3 mark penalty and then an additional 1 mark per
day each day or part thereof that the Assignment is late.
No Assignment will be collected or accepted after one week past the due date. As
this is a Group Assignment, please note that Doctors Certificates for individual
group members will NOT exempt a Group from lodging on time.

5.
6.
7.

Please lodge the Assignment showing your efforts to the due date and
consideration may be given based upon the level of Assignment completion to the
date of your illness or other misfortune.
Presentation:
As there is NO room for movement in time for group presentations, all group members
MUST be available on the due date and allocated time else the presentation marks will
be forfeited and NO mark will be awarded.
Penalties will also be applied if all or part of this assessed work is plagiarised.
Any similarities or collaboration noted between group assignments will result in a fail
grade.
Before submitting your assignment:
Ensure you have referenced and cited all ideas, words or other intellectual property
from other sources used in the completion of your assignment.
Develop a proper reference list, which includes acknowledgement of all sources used
to complete your assignment. References must use the Harvard Anglia Style.

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8.

Referencing:
Referencing IS Required. Ensure that you fully reference ALL material that is directly
copied and enclose direct quotations appropriately with full references. Also ensure
you have referenced and cited all ideas, words or other intellectual property from other
sources used in the completion of your assignment.
Please see the Library for assistance if you are unfamiliar with the correct procedure
for Academic Referencing.
Please note that WIKIPEDIA is NOT an acceptable reference source other than for
very superficial checking and should NOT be used as a primary resource as there are
no controlled peer review of the content on this or similar Wiki sites.

9.

Working as a group:
Group size: Minimum of four (4) and a maximum five (5) students to a group.
Groups found to have less than four members may have additional students randomly
assigned to that group to make up the minimum allowed.
After forming your group and submitting the Group Membership details to the lecturer
in week 6, you should commence work immediately. The session immediately after the
Mid-Trimester Test will be used for this purpose.
Project Group Conflict
For a project like this, success means being organised. The group will have to
establish a division of labour and divide the work that needs to be done in a fair
manner. Contributions to the project MUST be equitable.
All group members will need to meet for a number of hours each week. Agree on a
regular time and place and set an agenda.
Group conflict is inevitable and should be resolved early in the semester. Group
breakdowns are amongst the most common reasons why students fail. Make records
(e.g. keeping emails sent and received) of all agreed meetings, who did and did not
attend, agreed actions coming from the meeting and who is responsible for each of
these.
When group conflict becomes destructive, group members should first consider using
mediation to resolve any dispute, disagreement, grievance or complaint.
If the conflict still cannot be resolved, then group members can fire a member from
the group by openly voting a person out BUT only after consulting the module lecturer.
Upon the approval by the lecturer, the group leader/representative must inform the
ousted person the outcome agreed via email and copy the message to all other group
members including the lecturer. The ousted person has the right to present a defence
within five calendar days if he or she wishes to remain in the group.
In this situation, every group member must complete a Peer Group Evaluation to
evaluate the contribution of every group member to the group project during the
semester. All evaluations must be submitted in a sealed envelope directly to the
Lecturer on the project due date. The results of the Peer Group Evaluation to assess
group members relative contribution to the project task will affect the individual mark
for the group project. A mark of zero will be awarded to any student who does not
participate.

