Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Assignment 1 Steps 1-6

Meaghann Pearce12058261

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Step 1

After finishing the readings for this first assignment I am happy to say I am more excited than ever to be taking this subject! I am late to the game as it is already week 2. I had a realisation that I no longer wanted to study Law and Property I wanted something creative and more involved with numbers. So, I chose a Bachelor of Business and Professional Communications Majoring in marketing.

However, I am kicking myself for not changing sooner especially after reading the Introduction and it emphasising the need to get started early. I am the type of person that loves to be organised and of top of everything, even ahead if possible. So, when I read Martins paragraph on keeping up and getting things done on time I did start to stress even more. Especially when on top of that the first assignment was due on the day I transferred courses. Yet, the Introduction also made me realise that I had made the right change, and I couldn’t be happier.

My favourite part of the Introduction was just consuming all the tips and tricks. Just leaving school makes me feel a bit behind the 8-ball compared to other university students and sometimes I get flustered and don’t know where to start or what it requires. So, being able to read tips on what to do and what not do I was able to get comfort and reassurance. If I’m really honest the thing that worried me the most was the stress on the need to interact with other students and create blogs. I’m not really one to put myself out there and write about myself or interact much with others online because knowing me I would get distracted and not focus on the content or study as much. Yet, reading about this website called Peerwise my thoughts have changed. Maybe it is possible to interact with others online and gain more insight about the subject. I will definitely have to set aside time each week to use Peerwise especially seeing as it gives you marks. But, I also just want to get a lot out of it because it is obviously in our subject for a reason and I am excited to push myself out of my comfort zone and try get the most out of it.

I must admit I am blown away by Martins way of teaching and enthusiasm, it is contagious. I love how passionate he is. The way he goes into how people learn really makes me question how I learn and what my view on learning is and, to be honest my view on learning is not that good. However, after reading his view of what learning is I am convinced I need to change my view. So, for this semesters goal I not only plan to get assignments done on time and achieve a good mark but I also want to become a more active learner and reach my full potential.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

My favourite subject all through high school was accounting and living in a remote town with a small school not many subjects were offered. I was fortunate enough to be able to study accounting via distance through a Brisbane school. Within my first year of it I fell in love with it. The satisfaction I would get out of my balance sheeting balancing and even just understanding all the terms and what the figures meant would just be such a boost of energy. Being the only one at my school doing it, I was not able to share the joy I had for accounting with anyone else. So, when I was reading through Chapter 1 I was immediately blown away, because I was finally able to read into someone else’s view about accounting who also just understood it is more than numbers. It was almost like a sense of belonging, that I have found my people.

The further I read into Chapter 1 the more memories it brought back of accounting at school. I surprised myself with what I was actually able to remember. Being able to remember the basics of accounting has given me some confidence with this class. I’ve definitely noticed that if I generally enjoy a subject I seem to hold more content and recall more things quicker and easier. Which is especially useful in this situation at the moment seeing as though I am already two weeks behind.

No doubt like any student I am going to have my highs and lows with this subject but I am ready for it! I am ready to be an active learner and I am ready push myself.

Step 2

Visit my Blog page Visit my Moodle page

Step 3

Annual Report and More Starting this subject late, I didn’t really have much of a chance to even think about what type of company I wanted for my assignment. So, I was quite intrigued when I found out my company was RELX. I had never heard of this company before, so that was slightly daunting to me. Yet, I felt ready to devote my time into diving deeper into the company find out what it is all about. I guess the most worrying thing about this company for me was that it wasn’t

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an Australian one. Looking back at it now it doesn’t worry me what so ever that it wasn’t one.

While scanning over RELX’s website and annual reports I discovered that it was a publishing company that provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. Also, it turns out that I have actually used one of their legal data bases LexisNexis in the past. When I found saw that, it helped me to realise what the company was all about. The Chief Executive Officer Erik Engstrom also made the statement ‘Our goal is to help our customers make better decisions, get better results and be more productive.’ Which stood out to me as I was able to connect this statement with my own personal experience with LexisNexis. I was able to see first-hand how they actually help people be more productive. Yet, they don’t only help provide information for the legal industry but also 3 other segments which include Scientific, Technical & Medical; Risk & Business Analytics; and Exhibitions.

