2. Choose a company from the Standard and Poor's 500 and email me with it. Please include its ranking in the S+P 500 also. I'll let you know if that company is still available--it's first come, first served, and only one person can do each company. Write to the company you have chosen, and ask for a copy of their annual report. You can find its address in Ward's Business Directory in the Business/SPEA library, in the READY REFERENCE section, at call number HG 4009 W3655. This letter should be typed.
For this assignment, find the information from Ward's, even though, as we will shortly see, the Web is quickly replacing it. I want you to know how to use both print and electronic sources of information.
3. Put a copy of the letter in your report folder to hand in to me.
4. A. From Ward's, find the sales (or operating revenue) of your company, the number of employees, and use these figures to calculate the sales per employee. Then pick two other companies from Fortune 500 and find the sales per employee for those companies. Comment briefly on the differences between the three companies in sales per employee. Can you explain the differences or similarities?
B. In the Statistical Abstract of the United States (Ready Reference, HA 196 A2 1996, or on the Web), find a country whose GDP or GNP is similar to your company's annual sales. Does the similarity mean that your company is as productive as that country?
Write this up and put it in your folder under the title, ``Assignment 1: Sales and Employees''.
Be sure to include proper citations for any information you have found, e.g., Smith, John, Jones's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies, 1996 , New York: Business Press, 1996, Vol. 1, p. 365.
5. Find the address of your company's annual report on the WorldWideWeb.
General note: If you should find yourself unable to complete all or part of an assignment, write down an explanation for me and hand that in. This, and other valuable information, is in the syllabus, which you should read.