LLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMMBLLLLEEEE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSbFgt0wp_4

We've got a marvelous tournament at the moment. So many competitors, with some hard knocks.
These are the top 3 so far;

Ivona Carusi
http://carusiaccountingcqu.blogspot.com.au/
Jade Thomas
http://jadethomas1995.blogspot.com.au/
Yuki Kusano
http://yukikusano.blogspot.com.au/

Now, I understand I need to tell you why they're my favourite blogs, but you must understand; I don't pick favourites based purely on facts, to be honest, I usually get into favouritism because of aesthetics. If I enjoy going to a blog repeatedly, and reading the contents (no matter the contents), it's usually because of the way it looks, feels or reads.. Mostly, it's to do with the personality of the writer.
For me, it's not the content that keeps me coming back, it's the way the content is presented.

Although, then again, I do enjoy information and detail, so my favouritism isn't purely based on aesthetics either.

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Here we go;

Ivona Carusi is studying Reece, a plumbing kingpin. Every Aussie should know them for their adds to do with baths from way back when.

Ivona has a great amount of detail with minimal imagery, displayed on a simple, yet effective layout and colourised blog. The blog consists of one blog post, meaning; she did all of the work in one document before adding it to her blog. There's nothing wrong with that though, I do that, except I split it up to lessen the brain strain for people whom are reading it.

Ivona is straight to the point, there are no side-notes like my writing, and the information she presents has her own personality mixed in so well that it feels as though she's just talking to you.
Of course, if I try and sit down and read ANYTHING in one go, everything buckles and it feels like I'm being lectured by a speechless robot.

Carusi splits everything up in a logical manner with meaningful headings. No paragraph blocks, everything is nice and evenly spaced. This blog is my favourite because it's a great all-rounder. Plus, I'm envious of her, she can actually do this stuff on time and seemingly without faltering.

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Jade Thomas is focused on 'Beyond International' a company that I never knew of until this assignment. It's an Entertainment Distribution company, which is the same sort of business I would like to get into at some point.

It's funny, Jade's introductory post states that she's not very "tech savvy", but once you look through her blog, you'll find that she's being crazy modest; Links, images, tables, beautiful and encouraging design.. She's plenty tech savvy.

The detail that Jade goes into is extraordinary, either she's a fluid copy and paste-r or she's got her head screwed on straight, anybody whose been following her blog surely knows it's the latter.
Downside is, there are way too many posts, which is good thing that Jade's gone to the effort of adding that much content, but when re-reading or reflecting on her work, it's hard to navigate the work flow. As much as I enjoy the design and layout, thin black font on a white background, with a second background being crazy eventful; causes so much pain for my eyes, I can't read it very often or for very long.

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Lastly, Yuki. It's not that I disliked Yuki's the most, it's more that I couldn't let Carusi and Thomas' blogs go without proper acknowledgement.

Yuki is from Japan, and has Trinity Limited for her case study, which is a luxury / high-end mens clothing and accessories retailer. To be honest with you, I don't pay attention to retaining much of the information on Yuki's blog, it's just so much fun navigating the posts with my eyes. Sounds strange, I know, but Yuki's blog presents itself like an old-school website, where random colours and stylisations are KEY. I love this stuff, it's like reading a pop-up book, except there's nothing actually popping up, just giving your eyes a challenge as they progress.

Yuki is mostly unsure of what we're supposed to be writing about on these blogs, which is fair, I don't have a clue either, I'm sure most others don't have a clue either.. We're just writing what we think we should put in. Yuki shows her personality through the way her blog is presented; happy and playful, unsure of some things, but giving it a fair crack anyway.

I visit Yuki's blog quite a bit, hoping to see another eventful post.

Also, there's something about the way that Yuki types.. I don't know if it's the somewhat broken English, or the simplism, or perhaps it's written as thoughts, rather than constructed sentences in an essay.. I just like it.

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*END NOTE*

I just want to clarify, my reviews on your blogs aren't a reflection of you, it's my opinion on how I perceive your blogs/posts. It's how and why I enjoy them, I do enjoy them, I'm sure others do too. Each and every one of you (including those whom aren't on this list) have done an awesome job working through the course-work and doing your blogs.