Before jumping into the annual reports, I wanted to explore the website and see what it is RELX is capable of doing and see what type of involvement it had with giving back to society. I discovered that RELX has played a large role in The Lancet Campaign to End Preventable Stillbirths. They have done this by allowing/supporting science’s most prestigious journal The Lancet to be able to record all information necessary to do with still births and other issues, to allow people to make better decisions to do with their health. The Lancet’s goal is to publish the best science to improve the health of people world-wide. This campaign alone made me realise how important databases can be because without a place or resource that allows you to upload beneficial information and share it with the world, how else would science and humanity improve?

With further research, I found that RELX has expanded to help make a sustainable planet. They have done this by setting up a date base called RELX Group Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Resource Centre (the homepage can be accessed here). The SDGs main mission is to support the UN’s agenda that is including the UN’s 17 goals and 169 targets. I must admit I was confused on how a company like RELX SDG could help the UN but, once reading it I was able to see that the company is able to do. This is done by launching articles and reports that assist readers in gaining more knowledge on how others are trying to reach these goals and how they can help as well.

Another Video that I just found interesting was an interview Nick Luff the Executive Director had with Sky News. It was about whether the political change in the UK had any effect on the company and its earning. Nick answered saying that whether the UK was in or out of the EU it wouldn’t affect RELX as it is a company that is able to adopt change.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Once I knew some background information on RELX I was ready to dive into the pages and pages of annual reports. The annual report for 2018 started with a summary from the chairperson, Sir Anthony Habgood, who briefly covered how they had achieved their goals in terms of revenue and operating profits. It was read that revenue had a 4% growth and operating profits grew 6%. These figures being the first I have come across, I personally thought they were quite good for a company that big to still be improving that much. Then I continued to read the Chairpersons blurb on corporate responsibility where I was taken aback by the first line. It was ‘We take our commitment to human rights seriously as evidenced by our Modern Slavery Act Statement, which outlines how we work to avoid slavery and trafficking in our direct employment and in our supply chain.’ I never really thought that a company of RELX’s size would need to worry about, nor care about slavery or trafficking in their direct employment but reality is, it is a possibility. Overall, I really just found it refreshing to know that there are still company’s out there fighting to create a safe and ethical work environment. The Chief Executor Erik Engstrom, also reiterated a bit of what Sir Habgood had said but, he also went over their goals as a company which is to focus on evolving the fundamentals of the business to improve the businesses profile and the quality of earnings.

The annual report then breaks down into summaries of the company’s four categories of databases that RELX publishes. Below, I have broken down each segment and noted the most interesting and important points that I extracted from the annual report.

Scientific, Technical & Medical

RELX is the parent organisation for Elsevier which is a Dutch information and analytics company and one of the world's major providers of scientific, technical, and medical information. They have principal operations set out all across the world. Such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo just to name a few. It has 7,900 employees and serves customers in around 180 countries.

Revenue has increased from £2,473m in 2017 to £2,538m in 2018. The bulk of the revenue came from North America (44%), 24% from Europe and 32% from he rest of the world.

Subscription sales generated 74% of revenue, transactional sales 24% and advertising 2%.

Elsevier journals have at some point featured articles by 183 of 184 science and economics Nobel prize winners since 2000.

Most of this section was based on how well Elsevier had done and how well done to be where they are today.

Below shows the number of different scientific databases that RELX provides.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Risk & Business Analytics

This segment helps provide customers with advanced technology and algorithms to assist them in evaluating and predicting risk and enhancing operational efficiency.

This division has 8,700 employees and serves customers in more than 170 countries. Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2018 were £2,117m, compared with

£2,073m in 2017. One of RELX’s services Cirium automate the process of matching trips to waivers,

making it easier and quicker for agents to find waiver details and understand if a traveller’s flight qualifies.

