Part A

Discuss about the Accounting & Financial Management for Blackmores Company.

The overall study mainly helps in depicting the strategies that is been used by Blackmores company in conducting their operations. Moreover, the study also helps in depicting the usefulness of GRI guidelines, which could benefit the stakeholders of the company. In addition, the novice effectively depicts the overall gap analysis of annual report and major websites, which is being maintained by Blackmores Company. Moreover, the study also depicts the overall costs, which encircles the operations of Global Therapeutics and develops balance scorecard, which might help Blackmores in their acquisition.

Depicting the key features of Blackmores operations and its impact on environment and society:

The main features of the Blackmores operations are mainly depicted as follows.

Products:

The overall products that are delivered by Blackmore is mainly comprised in the medical field. In addition, the company mainly develops medical products, which are sold in Australia (Blackmores.com.au., 2016). Moreover, the company’s products are mainly related to blood pressure drugs, proton pump inhibitors, antibiotics, and cholesterol medicine. In addition, these medicines are mainly helpful in fulfilling the demand of the consumers in Australia. Moreover, the company also produces medicines, which help consumers with running, infant nutrition, and super foods needs (Blackmores.com.au., 2016).    

History:

Blackmores have been founded during by Maurice Blackmore, which mainly deals with natural health and medicines (Blackmores.com.au., 2016). The company has been the market leader for more than 80 year in Australia by providing ways in which illness could be treated and health of the consumers might be increased (Blackmores.com.au., 2016). The company has focused these principles in these many years. The company has been focusing on becoming the leader by acquiring companies and establishing their network in Australia (Blackmores.com.au., 2016).  

Locations of operations:

With the help of relatively experience in medical filed Blackmores has been able to effectively operate in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Kazakhstan (Blackmores.com.au., 2016). These local of operations have mainly helped Blackmores to increase their overall revenue from sales and generate a higher profitability for its stakeholders.  

The overall impacts of operations of Blackmores on environment are depicted as follows.

The overall impacts of operations of Blackmores on social are depicted as follows.

Refer to appendix 1:

With the help of appendix 1, the overall gap analysis of the annual report and website of Blackmores could be effectively conducted as per GRO guidelines. In addition, the overall gap analysis is mainly conducted based on GRI guideline, which might be followed by companies in preparing their financial report. Milne & Gray (2013) mentioned that with the help of GRI guidelines companies are able to deliver adequate information regarding the operation to their respective customers. On the other hand, Ioannou & Serafeim (2014) criticises that some companies due to privacy conditions are not able to deliver the information in their financial statement according to GRI guidelines. The overall gap analysis of Blackmores Company is conducted as follows.

Depicting the key features of Blackmores operations and its impact on environment and society

Strategies and analysis:

The GRI guidelines mainly state that G4-1 and G4-2 needs to be present in the overall financial statement of the company to depict their strategies regarding sustainability. In addition, in the Blackmores financial statement the appropriate decision makes of the firm are effectively depicted. Moreover, financial report could be conducted as per the internationally recognised standards and national laws. In addition, the overall key impact, risk, and opportunities of the company are depicted in the financial statement of the company. In this context, Hahn & Kühnen (2013) suggested that effective depiction of future endeavours and risk attributes mainly help investors to make adequate investment decisions.  

Organisational Profile:

The overall GRI guidelines for depicting the organisational profile that needs to be achieved by the companies mainly ranges from G4-04 to G4-16. These guidelines mainly help in depicting the overall profile of the company, which might depict its operations. However, in the overall annual report of Blackmores guideline from G4-09 to G4-13 is not effectively depicted. The company does not portray any kind of information regarding scale of the organisation, employee number, and segregation of permanent employee with temporary employees. These non-disclosers mainly reduce the overall trust of investors regarding the internal operations of the company. Initiative (2015) argued that non-depiction of overall segregation of employees might mainly portray any unethical measures conducted in the organization.    

Material aspect and boundaries:

As per the GRI guidelines, there are certain material aspects, which need to be maintained by the company in their overall financial report. Moreover, Blackmores Company has effectively maintained G4-17 and G4-19 GRI guidelines in their financial statement. However, the company does not conduct other guidelines of GRI like G4-18, G4-20, G4-21, G4-22, and G4-23. Moreover, the non-depiction of these guidelines mainly reduces the information that might be used by the investors. In addition, the company has no restatements that is currently being conducted and thus provide no information regarding these changes. Junior, Best & Cotter (2014) stated that depiction of the material risk mainly help investors to reduce their brisk from investment.     

