I have decided to put my KCQs on the blog as well as moodle to try and keep everything all in one spot and easy to find. I feel like things are a bit too spread over different sites at the moment and it's hard to keep track of it all. So here they are -
Challenges and solutions
Asciano are at the mercy of the fluctuating Australian dollar, slumps in world markets and a soft aussie economy.
The
overseas demand for Australian minerals and agricultural commodities
impacts the annual haulage and ports throughput with less imports and
exports, while a weak australian economy means less demand for domestic
freight haulage services.
Asciano seem to be actively chasing new customers to keep volumes up
and diversifying their services in order to provide a buffer from these
problems.
They also have an investment plan for new infrastructure such as
cranes for container terminals and in 2012 wholly aquired C3 in New
Zealand which is a marshalling and ports operator for the forestry
industry.
According to the 2013 annual report Ascianos investment in
major projects have shown a good returns on capital employed at 11% and
are on track to meet their weighted cost average ROCE targets by 2015.
Another way they are looking to save money is they have a 5 year plan
for improving business processes and finding general cost reductions.
The target is a saving of $150 million by year five. At the end of year
two they have so far found a way to cut costs by $82 million and are
expected to meet or exceed their year three target.
Financial statements, difficulties and comparisons
So far I have been able to find an answer to the things that I did
not understand in either the footnotes or on google. I am sure that I
will find more things to confuse me over the next few weeks.
The 2010 financial statement and its figures are so different from
the 2011 report onwards that it may as well be for a completely
different company. There was obviously a big change in what and how
Asciano reported during that time.
I have skimmed a couple of other companies financial statements so
far and for the most part I have been able to decifer them with the
knowledge I have gained from learnng to read mine. They are basically
pretty similar so far though descriptions of things and the length and
content of the footnotes obviously varies.
I am happy with the firm I have been given. The only concerns I have
at this stage are not that I do not understand the information we have
been given but that we are spread out over many different websites.
Keeping up with peerwise, posting on moodle and the blog and checking
facebook and then trying to crosslink comments on others blogs and so on
seems distracting. I feel like am spread a bit to thin and it am not
spending enough time studying the info in the chapters properly because I
am all over the web at once. I guess my concern is because we need to
do things in so many places that I will miss something and lose marks
for it. No concerns with the material yet though.
Originally posted here
Now I need to figure out why Asciano is carrying a large amount of accumulated losses as shown in the Equity section of the question below. It may be to do with buying out C3 in New Zealand but I need to do some more digging to be sure.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI would have to be frank and say I concur with you with being spread all around, I haven't finished reading my chapter 3 because of keeping up with comments, replying to comments, updating blog to keep my followers happy and keeping up with PeerWise. I definitely don't want to loose marks...I want to gain marks and a HD is my plan. Hence, I'm up late, doing uni....I find it better at night because that's when my daughter is in bed and the other half is watching a movie. So this is me time...definitely an Owl and not a lark.
G'day Anna,
ReplyDeleteYep I am the same, this is the only time I get without interruptions. To be honest I have been neglecting Peerwise for the last week or two and I don't plan on doing much with the blog for a while either as I just want to get stuck into the chapters and study my financial reports in a bit more depth. Hence my gathering everything from moodle and the comments on blogs all into one spot. So when I come back to it in a week or two I am not totally lost about what i have done and where.
Hey Ben,
ReplyDeleteMy company also seems to loose out to the exchanging of currencies, my company deals with multiple different currencies.
I agree with your concerns, there is so much we need to keep track of (and adding another subject into the mix- Im feeling like Im fumbling through the dark).
So far I have really enjoyed your blog, you have very educated thoughts and I hope I can analyse my financial statements in the same way
:)
-ash
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI have to say that you have done a great job on your blog... I've added it to my top 3 :-) I feel exactly the same way in regards to keeping up on peerwise, blogging and facebook that I feel I am neglecting the weekly readings... who would have guessed that an accounting subject would be like this :-) My company (LVMH) suffers in the same way with the fluctuating currencies and most of the company's equity is held in shares so the rise and fall of the share market is also another issue for LVMH.
Hello Ash and Mel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words about my blog. I have checked out both of yours and they are both great.
You should put a link back to your blogs when commenting on others so more people will find them. Looks like the links in wikiblogs are gone again :(
Since my company is basically a middle man for imports and exports I think they are both soothed and stung by the rise and fall of the A$ dollar at the same time. Dollar goes up then imports go up and exports go down. Dollar goes down and exports increase while imports decrease. They try and service both markets so the ride is smoother but it still affects business.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI'd tend to agree with you regarding spreading yourself thin over the multitude of platforms we need to cover in order to pass this subject. Between Peerwise, (which is just a whole other story), Facebook, Blogs, Forums, it's hard to keep up, and when I have questions i don't know if they've been answered on any of these, or whether to ask and risk getting told off, it certainly proves interesting.
However, I found your blog extremely informative, I like that you've kept up with your companies latest news, and from reading your blog it's hard to imagine you're not part of the company itself.
I've listed you as one of my top three blogs, if you'd like to check it out here
http://rachelfettes.blogspot.com.au
Thanks :)
Hi everyone
ReplyDeleteI am happy with the company I have been given as it is an Australian Company. Although I don't know a lot about the industry in which it operates, at least because it is Australian I do have some background knowledge of the state of our economy & general business challenges - you know the general stuff you hear on the news etc. I see other students have been given non-Australian companies and so they'd be dealing with the different currencies & trading conditions, like you have all mentioned above.
My company differs to yours and some others as at this point in time it doesn't have currency conversion challenges, although it does look like it may face these challanges as it expands its market overseas.
My company develops Waste Management Systems. As my company is still in the project phase of these developments, it has not been 'trading' like a normal business. It's main source of income has been Research & Development Incentive grants form the government.
I agree with many others that I'm not struggling with any of our course subject matter as yet, but more with the time involved being across all the social media interaction, peerwise, weekly study guide and the assignments. My blog has finally come together today really. I have been thinking a lot about it but now I've had a chance to sit down and work on it. If you'd like to check it out here:
http://joshmcnamara.blogspot.com.au
Cheers