10 K Integration Project description Essay

Submitted By Makaylie-Shear
Words: 1698
Pages: 7

10-K Integration Project – Analyst Preparation Assignment
Applied Strategy Incorporated

This project is designed to set the stage for developing your skills as a strategy analyst. You will analyze a publicly-traded company that will be relevant to you and your team as you embark upon client work throughout the semester (industry analyses and firm analyses).
Publicly traded companies file disclosures with the SEC, and you will access these disclosures in the form of 10-K reports. Your SBU manager will provide a list of firms from which you can choose, all of which are related to the industry we will be focusing on this semester. You and your team will decide which of these firms each team member will examine. Your report on what you have learned from the 10-K of the firm you have examined will be submitted to your SBU manager for evaluation, based on the criteria below. However, it will also become part of your company library, to be shared with the other employees in your SBU (so of course you will do your best work!). Because each of you will be performing a 10-K analysis of a firm related to our focal industry for the semester, what you learn through the 10-K project will allow you to contribute strongly to the team’s Industry Analysis (IA) project, which follows.
Our focal industry this semeseter is Retail-Grocery Stores (SIC 5411: Retail-Grocery Stores). Here are 8 popular supermarket chains that filed 10-K’s in 2014, for you to choose from. Note that each member of your team will examine a different firm. Firm names are followed by the number of stores they operate shown in parentheses: Fresh Market (151), Ingles Markets (202), Kroger Co. (2640), Publix (1079), Safeway, Inc. (1335), Supervalu Inc (1530 store, 190 in SIC 5411), Sprouts Farmer’s Market (170), Whole Foods Market (399).
Here is the analysis process that you should follow for the 10-K project:
The analysis process that you should follow for the project:
After you and your team leader agree on the company you select to analyze, go to the website http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html and find their latest 10-K (annual report to the SEC). Just enter the company name or ticker symbol and click on “find companies.” In many cases, multiple options will pop up. For instance, if you are looking for Nike, you may find Nike Securities as well as Nike Inc. Click on the specific firm you want. Scroll down the list of filings to the most recent 10-K. Make sure it’s from the past year. Click on “documents.” Select the “Form 10-K” document by clicking on the .htm file in the Document column. Note – you may also find the 10-K document you need on the website of the company that you are analyzing, typically under Investor Relations.
Within the 10-K, you will find a section near the front of the document called “Business.” It’s usually the first major section of the 10-K. Start your reading at this section, continuing through all of Part I of the 10-K. (Part I includes the Business section, but also additional sections with titles like “Risk Factors.” In all, Part I will usually be about 10-20 pages.)
From this section, select one statement that best represents each of the following concepts from the training material we have covered in our meetings or your readings (you’ll end up with 15 total concepts):

Each of the PESTLE Forces:
1. Political
2. Economic
3. Sociocultural
4. Technological
5. Legal
6. Environmental

Each of Porter’s Five Forces:
7. Current competitors (and intensity of rivalry among them)
8. Threat of new entrants (and entry/exit barriers more generally)
9. Suppliers (and their bargaining power)
10. Buyers (and their bargaining power)
11. Threat of substitute products/services (and their influence on the company) Each dimension of the SWOT areas of analysis:
12. Strengths 14. Opportunities
13. Weaknesses 15. Threats

For each of these 15 concepts please do the following to carefully delineate the