Financial statements reveal how healthy a company is.
Presentations that reveal or share a company's financial history help prospective employees decide whether or not they want to work at a firm. The information is also used to help investors and potential clients determine if they want to do business with the company. Highlighting facts, trends, challenges and triumphs during the presentation allows audience members to receive an honest view of an organization.
Instructions
1. Provide an overview of the company, including the date that the company was founded, the name of the firm's current CEO and the city and state where the firm is headquartered. Tell the audience whether or not the company is a non-profit or for profit organization. Also indicate whether or not the company is privately or publicly owned. If the company is publicly owned, list stock market events that are impacting the industry the company is in. For example, banks saw a reduction in their profits during the mortgage crisis of 2007. This information helps to explain sudden shifts in the company's profits and losses.
2. Create a financial statement that shows the company's assets (e.g. net sales, total sales) and liabilities (e.g. employee salaries, acquisition closing costs). Separate liabilities by fixed (e.g. taxes) and non-fixed (e.g. acquisition costs) on separate lines on the spreadsheet. If you are using an overhead, copy and paste the financial statement onto a PowerPoint slide or other software package that you are using.
3. Highlight major activities that the company recently completed. Acquisitions, layoffs and company relocations are types of events that fall under this category. For example, you could state that a financial investment firm purchased a mortgage company over the last three months for $12 million and that the purchase brought 350 employees from the mortgage company to the investment firm. Also indicate whether or not the investment firm laid off employees from the mortgage company, and if so, how many. Use bulleted lists to highlight the major activities. Limit highlights to six to seven activities.
4. Provide a list of transactions that the company is in the process of closing on but that remain open. For example, if a training firm is relocating one third of its employees from New York, New York to Dallas, Texas, indicate this. Indicate how much the relocation will cost and when the transaction is expected to be finalized. Also interview senior business leaders at the company and find out why the company is making the change. Include a brief statement, two sentences is sufficient, that explains why the transactions are occurring at the bottom of the list of outstanding transactions.
5. Build pie and bar charts to compare product sales for the top three firms in the industry so your audience members will know how well the company is doing versus its competitors. Create graphs to track how the company's net or total assets grew over the last three to five years. One chart or graph per slide is sufficient. Ensure that the font size on the charts and graphs is large enough for audience members to see.
6. Summarize your data. Discuss trends in the industry that provide opportunities for the company to grow its profits. Allow time for audience members to ask questions. Also bring printed copies of your presentation with you so that they are available for audience members to take home upon request.
