what analytical questions should be asked to identify the current position of the firm course hero

by Noble Hegmann 5 min read

What is firm Analysis and how to do it?

What analytical questions should be asked to identify the current position of the firm? It is critical to understand the present state of the business. Strategic planners are generally concerned with finding the key internal variables that are believed to contribute to the success of a company's operations.

What is the financial analysis question on a job application?

Oct 05, 2021 · When interviewing for your next BA position, it is a good idea to prepare answers to common BA interview questions. In this article, we'll outline 10 common business analyst interview questions with tips and examples for the best ways to answer them. Top interview questions for business analyst positions 1.

What is the final step in the firm analysis?

The above image comes from a section of CFI’s Corporate & Business Strategy Course. Check it out to learn more about performing SWOT analysis. 1. Internal. Internal factors that already exist and have contributed to the current position and may continue to exist. 2. External. External factors are usually contingent events.

How many common business analyst interview questions are there?

Method: Firm analysis and the development of an abbreviated business plan to ensure long term survival within the competitive environment. Compare your firm to a better performing firm within the same industry or to the industry trends that you revealed in the industry paper. Maintain your focus on the questions being asked.

What should a business analyst understand?

As a business analyst, you should understand the importance and limitations of analytical reporting. In your answer, explain the measurable impact you have made with analytical reporting in previous roles. This helps employers understand the value you have to offer at their organization.

What is the role of a business analyst?

The role of a business analyst (BA) is to assess a company's business needs, study how it integrates with technology and facilitate technological solutions for stakeholders. From project management to analyzing business needs and executing quality testing, business analytics requires several soft and technical skills.

Why is analytical reporting important?

The most important aspect of analytical reporting is the ability to solve problems and make decisions based on facts. Attempting to make decisions based on uninformed guesses or assumptions can be problematic—analytical reporting provides tangible information with which to create strategy and direction.". 4.

What is analytical reporting?

Analytical reporting is a type of business reporting that offers information, data analysis and recommendations. The recommendations are what set this type of reporting apart from informational reporting. Analytical reporting allows people to use data to make decisions.

What are the parts of SQL statement?

Example: “There are four parts to an SQL statement. The DDL, or the Data Definition Language , is used for defining data structure. The DML, or Data Manipulation Language, is used for inserting, deleting and modifying data. The DCL, or Data Control Language, is used to control access to data stored in the database.

Why is it important to understand a candidate's workflow?

Understanding a candidate's workflow can help employers gauge their teamwork, project management and organizational skills. To answer, explain general phases you work through with standard deliverables you typically produce instead of listing specific processes or tasks the interviewer may not be familiar with.

How to have a thoughtful conversation with your prospective employer?

This is your chance to have a thoughtful conversation with your prospective employer or colleague. Make sure to use active listening skills during your interview to inform your questions. The person interviewing you should feel that you are invested and engaged throughout the interview.

What is industry analysis?

Industry analysis is a market assessment tool used by businesses and analysts to understand the competitive dynamics of an industry. It helps them get a sense of what is happening in an industry, e.g., demand-supply statistics. Law of Supply The law of supply is a basic principle in economics that asserts that, assuming all else being constant, ...

Why is industry analysis important?

Industry analysis, as a form of market assessment, is crucial because it helps a business understand market conditions. It helps them forecast demand and supply and, consequently, financial returns from the business. It indicates the competitiveness of the industry and costs associated with entering and exiting the industry.

What is the technological aspect of PEST analysis?

The technological aspect of PEST analysis incorporates factors such as advancements and developments that change the way a business operates and the ways in which people live their lives (e.g., the advent of the internet).

What is broad factor analysis?

Broad Factors Analysis#N#Broad Factors Analysis A Broad Factors Analysis assesses and summarizes four macro-environmental factors: political, economic, socio-demographic, and technological.# N#, also commonly called the PEST Analysis stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. PEST analysis is a useful framework for analyzing the external environment.

What is SWOT analysis?

SWOT Analysis#N#SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is used to study the internal and external environments of a company and is part of a company’s strategic planning process. In addition, a#N#stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can be a great way of summarizing various industry forces and determining their implications for the business in question.

What happens when the bargaining power lies with the customers?

Bargaining power of buyers. The complete opposite happens when the bargaining power lies with the customers. If consumers/buyers enjoy market power, they are in a position to negotiate lower prices, better quality, or additional services and discounts.

What is Porter's 5 Forces?

One of the most famous models ever developed for industry analysis, famous ly known as Porter’s 5 Forces. Competitive Forces Model The competitive forces model is an important tool used in strategic analysis to analyze the competitiveness in an industry. This model is more commonly.

How to know if a firm is doing well?

Internal Environment (Strengths and Weaknesses) The only way to know if your firm is doing well is through comparison. Therefore, almost all of the elements that follow require the analysis of your firm and then a comparison to a better performing firm or to industry standards. A. Management.

Where should a decision matrix be provided?

A decision matrix should be provided at the end of each section and an overall matrix provided in the conclusion section. Where quantitative analysis is required, provide numbers expressed as ratios. Use five years of data to establish trends. Where qualitative analysis is required, provide citations to support your arguments.

