Assignment 3: Take Your Pick

·         Introduction: We’d like you to design and develop strategy for a large, public company. And, we’d like you to do so using the themes within the two modules we’ve just completed: Risk Management and the International module. Essentially, we’d like to put you into the shoes of the CEO and design a few key strategies that would help grow earnings and reduce risk in the company’s operations.

·         Let’s get a bit more specific. Pick a public company and examine what the company is doing now, both in terms of risk management global strategy. In particular, here’s what we recommend you do:

·         Pull up a company’s annual report (10-K). Read the entire section titled “ Item 1” (includes items describing the general business) and “Item 1A” (also known as the risks section).

·         Then, read the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

·         Next, examine the company’s international business situation. Sometimes, this information is located in a section called “Operating Segments” other times it is not. You might have to dig around for this info.

·         Also, search the document (hitting CTRL+F usually does the trick) and enter keywords that include “derivatives” and “hedging.”

·         What do you see? What is the business doing right now? THEN

Write a 4 page paper in which you:

a)      Analyze the company’s existing risk management and international strategies.

Prescribe new strategies for the business based on what they are and are not doing now in these areas