Stakeholder engagement:

The overall depiction of stakeholder’s engagement that is mentioned in the GRI guidelines mainly states the approach of the company. However, Blackmores Company does not have any type of stakeholder’s engagement mentioned in their annual report and websites. In addition, the guidelines from G4-24, G4-25, G4-26, and G4-27 are mainly not followed by the company in preparing their financial report. Farneti & Rammal (2013) stated that negligence of stakeholders engagement mainly reduces chances of the company to improve identify concerns in their operations. The absence of stakeholder engagement mainly decreases the overall ability of the company to comply with the guidelines of GRI.   

Report profile:

In addition, the GRI guideline mainly helps in improving the overall report profile of the company. In addition, Blackmores only has G4-28, G4- 29, G4-30, and G4-33 present in their financial report according to the GRO guidelines. The company effectively depicts the reporting period, reporting cycle, and current practises in their annual report. The G4-31 and G4-32 guidelines of the report are not mentioned in the Blackmores financial report. Moreover, there is no information regarding any questions that might arise from the report offer the company. Fonseca, McAllister & Fitzpatrick (2014) stated that absence of adequate platform for solving queries of the company might decrease the overall trust of the investors.    

Conducting Gap Analysis of Blackmores by applying GRI guiltiness in their annual report and other corporate websites

Governance:

The overall governance of as per GRI guidelines mainly falls in G4-34, which depicts that an organisation should mention its governance structure and the committee responsible for making decisions. In addition, Blackmores effectively portrays the structure of the organisation and including committee members in its annual report. Hahn & Lulfs (2014) cited that companies effectively depict the decision making process to reduce the overall uncertainty among potential investors.

Ethics and integrity:

The overall GRI guidelines for ethics and integrity are mainly stated in G4-56, which could help the investors to identify the operations of the company. Moreover, Blackmores Company effectively provides relative information regarding the standard behaviour of codes of conduct in their websites. Eccles et al., (2012) stated that depiction of ethical codes mainly help in increasing trust of the investors regarding their development and future plans, which in turn might improve its share price.  

Investor’s perspective:

The environmental, social, and governance information has increasingly become important for the shareholders. A number of important sustainability challenges has formed an area of concern as it has largely been recognised that a long-term sustainability of a business is directly associated with the external and internal business environment. Investors upgrading themselves under the guidelines of the GRI regulations require disclosure of comprehensive and robust market information (Nørreklit & Mitchell, 2014). The activities ranging from the shareholders engagements of Blackmore with the market will enhance the disclosure requirement in large number of areas.

Investors of Blackmore under the guidelines of the GRI guidelines can analyse the data in contrast to the strategy of the company by comparing the performance data used to create a benchmark performance. GRI Guidelines can potentially helps the investors of Blackmore to understand the vital strategic issues for the organisation across various sectors. Such guidelines helps the investors in understanding the direct and indirect challenges as a result from cost associated in the business (Chang, 2012).

Management perspective:

With the help of GRI guidelines, shareholders and other related parties can potentially identify the systems, which have been identified to improve the performance and medium of communications with other related parties of Blackmore. Such guidelines comply with the continuous stakeholder improvement regarding the social and environmental aspects along with the overall business performance (Saraswat, 2014). GRI guidelines not only provide external benefits to the shareholders and investors but also provide internal business benefits as well. Externally this guideline provides a demonstration of commitment in the areas of transparency but also builds trust with the shareholders, stakeholders, suppliers and other business partners.

On the other hand, the internal benefits include the publication of sustainability report, which can assist Blackmore in stimulating the internal communication and alignment of vision by building effective management systems. This involves creating competencies among staff and promoting behaviour changes. The guidelines can be helpful for Blackmore in emphasising their attention towards resource measurement and improving the performance of the organisation in line with the corporate targets by recognising gaps in current business practices (Boscia & McAfee, 2014). The GRI Guidelines helps Blackmore in assisting its reporting process through collection of data and channelizing it for the evaluation of the corporate strategy of Blackmore. Such reporting strategies can the organisation to internal benefit of reporting continuous improvement.

Balance Scorecard Development

Stakeholder perspective:

In relation to the performance requirements the GRI guidelines uses the stakeholder framework in order to assess the potentiality and actual development of the impact of the projects and financing activities. The guidelines help the shareholder in determining the potential scenario of gain and losses associated with the project and assist in distributing the impact on the society (Marcos et al., 2012).

