SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY
DIPLOMA IN ACC/BS/BFS/BIT (2004/2005)
Writing Short Informal Reports Tutorial Questions
1. As Purchasing Director for Versace, rewrite the following Periodic Report using the Memorandum report format. Please ensure use of appropriate descriptive report headings and report writing principles.
To: Monica Lewinsky, CEO
From: Saddam Hussein
Re: Monthly Report
Date: 31 Aug 2004
Our regional buyers have now completed their monthly visit to regional outlets worldwide. Their buying decisions and suggestions reflect their observations about sales trends. All outlets report brisk sales.
They noticed that winter wear was a hit especially outlets in France and Hungary. They will have to restock trench coats, leather jackets and thermal wear. Cotton clothes for children are more popular than they have been for the last two years, and they have ordered more heavy cotton clothes for the next year. Sales for cotton childrenÂ’s wear are up by 90%.
Of course, cotton clothes for teenagers and adults: both men and women, continue to be popular all year round. In the ladiesÂ’ fashion section, leather off-shoulders, fur coats and felt evening dresses had higher sales than they did at this time last year, probably because of the recent trends in rich fabrics. The regional buyers want immediately to increase the prices of these items by 20%, in order to push sales before their popularity dies. They also have decided to increase our order of the Softly line of lingerie. This luxury line is moving faster than the others. In menswear, overall sales figures are on target and buyers plan to continue our normal volume of purchasing. Felt sweaters continue to outsell woollen ones. The only shift in our buying patterns will be an increase in natural fabric pants instead of detachable shirts.
2. SPA Anti-Piracy, a division of the Software and Information Industry Association is concerned about the increased use of pirated software by students. The 2003 software piracy estimates indicated that more than one in every three software applications in use during 2003 was pirated.
The continuing problem meant lost jobs, wages, tax revenues, and a potential barrier to success for software start-ups around the globe.
SPA Anti-Piracy has asked you to conduct an investigation on the usage of pirated software by students in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
SPA Anti-Piracy wants you to include three recommendations to solve this problem.
You conducted a survey with 100 Diploma in Business Studies students and 100 Diploma in Business and Information Technology students from Year 1. Your survey results showed that 90% of the respondents had used pirated software before.
Although lecturers had consistently reminded students not to do so, 50 % of the respondents used pirated software during lessons. Out of this percentage, 44% of them refused to use legal software whilst 6% forgot to un-install pirated software in their laptops.
Requirements:
Based on the information given above, write an investigative report using the short report format (indirect approach) with appropriate headings and numberings.
3. Three months ago, Hawaiian Furnishings Ltd (an international lifestyle furnishing retailer) launched a new product line of DIY furnishing Furnish-X. It has been very well-received. Orders have surpassed their projections and sales have increased by 150%.
This success, however, has created considerable overtime for the customer service and logistics staff. The overworked staff has been stretched to their limits during this peak period. This has resulted in wrong customersÂ’ orders, delayed deliveries and deteriorating service standards.
Many customers have been complaining about the dreadful attitude and abhorrent service from the customer service staff. Besides, customers are upset with the mistakes made in their orders and the delays in delivery despite advance scheduling with the logistics department.
Hawaiian Furnishing Ltd has always been fretful about its costs of operation. Profit is the top priority.
Imagine that you are the Manager of Hawaiian Furnishing Ltd., write a justification report (short report format) to convince the General Manager, Tamara Ong to hire 30 customer service and logistics staff. This is to ease the unanticipated workload.
Your report should describe the proposed recommendation, 2 advantages & 1 disadvantage.
Note:
You will need to discuss in-groups at class before presenting the answers on Word document. Please ensure that there are at least 4 notebooks at the tutorials next week.