Well done. Be proud.

Aaallllrriighty then..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tJGk4ofc18

So..umm.. now that we know enough to become a MYER lobyist.. How about we get into the financial side of things? .. This IS an accounting course after all..

Wooow.. I was skimming through the Remuneration Report on my way to the Financial Statements, when I came across the 'Base Annual Fees' which details the Directors' fees. The Chairman gets $400k p.a. and the other (non-executive) Directors get $150k p.a. - I never knew Directors could receive payments / charge fees.
I had the bubble - of Directors receiving compulsory income - burst not long ago, and since then, being a Director hasn't sounded like a tasty role.. Until now. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

Back to topic.. Eurgh.. Lost my page..

..So, I'm late with this.. Truth be told, I have reasons, but none that aren't too personal and too terminal to share. Instead, let's just bite the bullet and proceed.

KCQs

In relation to "Consolidated Income Statement".
Myer has a "Total Sales Value" in excess of $3 billion and an annual profit of $129 Million. Why is profit so minimal in relation?

What is "Cost of Goods Sold"? And why is it such a high expense? Can it be reduced? What is Myer doing to reduce it?

In relation to "Consolidated Balance Sheet".
Myer is borrowing $420 Million a year. What kind of interest rate do they get on their borrowings?

In relation to "Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows".
It is stated that "Payments to suppliers and employees (inclusive of goods of services tax)" is a whopping $2.7 Billion. However, does not go into detail.
How do the Myer Executives feel about the crazy high payments to suppliers and employees?

After reading a fellow course-mate's blog, and KCQs; Ivona Frank Carusi. She clarified that her case company; Reece, donates a sizable sum of money to charity. Ivona posed the question of how much, if any, money does our company donate to charity?
Myer's Annual Report states $1.3 Million was donated to assorted charities, but where is it stated in the Financial Statements?

Pickin' at the bones of the beast..

Let's start off with a why. Why am I writing my posts like this?
I write them out like this, all personal and off-point, because when I do structured reporting on a researched subject matter, I tend to thoroughly enjoy the structure that the researched documents are written in. Slowly, but surely my writing language becomes the same as theirs, I look back at the research documents more and more, and it's not long before I am writing out the researched document(s), word for word.
If I keep my writing casual, and stray off-point every now and then; my writing and concepts stay my own, plus we can all have a bit of fun with the reading/writing situation.
This time round, we'll be doing some short sharp answers (in theory).. Maybe I'll get creative and add pictures!

Check out the bottom of this post to view the added image!

MYER BASICS

Wow, I'm looking over the stuff I highlighted on the annual report. Has anyone else noticed that when you're highlighting this sort of document, you start off great, highlighting the really key stuff, keeping it neat and tidy, engaging and useful.. But then, not long after, you wind up just highlighting blocks of text. I've got almost a page that's completely highlighted.. Ridiculous.

This is going to be fun.. Or is it?

12,500 Team Members
51,000 Shareholders
1,200 Suppliers Globally
67 Stores Australia Wide

11 Core Product Categories;

Womenswear;
Menswear;
Miss Shop (Youth);
Childrenswear;
Intimate Apparel;
(And here I thought the above all came under "CLOTHING")
Beauty, Fragrance and Cosmetics;
Homewares;
Electrical Goods;
Toys;
Footwear, Handbags and Accessories;
General Merchandise.

Five-point-plan Operational Strategy

1. Improve Customer Service
2. Enhance Our Merchandise Offer
3. Strengthen Our Loyalty Offer
4. Build a Leading Omni-Channel Offer
5. Optimise Our Store Network

1) Improve Customer Service

• Delight customers 
• Driven by Customer and Team Member Feedback
• Build Customer Service and Performance-based business-wide culture
• Service improvement; Training and selling skills programs, reward and recognition, improving staff availability
• Efficiency improvement; Faster delivery of stock to shop floor, reducing theft.
• Leveraging Technology; Delivering an improved experience for customers in store, online, through customer service centre.