It is worth mentioning that no stakeholder’s engagement is affected equally. It is therefore necessary to understand the existing difference between the stakeholders internally and externally of Blackmore. Additionally, the stakeholder reporting, disclosure and ongoing communication process should remain equivalent so that the information may transform effectively.  The guidelines states that the process of reporting should be in conformity with the forums for two-way engagement, especially at the time of planning and implementation of projects (Singh & Sohani, 2014). This helps in ensuring the stakeholders views by addressing and incorporating it. Finally, Blackmore should assess the impact created by GRI guidelines in terms of improving the existing stakeholder groups. For this purpose, the impact indicators should be administered in best possible manner in the context and need of the project implementation.

Identifying the major costs of associated with operations of Global Therapeutics:

Research and Development: The major cost, which is associated with the operations of Global therapeutics, consists of the research and development for the quarter ending June 30, 2016 was $13.3 in comparison to $7.1 million for the same accounting year in 2015. Increase in research and development is largely attributable to maximise the expenses, which is related to the development of the company (Coates, 2014). The study provides that the ongoing pre-clinical and clinical studies for the treatment of hypoxemia pulmonary disorder is due to the non-compensatory income incurred for the quarter ending June 30 June 30, 2016 was $0.5 million as compared to the $0.4 million incurred for the same period in the financial year of 2015.

General and administrative expense: General and administrative expenses on the other hand for the quarter ending June 30, 2016 were $4.5 where as 1.5 million for the financial year of 2015. Therefore, increase income is largely attributable to the cost associated with the hiring of extra business individuals and professional and consulting services due to the transition from public to a private company (Hastings, 2015). The compensatory expenses incurred for the quarter ending June 30, 2016 is $1.0 million as compared to $100,000 for same period in 2015.

The overall expense incurred by the company is classified under the heads of variable cost, which includes Research and development along with general and administrative expense. It should be noted that the company does not have any non-current liabilities. The general and administrative expenses consist of $8,822 for the year ended 30 June 2016. On the other hand, research and development consist of $1,506 for 2015 while $4,520 for the financial year of 2016 (Torritia & Ikpeb, 2014). The above-mentioned cost is considered as variable cost, which ultimately defines the behaviour of the organisation regarding the administration of cost. It is uncertain to determine the ultimate fixed behaviour cost since there is no such declaration has been in the financial reports of Global Therapeutics.

Below listed is the summary of the overall fixed and variable cost represented in the tabular form.

Break-even analysis is considered as a business tool, which is widely used across industrial format to evaluate the business performance in terms of costs. Breakeven analysis is a vital tool ultimately helps the business to determine the cost of structure and the necessary number of units to be sold so that a business can generate profit. Breakeven analysis is performed by the Blackmore to practically evaluates is decision of acquisition whether the acquired venture would generate an adequate amount of profit in pursuant of such venture (Alhabeeb, 2012). Blackmore initial intention of acquiring up the Global Therapeutics was to start-up its business venture, which is immensely effective in determining the pricing and promotional process through cost control.

Important information, which is needed for the company to reach the break-even analysis, is the total cost involved in the production of its services. The company considers the fixed cost as those cost involving overheads and other expenses, which forms the part of the production. On the other hand, variable cost is directly indentified cost, which is associated with the products and varies largely with the changing environment. For example if the Blackmore produces more in units then the raw materials and the cost of labour will be high (Hastings, 2015). Hence, this will lead to economies of scale and ultimately leads to breakeven point where the revenue generated by the company will be equivalent or more than the amount involved. 

On the next stage of breakeven analysis, the total cost of production and component can be shown graphically with the use of quantity produced by the company. At the time of application of break-even analysis of the company newly acquired venture an additional set of information concerning the revenue generated by the company. It is noteworthy to denote that from the above stated set of information Black more can determine the quantity of goods, which is needed to be produced in order to cover up the cost involved in the production of the goods (Richards, 2013). In other words, the total cost incurred by the company on the production of each unit should be equivalent to the revenue breakdown. Hence, breakeven quantity can be computed through subdivision of fixed cost from the differences obtained under the unit-selling price and unit variable cost. 

The discussion involves an important aspect to be considered at the time of acquisition. If the required level of production is less than the break-even quantity then the company will suffer a loss as because the total amount of revenue generated by the company through selling the quantity produced will not be able to cover up the total cost. On the other hand, if the required amount of production is beyond the break-even quantity and hence Blackmore will be evaluate such profit and then such venture is worth pursuing.

The balanced Scorecard for Global Therapeutics is depicted in the figure below.

