ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

M.B.A. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
FIRST YEAR
Academic Year 2018 - 2019
ASSIGNMENT TOPICS
This booklet contains assignment topics. Students are asked to write the
assignments for EIGHT papers as per instructions.
Last date for submission : 28-02-2019
Last date for submission with late fee ` 300/- : 15-03-2019

NOTE:
1. Assignments sent after 15-03-2019 will not be evaluated.
2. Assignments should be in the own hand writing of the student concerned
and not type-written or printed or photocopied.
3. Assignments should be written on A4 paper on one side only.
4. All assignments (with Enrolment number marked on the Top right hand
corner on all pages) should be put in an envelope with superscription “MBA
Assignments” and sent to The Director, Directorate of Distance Education,
Annamalai University, Annamalainagar – 608 002 by Registered post.

5. No notice will be taken on assignments which are not properly filled in with
Enrolment Number and the Title of the papers.
6. Students should send full set of assignments for all papers. Partial
assignments will not be considered.

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Write assignments on any TWO topics in each paper out of the FOUR. For
each topic the answer should not exceed 15–pages. Each assignment carries
25 marks (2 topics).

DR. M. ARUL
DIRECTOR
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1.1 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
1. Management can be defined as " A process of bringing about improvement in
knowledge, skill, habit and attitudes of the employees in an organization".
Discuss.
2. "Decision making is the most critical managerial task." Discuss the above
statement in light of decision-making process.
3. Select a business or political leader whom you admire, and identify his or her
style of leading by applying the managerial grid or the continuum-of-behaviour
model of Tannenbaum and Schmidt.
4. ‟The only planning tool we need in the company is the budget. If everyone meets
his or her budget, we need nothing else, and management by objectives would
be an unnecessary frill”. – Comment.
1.2 MARKETING MANAGEMENT
1. Explain the recent trends in marketing concepts, also discuss the factors that a
marketing manager must take into account while developing the marketing mix
for the below mentioned products. 1. Female Cosmetics, 2. Children Health
Drinks and 3. Adult Bike.
2. ‘Every change in the political and legal environment creates an adjustment
problem for the marketers’ – As a budding manager what is your opinion about
this statement and suggest a suitable strategy to adopt successful and smooth
running of your business.
3. In designing an advertising campaign for a soft drink, which would you find
more useful; information about consumer demographics or information about
consumer life style? Give an example of how would you use each type of
information.
4. Suggest a successful way to segment the market for the following products
a) Detergent soap b) Designer Jewellery c) Breakfast Cereals.
1.3 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
1. It is usual to declare good dividends when the company is making good
profit. It is profitable for companies not to declare any dividend even when
they are making good profits? What will be the reaction of the shareholder?
Discuss.
2. If you are working as a financial manager in an organization, what are your
policies to make profit for the organization?
3. Assume that you are new entrepreneur to start the business, which financial
resources you opt? Justify with your views.
4. “The success of a business concern depends upon the way in which it
earnings are computed, distributed and retained”. – Comment on this
statement.
1.4 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
1. Prepare step by step Supply Chain network layout for any manufacturing
company.
2. List the various factors to be considered for locating Atomic Power plant.
3. Prepare PERT network for assembling a Motor Bike.
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4. Visit any production plant and list various Material Handling devices with
photographs. Explain its advantages and disadvantages.
1.5 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
1."HR outsourcing has become a common practice throughout the world"-Discuss
the implications of HR outsourcing functions.
2. Identify the Paramount barriers for effective training programme in IT field and
how to crush them". Explain with real life examples.
3. What type of interview techniques do you adopt for selecting an Executive in a
FMCG company for the post of Marketing Manager?
4. Assume that you are responsible for evaluating the employees’ performance in
the public sector manufacturing company. Discuss the appraisal process. Also
explain techniques you apply for various levels and give reasons.
1.6 STATISTICS FOR MANAGERS
1. Which measure of central tendency would be most useful in each of the
following instances?
