The Capstone Project came with its peculiarities and learning, still on Corporate Financial Accounting Course. It was really challenging
Lesson 1: Generally speaking.
Ensure you read the Instructions well
This is a critical lesson to keep in mind as we journey closer and closer to the MC and CFA Exams. Instructions need to be taken seriously and adhered to. A simple instruction can make or mar a brilliantly prepared examination. By simply misunderstanding the instructions, you are on your way to re-sitting a course in LBS. This is the Key to everything.
Understand the Instructions
Understanding clearly with no misunderstanding can be the difference between a pass and a fail in an examination. Be sure to use the right labels and titles. Do not miss out on any. This is critical and another key to success. In the Capstone Project hours were spent redoing the Project from scratch when others were already running. Understanding is the key to success.
Start early to meet the deadline
Starting early as soon as the Capstone project was mentioned was a key success story for some groups. While others were still thinking there was time to tackle the Project, others already got approvals and were already researching the Project, some were waiting thinking there was time to do it tomorrow. The key Lesson here is why wait for tomorrow to do the things you can do tomorrow. In LBS, there is no time and the faster you can run the better for you all the time as the future you are waiting for is already full of tasks.
A team is as strong as its weakest link
With the Capstone Project Presentation, the key lesson is that all team members were important in coming up with the Group Presentation because according to Prof, he will call the non-Finance members of the Team to present. Teams went back to trying to second guess Prof’s nominations for who to present for the Groups. This leads to the next BIG lesson.
Be prepared Always
You must be prepared at all times. Even with all the warnings from Prof we still felt we can predict his choices for the people that presented for each Group. The surprises and reactions from some of the people whom Prof asked to present for various groups still showed some level of unpreparedness.
lesson 2: Industry Peculiarities
In 2020, Covid hit, and the impact varied from one business sector to another, from one country to another.
For the Medical Industry, it was my best growth year, while for the industry we analyzed which is the Airline Industry, there was a huge decline in the business. The 2 Airlines we analyzed had one bouncing back to business immediately after the Covid year and the other one struggled all through the post-Covid Year. Reviewing the factors that impacted their performance, it was clear what
Lesson 3: Financial Analysis of a Company compared to another
Financial ratio analysis is a method for evaluating the relationship (or ratio) between various financial information taken from the financial statements of an organization. The major purpose of it is to enable fair comparisons across periods of time and between various businesses or sectors.
In a nutshell below are the different kinds of Ratios.
Financial ratio analysis is generally used in six main areas. These are:
- Liquidity: Liquidity analysis is used to analyse a company’s abilities to meet its immediate debt obligations out of its current assets.
- Coverage: A company’s capacity to pay interest, fees, and other debt-related expenses is evaluated using a coverage analysis.
- Solvency: A company’s ability to pay off its outstanding debt using its income, assets, and equity is evaluated using a process called “solvency analysis.”
- Profitability: Measuring or analyzing if the business is worthwhile. Is the business making money?
- Efficiency: This is used to measure or analyse if the business is sweating it’s asset.
- Market prospects: Only publicly listed Companies do the market prospect analysis. It is used to ascertain the viability of the Company to attract investment possibilities.