2) Enhance our merchandise offer

• Delight customers
• Want to be first choice for Fashion, Cosmetics and Home
• Largest range of desired new, fashionable, quality, valued brands and styles
• 66 brands owned licensed and distributed - MYER exclusive
• Vertically-integrated Myer Exclusive Brand model; 
• Managing; design, development and sourcing of wanted brands gives significant control and flexibility + two sourcing offices in Asia + world-class supply chain + updated IT and merchandise systems = speed to market and effective inventory control = competitive advantage
• Acquire more brands

3) Strengthen loyalty offer

• MYER one loyalty program is one of Australia's leading loyalty programs with 5 million members & 6 million cards in circulation
• Four reward levels; Member, Silver, Gold, Platinum (Based on annual spending in Myer) {Platinum is invitation from CEO only}
• Members - +2 credits per $1 spent - if 2,000 points gained, get $20 gift card (on average, customers spend 3.8 times gift card on redemption) - Credits also earned through MYER affiliates and MYERVisaCard

4) Build a leading omni-channel offer

• Customers expect online inspiration, information and digital commerce.
• MYER online; MYER is now global.

I am now speaking to you from half-way through summarising the key concepts of MYER as a business.. I quickly looked through other peoples' blogs, and see that the detail I'm getting into, is seriously un-needed. But quickly I realised, it's another key value I was brought up with; "You can't know where you're going, if you don't know where you've been." Which, for me, basically means you can't push forward or see a glimpse of the future until you've connected with your past. How am I supposed to make opinions, judgements on MYER's business decisions and strategies if I don't first know who they are and what they're trying to do?
So, even though I'm doing more work than I need to.. I will push forward with my original plan.

• Previous investments in a Merchandise management system, point-of-sale system, world-class supply chain = foundations for effective inventory management; Therefore giving competitive advantage
• Using strong brand, depth of offer, store network, popular loyalty program; Sure to become leading omni-channel retailer
• Integrating marketing, balancing traditional media with innovation and digital marketing opportunities; Digital marketing and social media are campaign norms.

5) Optimise our store network

• Customers want; to Touch and Feel products in store + engage with knowledgable and helpful staff.
• Delivering seamless customer experience across all digital and retail points using strong store network and omni-channelling is major optimisation point
• Maximise returns per square metre of store network
• Inspiring shopping environment for customers
• Focused on high productivity through store layout enhancements, new and replacement stores, improving floor space efficiency through refurbishments

^^ So very long and boring.. Let's spruce it up..

This image was designed and constructed by me, the author of this blog; Clifford Power.
The 'MYER ismystore' logo was retrieved as a .svg file from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Myer.svg & all information was gathered from the Myer Annual Report 2013, retrieved from http://investor.myer.com.au/Reports/
This image was made to display average text as something exciting!

I may add more later, depends how I go with the writing..

My.. What?.. MYER!

What I know MYER as, before doing any essential reading..

I grew up in a household of traditionalism and the basic undertone of bare necessities. My brothers and I grew up with a few basic sayings drilled into us from birth.

One of the biggest being, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Which may seem like it only relates to maintenance and improving something, but really it translates to many things. The most major thing being Materialism. In essence, if you have something that fulfills a need or desire, has continued to do the task for years, even if it may be a little glitchy at times, as a whole, it's in working condition and still maintains it's duties.. Then it "ain't broke", so "don't fix it", don't buy a new one. Doesn't matter if the other kids have new shiny things; you have something that works just the same, it just looks different. And when the object does finally break, then you'll buy the cheapest and sturdiest, not the shiny branded pricey ones.
I am in no way complaining about the way I brought up.. Well, maybe a little.. it has sort of dented my adult life, but that's beside the point.. The point is; I grew up strong willed, adaptive and never feeling like I needed fancy things to live (only desired them).

Why is this important? Because it reflects my experiences and thoughts of the outside world, and, in specific, MYER.

