First Quarter Quarterly Business Review (QBR). You must submit your Quarter One Decisions prior to moving on this week's Quarterly Business Review assignment. Prior to beginning work on the First Quarter Quarterly Business Review, review the following through the Growing Your Business simulation, the Variance Analysis video and the content from the Suggestions for Quarter Two Decisions pop-up. The video will provide you with a variety of financial tools, routinely used in Financial Planning & Analysis, for planning, meeting commitments and growth purposes. These are tools any business leader, regardless of function, needs to have a working knowledge.   Real world examples will be presented throughout the simulation. You can always re-watch the Variance Analysis video in the Supplementary Review Materials in the Help section. In addition, there is a TRI Corp Critical Equation in PDF format that can also be found in the same section. Additionally, read Turning Bean Counters Into Difference Makers: How Corporate Finance Is Changing With the Times, Why Financial Dashboards Matter, Five Pointers to Get You Started, and What Are Your Financial Statements Telling You.

With the completion of Q1 you are responsible for completing your first Quarterly Business Review (QBR). This is a qualitative and quantitative summary of your competitive performance for Q1. Business reviews (or Operational Reviews) are a routine part of annual corporate activities and are very cross-functional in nature. A major component of a QBR is around meeting commitments that are embedded in your budgetary planning process. Meeting commitments are seen explicitly in your Variances. These learnings are designed to enhance your performance in future Quarters.

The Quarterly Business Review Assignment

• Must be completed through the Growing Your Business simulation.
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  • After logging in, go to the Quarterly Decisions tab on the top right of the simulation site and then click on the Executive Summary tab to access the Quarterly Business Review section.
• Must be completed and submitted using all of the data provided including
  • Quarterly Pre-Tax Net Income relative to Plan for the Quarter
    • Review the Pre-Tax Net Income Chart Explanation  Download Pre-Tax Net Income Chart Explanationdocument
  • Cash Flow walk
    • Review the How to Read the Cash Flow Walk Chart  Download How to Read the Cash Flow Walk Chartdocument
  • Pre-tax Net Income in Plan
• Must show that Hisco is on track to Meet/Exceed its Annual Net Income Commitment through an evaluation of both quantitative and qualitative techniques for business analysis and decision making.
• Must create specific business tactics to achieve organizational survival and growth.
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Suggestion for Q2 Decisions When you receive your Q1 outputs (which will be within a minute of submitting the Q1 decisions and annual plan), you will need to complete the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) found in the "Executive Summary" tab of "Quarterly Decisions." You should review any new emails, and the "Business Intelligence Dashboard" - if you ordered it - found in the "Quarterly Dashboard." The "Business Intelligence Dashboard" contains significant data analytics in comparison to your competitors. It will become increasingly critical over time as you observe the trends in your competitors' behaviors relative to your own. The "Variance to SRO" within the "Quarterly Decisions" is essential to analyze for your variances to plan. You will need this insight to complete your "Executive Summary." You should also look at the graphs of variance to plan and cash flow (the so-called variance walks, floating bars, or bridge charts). You can find an overview in TRI Critical Equation # 2 in "Help." You should spend time understanding these practical and real world graphics. When you have completed the "Executive Summary", you check the box and Submit at the lower right. This QBR will be saved in the "Executive Summary" and you will be re-directed to "Quarterly Decisions" to modify your SRO for Quarter 2. As you start Quarter 2, again review "Internal Emails and Industry News" in "Inbox" and the data found in "Financial Statements," "Supply Chain Mgt," and "R&D." Carefully consider your role play for the quarter. Ask: are you ensuring you will not become a technological laggard in the longer term for some shor-term success? As in Quarter 1, look at the "Market Forecast" Graphic in "Quarterly Decisions." Your estimate of "Units Sold" in Decisions is driven by your share assumption. The market forecast changes over time as the dynamics of the industry evolve. Your Net Income commitment for the year and where you are (which should have been discussed in the QBR), can easily be seen in the center of "Quarterly Decisions." You will see the original commitment, as well as what is referred to as "Actual + SRO". "Actual + SRO" represents what your net income would be if you hit Quarters 2, 3 and 4 exactly as planned seen in the input area (Quarterly Decisions), plus the actual for Quarter 1. This section should be checked carefully every quarter. As before, you can model your plan (entitled Model Your SRO) at the bottom of the "Quarterly Decisions" as often as you like, and you will see any constraints after modeling your plan (e.g., not enough raw material) as well as the revised plan for the year. Anything can be changed in Quarters 2, 3 and 4 Quarterly Decisions. When you have finalized this quarter's decisions, "Check here then click the below button to submit your SRO" found at the bottom of the decisions. This will submit your Q2 decisions for competitive interaction. Close