(a) The production manager for a manufacturer of glass jars, who is concerned
about the proper jar size to manufacture, has sample data on jar sizes
ordered by customers. Would the mean, median, or modal jar size be of
most value to the manager?
(b) The sales manager for a quality furniture manufacturer is interested in
selecting the regions most likely to purchase his firm’s products. Would he
be most interested in the mean or median of family income in prospective
sales areas?
(c) A security analyst is interested in describing the daily market price change of
the common stock of a manufacturing company. Rarely the market price of
the stock changes by more than one point, but occasionally the price will
change by as many as four points in one day. Should the security analyst
describe the daily price change of the stock in terms of mean, median, or
mode of the daily market price change?
2. Late payment of medical claims can add to the cost of health care. An article
reported that the mean time from the date of service to the date of payment for
one insurance company was 41.4 days during a recent period. Suppose that a
sample of 100 medical claims is selected during the latest time period. The
sample mean time from the date of service to the date of payment was 39.6
days, and the sample standard deviation was 7.4 days.
a. Using the 0.05 level of significance, is there evidence that the population
mean has changed from 41.4 days?
b. What is your answer in (a) if you use the 0.01 level of significance?
c. What is your answer in (a) if the sample mean is 38.2 days and the sample
standard deviation is 10.7 days?
3. La Quinta Motor Inns developed a computer model to predict the profitability of
sites that are being considered as locations for new hotels. If the computer
model predicts large profits, La Quinta buys the proposed site and builds a new
hotel. If the computer model predicts small or moderate profits, La Quinta
chooses not to proceed. This decision-making procedure can be expressed in the
hypothesis-testing framework. The null hypothesis is that the site is not a
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profitable location. The alternative hypothesis is that the site is a profitable
location.
a. Explain the risks associated with committing a Type I error in this case.
b. Explain the risks associated with committing a Type II error in this case.
c. Which type of error do you think the executives at La Quinta Motor Inns are
trying hard to avoid? Explain.
4. The chair of the accounting department wants to develop a regression model to
predict the grade point average in accounting for graduating accounting majors,
based on the students’ SAT score and whether the student received a grade of
B or higher in the introductory statistics course (0 = no and 1 = yes).
a. Explain the steps involved in developing a regression model for these data.
Be sure to indicate the particular models you need to evaluate and compare.
b. Suppose the regression coefficient for the variable of whether the student
received a grade of B or higher in the introductory statistics course is +0.30,
how do you interpret this result?
1.7 MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION
1. Assuming you are a Chief Personnel Manager of a leading MNC, draft a letter
calling a candidate for an interview in reply to his application for the position of
Chief Financial Executive.
2. Assume yourself as a Customer Relationship Manager of a bank. You have received
a letter from your customers who have complained to you about the rude
behaviour of a computer clerk. Since the customer is an important person, write a
letter to convince the customer.
3. Communication is lifeblood of an organization and without it organization cannot
exists. Discuss this statement.
4. The problem of communication arises because there are various obstacles which
may entirely prevent a communication or filter part of it, or present it incorrect.
Comment and discuss.
1.8 ACCOUNTING FOR MANAGERS
1. What are the significant assumptions we make while comparing financial ratio
of various companies in the same industry? Discuss the implications of the
above assumptions for a user of financial ratios.
2. Suppose you are the co-owner and manager of a retail store that sells and
repairs mountain bikes. Provide one example of a financial accounting report
that would be useful to you and your co-owner. Provide two examples of
managerial accounting reports that would be useful to you as the manager.
3. Discuss how internal rate of return (IRR) method differs from the net present
value method (NPV). Be sure to include an explanation of what the IRR method
is and what the NPV method is.
4. Imagine that, you are the owner of a business. Pass journal entries with 20
different transactions. Prepare a position statement after every transaction. Did
your firm earn profit or made a loss at the end of all transaction? Make a small
comment on your firm’s position at the end.
M.B.A. [F.M.] – 1ST YEAR – Assignment- UAP/551/C-1200
ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY PRESS 2018 -2019