Business Communication Writing Assignment
Scenario
American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) is reviewing how it does business in the current volatile market. You are a company junior analyst who is tasked with contributing a portion of the competitive analysis. You have been asked to draft a comparative financial analysis comparing the company with a top competitor as a way of determining the company’s position in the industry. This task is an opportunity for you to showcase your competency in research, analysis, writing, and public speaking.
You need to determine American Airlines Group Inc.’s position in the market by conducting a basic comparative analysis of American Airlines Group Inc. versus a competing company within the industry. You must submit a memo to the company CEO and make an oral presentation at a company strategy meeting, explaining the company’s financial strength and its strength compared to a top competitor. You need to compare five key indices of financial strength:
· Stock price – 1 year, 6 month, Intra-day (Use on or about 12/1/2014 as the present date)
· Revenue (over the last three full-years)
· P/E Ratio
· Net Income (over the last three full-years)
· Earnings per Share (EPS)
In addition, for each metric analyzed, explain the reason for the company’s performance and provide support for your reasoning.
To begin, you will need to research American Airlines Group Inc. financial statements. You can find this information on the company website, company 10K Report, or on a number of Cook library databases, e.g. Standard & Poors NetAdvantage, LexisNexis Academic (Business > Company Dossier) or Hoovers.
Next, you will need to research one of American Airlines Group Inc. competitors across the same five indices and compare its performance with American Airlines Group Inc.
Part I – Written Evaluation
You will need to draft a report memorandum that succinctly compares the financial strength of both companies.
Your report should answer several key questions:
· What was your rationale for selecting the competitor to serve as a measure for the analysis?
· What can you derive from the comparison of these companies?
· What is the significance of each index to your comparison?
This will require you to use some of the basic principles of business writing:
· Proper memorandum format
· Proper addressee (research the name of the CEO of American Airlines Group Inc.)
· Proper use of sources using APA format
· Include an introductory statement that foreshadows or “sells” the main idea
· Use deductive structure
· Condense information using tables, charts, graphs and bulleted points
· Use well developed descriptive headings
· Use chunked paragraphs
Criteria
When you present your information, I will be evaluating your ability to write clearly and succinctly. In other words, get to the point. What is the most important information? I should be able to scan your document and pick out key information quickly and efficiently. If I cannot skim the document in under two minutes, then you did not do your job. Additionally, this document must contain clean and well-proofread content (error-free prose). Careless and errant errors in your LOCs (grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word choice) will result in a deduction in your grade.