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When a group member has been fired and decides not to challenge the decision,
he/she will have to complete the whole project on his/her own (and not just merely
submit the part that he/she was previously assigned to contribute). Likewise, the
remaining group members will have to take over the work originally assigned to the
ousted person and complete it.
Please note that in the event a project group breaks up and that the disintegrated
groups do not finish the whole project on their own, the submission will be treated as
partially done. The lecturer will not grade the project work on a partial basis (to
compensate as a whole due to the breakup).
Alternatively, the ousted group member is free to join any other project group provided
there is still room for an additional group member (maximum four to a group) and a
unanimous decision is made by all project members to accept him or her.
Group members need to be familiar with all aspects of the project requirements. While
the group may divide the project tasks up among members, the final document will
need to flow smoothly.
Where to find information:
Remember, you are looking for additional academic articles and information to support your
Report. You should try to find current articles written between 2009 and 2015. Earlier articles
may be OK but you need to think as to whether they are still relevant given todays
circumstances.
Finding articles:
1.
Type the term into the Library database or EBSCO
2.
Add a second search term such as Shareholder Value if you dont get any results
3.
Still no results that you can use? Try to use a different term that means the same
thing.
Reading/reviewing/analysing articles
Many articles you will find will be several pages long this is quite normal for academic
research papers as they are required to explain in detail the research methodology and
results. These details are necessary to support and validate the findings.
Do not let this concern you, as, for the purposes of your research for this, and most other
assessment tasks, you do not need to read the detail about the research methodology and
results. What you need to find out is the purpose of the research: what question they are
trying to answer; any context considerations; the findings i.e. the answer to the question;
and any comments about future directions or the application of the findings
To gain this information, points 1 and 2 will be found in the abstract and the introductory
section(s) usually within the first 2 pages. Points 3 and 4 will be found at the end of the
paper under the headings Findings and/or Conclusions and/or Recommendations or
similar. These are usually the last page or two pages.
A FULL copy of your reference article can be found on the subject website along with all
other information under the heading Assignment however there is also an abbreviated
version which omits the research methodology and statistical data. Although the article is
quite long, only the first two pages (336 & 337) and page 350 have been needed for the
review i.e. students usually only need to read the introduction and conclusion sections of
the articles.

Jeff Bezos named world's best-performing CEO, despite Amazon losses

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The best: Jeff Bezos. Photo: Bloomberg

TIM BIGGS
Despite a reputation for putting revenue above profits and the decisive failure of the
company's Fire Phone, Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been named Harvard Business Review's
best-performing CEO in the world.
This was no popularity contest or mere measure of profit posted over a period of time. The
method used to quantify performance has a clear slant towards creating long-term value
rather than brand popularity or big returns.
Here's how HBR worked out the winner: starting with a list of CEOs of all companies on the
S&P Global 1200, the publication excluded anybody who had been arrested or convicted of a
crime.
Next it disqualified anybody who started as CEO before 1995 (sorry, Warren Buffett) or after
April 30, 2012 (sorry, Marissa Mayer).
Finally it adjusted returns over the whole of each CEO's tenure to eliminate unfair advantages
or disadvantages arising from any company's country, industry or size, and then ranked the
candidates accordingly.

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The numbers showed Bezos as a clear winner.

According to the research, as of April 2014 Bezos has delivered a country-adjusted 15,189
per cent shareholder return and a 14,917 per cent industry-adjusted return, despite the
company's apparent non-profitability.
It is a fact HBR puts down to Bezos' constant reshuffling of cash back into growing the
business and investing in new Amazon ventures.
"Here's a CEO who has frequently underperformed in the short-term while continuing to
make big bets on the future," wrote Harvard Business Review editor Adi Ignatius.
"Amazon often reports quarterly losses, even as sales continue to rise. And though the
company is subject, like many firms, to dramatic share price swings, Amazon and Bezos have
a long-term track record of delivering shareholder value that is second to none."
Ignatius noted that this aspect of Bezos' operation led to his topping a list filled with the
heads of seemingly better-performing companies such as Netflix (CEO Reed Hastings placed
at number 23) and Walt Disney (CEO Robert Iger at 60).
"It presents a marvellous irony," Ignatius wrote. "The leader most adamantly ignoring Wall
Street pressure creates the most value and the company that spends next to nothing on
advertising and public relations ends up with a great reputation."
Indeed, the bulk of the blame for Amazon's last-quarter loss is placed on the cost of new
investment, with a nearly 40 per cent jump in technology and content operating expenses, up
to $US2.4 billion ($2.75 billion).
This figure includes the expansion of Amazon's web services with a new data centre in
Germany, and a huge amount of investment in content and programming for its Netflix-like
Prime Instant Video service.
The third quarter was also marred by the implosion of the Fire Phone, which left the company
with about $US83 million worth of smartphones languishing unsold in its warehouses after
years and millions of dollars worth of development.
While the phone with its faux-3D display and emphasis on shopping was clearly a
misstep, it is representative of Amazon's attitude to investment, with The New York Times
pointing out the company is still in rapid growth mode, "investing heavily and postponing
profits until the halcyon days just around the corner when it will sell all things to all people
all the time".
After the loss was announced, investors battered the shares to produce a 10 per cent dive. But
as the HBR research would appear to indicate, movement on Wall Street is far from the best
indicator of quality or performance.
Follow IT Pro on Twitter
SMH Thursday 6 November 2104

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