Figure 1: Depicting the balance scorecard

(Source: As created by author)

From the above stated analysis, it can be depicted that the balanced scorecard is one of the important measurement techniques to properly evaluate the financial and non-financial variables in order to measure the success of this organisation. The balance scorecard of Global Therapeutics is divided into four categories, which are namely financial, customers, internal business processes, and growth perspective (Byun et al., 2013).

Financial perspective: The financial perspective of Global Therapeutics is aimed to succeed financially by taking into the consideration its composition of shareholders. Financial measures of Global Therapeutics take into the considerations the consequences for the actions, which is already taken by the company to excel in its financial environment (Awadh & Alyahya, 2013). In order to succeed financially the company should undertake the following financial objectives;

Assets utilisation: The major financial objectives of this company are to measure the financial performance such as its return on investment and economic value added.

Cost reduction: This objective centrally focuses on the reduction of cost associated with its product. Global Therapeutics undertakes the initiative of reducing the cost per unit of production by reducing the selling and general administration cost (Nørreklit & Mitchell, 2014).

Customer perspective: The customer’s perspective of Global Therapeutics evaluates the ability of the organisation to provide better and quality services to its customers. The success of the organisation also determines the overall satisfaction level attained by the customers depending upon the delivery and the overall functionality of the organisation. The objective determined by the company is as follows;

Expanding the market share: Global Therapeutics is centrally focused on retaining its customers and improving the market share. The company through advertising can achieve this and sales promotion as this will help in lowering the price of the product and its services (Marcos et al., 2014).

Increasing the customer retention: The focus of this objective for Global Therapeutics is to ensure that the company continue to uphold its customers by patronising the its organisation. This involves measures, which includes continuous improvement of customer’s relationship by responding to the complaints and suggestions.

The internal business process: The internal business prospects of Global Therapeutics are based on the internal business outcomes in the build up of financial success and satisfied customers (Humphreys et al., 2015). The internal business prospects of the Global Therapeutics  involves customers base measures which aims to provide an in depth of the organisation performance relating to the research and development, process innovation etc. Below listed are the objectives of the internal business process which are as follows;

Innovation process: This objective is concerned with the needs of customers by creating the product, which meets the needs of the organisation.

Operation services: This objective is concerned with the value creation of the organisation. It is concerned with producing and developing such products, which meets the needs of the customers.

The learning and growth perspective: This perspective of balance scorecard determines the current business challenges of Global Therapeutics (Boscia & McAfee, 2014). It consist of continuous improvement and of business through separate learning perspective relating to business iteration. The objectives are as follows;

Employee capability: This includes obtaining the necessary skills to support the organisational strategy and gaining better understanding of the company’s aspects

Strategy awareness and motivation: This consists of addressing typical motivation and alignment problems. The strategy awareness can be achieved by the company though its employee involvement in the execution of duties.

Breakeven point of the Sales:

Table 1: Depicting the overall breakeven units needed by Blackmore

(Source: As created by author)

Table 2: Depicting the overall revenue needed by Blackmore to achieve profits

(Source: As created by author)

Header

To,

20 Jubilee Avenues,

Warriewood, NSW 2102,

Australia

Re: Depicting the strategies

Context line:

The overall memo mainly represents the strategies that might be incurred by Blackmore for improving the annual profits by selling recharge Bar. In addition, the strategies mainly help in depicting the change in breakeven point and annual profits generated by the company from change in selling price ort variable cost.

Action Line:

The action plan mainly states the overall strategies, which might be adopted by the company to decrease their overall breakeven sales units. In addition, the two strategies are mainly comprised of boosting the sales unit and sales price by 25%. This increase in selling price and units might mainly help the company to decrease the overall 12,134 to 10,861. In addition, the other strategy mainly decrease the overall cost of ingredients by 25%, which only help in declining the breakeven units from 12,134 to 11,474. Thus, the strategy of using boost in sales unit and price might mainly help in decreasing the overall breakeven point and increase profits from $12,250 to $29,313.  

Rest of the Memo:

The overall calculations of both the strategies are mainly depicted as follows.

 Strategy 1:

Strategy 2:

Conclusion:

The study mainly helps in depicting the gap analysis of Blackmores based on GRI guidelines. Moreover, the study also helps in portraying the balance scorecard of Global Therapeutics, which might help Blackmores in their acquisition process. In addition, the novice effectively depicts the breakeven units, which needs to be achieved by Blackmores from the provided case study. Lastly, an effective memo is presented to Blackmores management, which contains relative strategies for increasing profits and decreasing breakeven sales of the company.

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