QUESTION 4 (6 MARKS)

Exclusive Fognini Inc. (EFI) is a family-owned business specializing in high-end customized skis. Giulio, a remarkable engineer, is the majority shareholder and president of the company. The balance of shares is owned by three family members. Giulio founded the business 15 years ago. His wife, Haley, was a professional skier at the time and has attributed the gold medals she won to the highly innovative skis her husband had built for her. The market for high-end, customized skis presented an unmet demand, and Giulio took advantage of that opportunity. Operating just outside of Vancouver, EFI produced strong sales numbers even within the first year. The skis were priced to sell at a large premium, and the company made significant investments (initial and ongoing) in research and development. EFI generated a profit in its third year and has achieved strong results since that time. The company's controller is a young CPA who joined EFI soon after receiving her designation and has grown with the company. Financial statements are prepared in accordance with ASPE and are reviewed by JK&L CPAs, a three-partner CPA firm in Vancouver.

EFI does not invest in advertising but relies instead on word-of-mouth referrals. Giulio offers his wealthy clientele not only highly customized skis with a guaranteed exclusive design, but also the highest quality available on the market. In addition, microchips are embedded in each ski to make them easy to locate in case of loss or theft. The company offers a unique level of personalization and free maintenance at the beginning of each ski season; this has won over many prospective clients. Giulio's brother, Antonio, took on the responsibility for the maintenance service and has kept customers happy over the past 15 years.

Giulio's brother-in-law, Marcus, is an EFI shareholder and the ski instructor of choice for wealthy skiers in Whistler, B.C., as well as in Aspen and Vail, Colorado. Marcus has spent his career as a ski patroller, medic, and instructor. He devotes a few days to each client or group of clients and travels between the three resorts as frequently as required, all while promoting EFI skis to his clientele. Each December, Giulio and Haley travel to the famous ski resorts of Europe, where they introduce new designs to influential sponsors and selected clientele. The couple invites those clients who purchased new skis or recommended the new skis to a buying customer to an annual spring skiing event in Whistler, which is partly sponsored by EFI. This event provides EFI's customers with an opportunity to show off their prized possessions the exclusive skis and enter into new business relationships, all while enjoying the outstanding Whistler-Blackcomb ski terrain and upscale hospitality

In recent years, EFI has continued to achieve strong and stable sales levels, but the growth rate has slowed. Giulio has begun to explore other options to expand the business and take advantage of new opportunities.

As one option for growth, Giulio's daughter, Lucia, who specializes in accessories design, has proposed that the company diversify into silk and leather ski masks and gloves, which would follow EFI's tradition of exclusive design, high quality, and personalization. The accessories would carry a high unit cost, but Lucia foresees launching the new products as an indirect but excellent investment in advertising for the core of the business, the skis.

Giulio is preparing for a summer strategic planning retreat. He has asked you to assist with developing a process by which EFI can continue to monitor the strategic environment. Due to a slowing growth rate, Giulio is open to exploring other markets (snowboarding or cross-country skiing) in which EFI could expand its product offerings. Giulio would also like to better understand the current consumer spending trends on ski accessories (including poles, goggles, gloves, and outerwear) across the provinces.

Ultimately, he would like an interactive dashboard system that would provide updates on recent statistics as they relate to the ski industry. For now, you have access to the 2013 and 2015 data from the Facts+Stats document provided by the Canadian Ski Council, along with other data that will be useful for this preliminary analysis.

Required:

a) Using Power BI, prepare a dashboard that presents an overview of the Canadian ski industry and skiers' spending habits. The appendix at the end of this project provides instructions on where to retrieve the data and create the dashboard using Power BI. (2 marks)

b) Using information from the dashboard, discuss the following:

i. Growth in the ski and snowboarding industry across Canada Provide any observations you consider are necessary to address Giulio's requests. (1 mark)

ii. The ski accessory spending habits of Canadian skiers Relate this to EFI's current plan to diversify into ski accessories. (1 mark)

c) From the discussion in part b), highlight one point that you feel should be explored at the strategic planning retreat and explain why. (1 mark)

d) Identify two additional data sets that could be integrated into this dashboard to improve EFI's strategic planning. Briefly discuss how this data could be of value. (1 mark)

NOTE: Insert into your project solution a screen shot of the completed dashboard. Additionally, use screen shots of the dashboard to reinforce your discussion points, if necessary.

While the dashboard must consist of all elements displayed, the visualizations and formatting within the dashboard will vary

Appendix

The dashboard to be developed in this part of the project is based on the dashboard developed in Practice Problem 8 in Week 3. The instructions provided here assume that you have already successfully completed the data dashboard in Practice Problem 8, as it will be referenced in these instructions.

The following dashboard consists of the components to be completed for this part of the project:

Province Percent sport 2015 and Percent sport 2013 by Province DATA SLICER by province Hudson Bay Percent sport 2015 @ Percent sport 2013 Province CANADA Select all Alberta 0.2 British Columbia Percent sport 2015 and .. Manitoba 2020 TomTom @)2020 HERE, G 2020 Juma 0.0 New Brunswick L Bing LIMITED STATEC Microsoft Corporation Quebec Alberta Ontario British Manitoba Saskatchewan New Ontario Columbia Brunswick Province Quebec Sport by selected province for 2015 Saskatchewan Sport . Alpine Cross-Country YE ... 23K Snowboarder 525K (0.4494) 306K (5.72%%) (9.8%) 57K (1..) 223K 918K Average Income and Accessory cost by Year and Region (4.1..) (17.1..) Region . Alberta . British Columbia . Manitoba . New Brunswick . Ontario . Quebec . Saskatchewan . Accessory cost 21K 0.5M 22K 53... ()- 0AM 20K 510K (9..)- 798K 132K (24639) - (14.91%%) 0.3M 18K Average Income 0.2M 16K 0.1M 14K 0.OM 12K 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 YearActivity by province VARIABLE NAME FORMAT Province Text Sport Text 2013 number 999,999 2013 median age 999 2015 number 999,999 2015 median age 999Spending VARIABLE NAME FORMAT Region Text (Province) Year YYYY Accessory $999,999,999 Average income $999,999,999 The data for the "Activity by province" table was taken and adapted from the 2014-15 Facts+Stats publication by the Canadian Ski Association.' The average income data for the "Spending" table is based on Statistics Canada average income, which was increased by an approximate percentage to reflect the assumption that the average skier/snowboarder is in a higher income bracket. Accessory spending was estimated for the purposes of this