I know MYER as being the big fancy store, the place you get dressed up to go to, in your Sunday best. You only ever go there on the weekend, usually a Saturday or Sunday morning. The adults figure out why they're going there, what they want; so we don't spend too much time there, and the kids go beserk with the new knowledge of their travel plans to MYER (whilst emptying all their coin tins and tearing the sofa apart desperately looking for spare coins). MYER is the store you go to when you want to spoil someone else, it's somewhere you plan to go in advance, it's always filled with people and expensive goods. It's the place you go to with your kids; you wanting to by something nice, and your kids wanting to see and do everything they possibly can, but can't because the adults always finish early and want to get out quickly. Of course, there are those times when the adults take too long, and you end up spending the day there. Even one minute too long is "FOREVER" in the eyes of a child.. Or even a teenager.

Trips for me to MYER these days are much the same, except I dread going there. Fake smiles and shiny things that'll break two steps out the door.. Or at least, that's how I see them now. I see people go there in their footy shorts, grubby shirts, and thongs, or trackies and lazy day get-up, while I stand there.. In my Sunday best, looking at them with envious eyes.. To be able to go places, and not feel bad for not dressing up. That'd be the life. .. I'm off track..

Let's try summing up, I'm rambling too much..

MYER, to my knowledge, is the retail giant. Made famous for selling just about anything, to just about anyone, for somewhat reasonable prices. They have kind..ish staff with big fake smiles and lots of make-up on, making them look just like the manequins. MYER is the one that has the massive stores with clean, white, shiny, and cold insides, that are chock-a-block full of people desperately searching for the next big sale. It's the store that you would feel weird in if it were empty (no people.. Hell, it would feel even weirder if it had no stock too).

It's also the best place to secure and fortify in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Haha.

Ooh, that'd be a great idea for a photo-shoot involving a new line of rugged clothing, or perhaps a decent MYER product placement in an action-packed TV series. - You saw it here first. All I ask for, is commendation.. And maybe a few royalties :D Hehe

What is MYER to you?

Let's get this show on the road!

I spoke to a few people in the lecture today about their company's. They don't have very well-known companies, but each seems fairly interesting. Admittedly, I paid more attention and asked more questions about each person I spoke to, rather than focusing in on their companies. - There IS method to my madness, that relates to the course, but I shan't go into that now.

However, I have found that generally, we're all in the same boat and haven't really done the much needed intensive reading. So we all understand the 'jist' of the companies in question, but aren't experts in them.
I reckon we'd be hard pressed to find a company expert at this present time.

*As a side note, to add to your entertainment whilst reading my blog.. I suffer from daily Aura Migraines, in which I suffer from terrible headaches on a daily basis mixed in with 'aura' impairment effects (vision impairment issues). At this present time, I am going blind, I can only see half of the words I am typing. As such, I apologise for any typos, etc. - Also, I'm currently in the weeks tutorial lesson at Brisbane Campus, should be an interesting class..*

I feel bad in a way for the company I received, in relation to other companies. I have a very well-known company, it's huge, and very successful. Most (if not all) people know of it, and have dealt with it before, the company is interesting, and has added interest points because it's successful and well-known. This means, my assignment work appears to be a lighter load than what others have, which makes me feel uncomfortable, considering some others may need to work harder.

The company I have been assigned is a retail giant, it has 67 stores across Australia, (I'm flicking through the annual report as we speak to get some cold hard facts, but considering I can only see a small area in my left-hand-side peripherals, it's incredibly difficult to read. Heh, so much fun.) 12,500 Team Members, 51,000 shareholders, and 1,200 Suppliers.

What is it?
Myer is my store!

(In regards to the issue of Aura effects, it's a general understanding that everything progresses, and develops over time. As an update of where this one is taking me.. When I am looking at the screen, I cannot see anything to my right.. I can slightly see movements from masked objects, but I definitely cannot see the keyboard from the spacebar on-wards.. BIG thank you to the endless hours of computer skill development from my earlier years, otherwise I would be useless right now.)

Will post more later..

Sorry for the dodgy post, I started this off with such high hopes and ready to really get stuck into this thing. I'll get more into the company when the blindness subsides (which has also morphed into agonising pain, so when that goes away too).

Cheers