What are strategic alternatives?

Strategic Alternatives. Provide appropriate strategic alternatives stated as strategies, not as elements of a strategy. Discuss the pro's and con's of each. The current strategy, if appropriate, could be one of the alternatives if the firm simply needs to improve the implementation of that strategy.

Can you do all industries in one semester?

You can not do all of the industries or segments in one semester. Make a rational choice that aligns the firm paper with the industry paper. Provide a statement of the current position or situation of your firm within the industry (i.e., how goes it).

What is the purpose of prescriptive analytics?

The purpose of prescriptive analytics is to literally prescribe what action to take to eliminate a future problem or take full advantage of a promising trend.

What is advanced analytics?

The term advanced analytics was the umbrella term for predictive and prescriptive analytics types. According to the 2018 Advanced and Predictive Analytics Market Research, advanced analytics was for the first time considered “critical” or “very important” by a majority of respondents.

What is diagnostic analytics?

Diagnostic analytics gives in-depth insights into a particular problem. At the same time, a company should have detailed information at their disposal, otherwise, data collection may turn out to be individual for every issue and time-consuming.

Who said "He who would search for pearls must dive below"?

Back in the 17th century, John Dryden wrote, “He who would search for pearls must dive below.”. Although the author did not have advanced data analytics in mind, the quote perfectly describes its essence. Together with ScienceSoft, let’s find out how deep one should go into data in search of much-needed and fact-based insights.

What is predictive analytics?

Predictive analytics tells what is likely to happen. It uses the findings of descriptive and diagnostic analytics to detect clusters and exceptions, and to predict future trends, which makes it a valuable tool for forecasting. Check ScienceSoft’s case study to get details on how advanced data analytics allowed a leading FMCG company to predict what they could expect after changing brand positioning.

Why is inventory the least liquid asset?

Inventory is the least liquid of all the current assets because you have to find a buyer for your inventory. Finding a buyer, especially in a slow economy, is not always possible. Therefore, firms want to be able to meet their short-term debt obligations without having to rely on selling inventory.

Who is Rosemary Carlson?

Rosemary Carlson is an expert in finance who writes for The Balance Small Business. She has consulted with many small businesses in all areas of finance. She was a university professor of finance and has written extensively in this area.

How is a balance sheet used?

A balance sheet is provided as an example for calculating a company's financial position by measuring its liquidity, which is the ability to pay its current debt with its current assets. The information reflects two years of data for a hypothetical company. The balance sheet data will also be used to calculate the current ratio, quick ratio, ...

How to calculate current ratio?

"Current" usually means a short time period of less than twelve months. The formula is: Current Ratio = Current Assets/Current Liabilities . In the balance sheet, you can see the highlighted numbers.

What skills do data analysts need?

Answer: To answer this question, you should know that the skills needed are: Predictive analytics, Database Knowledge, Presentation skills and Predictive analytics.

What is a marketing communications specialist?

A Marketing Communications Specialist with 7+ years of experience in the ‘promotions’ aspect of Marketing . He designs Digital Marketing Strategies coupled with executing SEO, Content Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, Communications, Branding, Public Relations & Social Media Campaigns. With a British Master’s degree in International Business to his credit, he is a strong 360° Marketing Professional.

What is clustering in data science?

Clustering is known as classification method applied data. This divides data set into clusters and groups. The properties for clustering algorithms are: Disjunctive, Hard and soft, iterative, flat or hierarchical.

What is a sequence of n items from a set of speech or text?

Answer: This is a sequence of n items from a set of speech or text. It can be said to be a probabilistic language model used to predict the next item in that particular sequence taking the form of a (n-1).

What is a K-mean partition?

Answer: This is a very popular partitioning method where objects are classified into K groups. The clusters can be said to be spherical in the K-mean algorithm, the data points a centered around a cluster while their variance is similar.

What is data profiling?

Data Profiling is aimed at individual attributes’ analysis. Information on different attributes like discrete values, value ranges and their data type, frequency, length are gotten from it. Data mining, on the other hand, targets unusual records detection, cluster analysis, sequence discovery and others.

Can data analytics adapt to changes?

It can adapt to any changes in its requirements. Massive changes in data for a good model must be scalable. You have seen a lot of answers to the data analytics interview questions that are likely encountered in most interviews.

What should a candidate's answer outline?

A candidate's answer should outline a course of action for speaking with clients and working toward a solution to uphold their finances. The candidate's answer should emphasize:

Why is it important to understand the candidate's answers?

It is important to understand this because financial analysts must be able to evaluate risk and reward of various financial investment opportunities.

What is financial analyst?

A: Financial analysts help businesses and individuals review their financial health and make smart investment decisions. This question helps interviewers gauge a candidate's experience working as a financial analyst or a related role.

Why is it important to know financial analysis?

It is important to know this because financial analysts need an understanding of accounting information, such as the income statement’s line items, to properly evaluate the company’s finances.

Why is it important to know the balance sheet and income statement?

It is important to know this information because a financial analyst should understand the ideal statement to reference when analyzing a company’s financial health. Answers to look for include: “The balance sheet and income statement explain how much assets and liabilities the company has.