6. Management and marketing analysis (10 points). First, discuss how human resources are managed (including recruiting, selecting, training, and compensation & benefits) and comment on the organizational structure (functional, product, market, matrix, or product-team) that Nucor is using. Is the companys structure tall or flat, centralized or decentralized? Second, describe the companys marketing plan (including the four Ps). Does the company engage in brand positioning and advertising? If so, how effective is this plan? Are there any other aspects of the marketing function that need to be discussed? Be sure to provide and cite evidence (either from the case or from outside sources) as you make your assessments. 7. Ethical leadership (10 points). In this section, assess the culture and leadership of Nucor in terms of ethical behavior. Does the company have a code of ethics in place? Do executives and managers adhere to this code? Is there any evidence that the company places a high value on ethical behavior? Does the board of directors provide ethical oversight with regard to the behavior of senior executives of the company? 8. Financial analysis (10 points). Part 1 Ratio analysis of Nucor: Using Mergent (click on the Company Financials tab), for profitability ratios, calculate ROA, ROE, and ROI; for liquidity ratios, calculate the quick and current ratios; for debt management ratios, calculate long-term debt to equity, total debt to equity, and interest coverage; and for asset management ratios, calculate total asset turnover, receivables turnover, and inventory turnover. Ratios should be calculated annually over a 7 year period (trend analysis) starting with 12/31/2007 and ending with 12/31/2013. Optional: You can also calculate other ratios if you deem the information to be pertinent. Common-size income statements and balance sheets can also be calculated if this type of analysis provides any useful insight. Part 2 Stock price and EPS: To help evaluate the stock price performance, provide a chart depicting the price history of the company for the same 7 year period. The stock price chart can be copied and pasted from BigCharts.com, Yahoo! Finance, CNN-Money, etc. Also calculate basic and fully-diluted earnings per share (EPS) annually over this same 7 year period (EPS data is also available at Mergent via the income statements for the company). Part 3 Finally, summarize in a paragraph what your analyses of parts 1 and 2 reveal about the following: One, should stockholders be satisfied? Two, should creditors be concerned? Three, how would you rate the performance of the companys managers in terms of efficient and effective use of its resources? C. Strategic issues (5 points). Now that you have completed both the external and internal analysis for the company, identify four or five strategic issues (also known as strategic problems) facing the company, stating the issues as clearly and as precisely as possible. All companies, even well-managed and strong performing ones, have strategic issues. The search for issues and problems will usually start with a review of the industry analysis (one or more of the five forces possibly), but weaknesses and threats will merit consideration too.