There has been a 30% reduction in time spent resolving a traveller’s disrupted flight using Cirium’s services

London’s version of Australia’s buying and selling site ‘Gumtree’ has started to use RELX’s Threat Metrix which is able to detect new users who may be using stolen a identity data, obfuscating their location or attempting to sign up for multiple accounts from the same device.

Threay Metrix has enabled Gumtree to increase their fraud detection rate by 84%.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

To the right it shows the number of different Risk & Business Analytics databases that RELX provides.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Legal

The Legal division looks to help lawyers win cases, manage their work more efficiently, serve their clients better and grow their practices.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional, RELX’S number one database, is headquartered in New York and has other principal operations around the world. There are 10, 500 employees worldwide and serves customers in more than 130 countries.

Revenue has dropped in 2018 compared to 2017: £1,618m £1,686m respectively. Subscription sales generated 77% of revenue and transactional sales 23% Lexis Nexis is always looking to better itself and continues to be supported by RELX

because this year in Canada, LexisNexis enhanced Lexis Advance Quicklaw by incorporating advanced data visualisation with the introduction of Search Maps .

Below shows the number of different Legal databases that RELX Provides.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Exhibitions

RELX assists exhibitions in generating customers billions of dollars by combing face-to- face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions.

RELX’s exhibitions attract more than 7 million participants. Reed Exhibitions had headquarters in London and other principal offices across the

world. Contains 4,200 employees worldwide and its portfolio event serves 43 industry

sectors. Revenue increased from £1,109m in 2017 to £1,219m in 2018. Like the previous segments North America brings in the majority of the revenue

(44%) Below shows the number of different Exhibition databases and events that RELX

supports.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

That was only just the basics of what each segment has to offer, which allows readers to get some sort of idea of what RELX is all about. Moving on however, I found myself coming across some key financial highlights which I have printed down below:

Underlying revenue growth of 4% Underlying adjusted operating profit growth of 6% Reported operating profit £1,964m (£1,905m) Adjusted EPS growth at constant currency up 7%; in sterling, up 6% to 84.7p Reported EPS 71.9p (81.6p) Full-year dividend up 7% to 42.1p Strong financial position and cash flow; cash flow conversion at 96%

Now I am not too good at understanding all these financial terms. For example even the concept of underlying revenue I didn’t understand. If I broke it down I knew what revenue meant, which is income. But, when I read the word underlying I think of the word hidden. So, I did a quick google search to see what it means and the Business Dictionary helped come to the conclusion that underlying revenue means measuring profit that is based on normal accounting cycle events that exclude rare circumstances or one-time events. Once I came to this realisation, the term made much more sense. As I was able to see it as basic common sense, that a company would need to exclude/hide anomalies so interested parties would be able to get a better understanding of where the business stands financially.

The other abbreviation I was unsure with was EPS. Once I googled what it meant, it instantly made sense and I didn’t know how I didn’t pick it up. So, EPS = Earning Per Shares means how much money a company is making in profits per year. It went on to say that there is an equation to working it out. It is calculated by subtracting preferred dividends from net income and dividing by the weighted average. It will still take me a while to get my head around this equation But at least I know why it is of importance.

I could go on for days about all the things that I can draw out of the annual report and the businesses website but I don’t want to put anyone to sleep just yet.

Links to Annual Reports

- 2018 Annual Report - 2017 Annual Report

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Discussion with other students.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a PASS zoom class with Danielle and other students. I really enjoyed this experience as I was able to hear how others were travelling with their assignments and learn about what KCQ’s they had. I am someone who really enjoys just listening to other people’s experiences so when someone would discuss how they understood a key concept I was able to see it in another light as well. One girl in particular talked about how she was trying to understand a particular element of the Balance sheet and it got me thinking that, that concept never even crossed my mind. I am sorry I cannot exactly recall what it was but it was a good experience.

I have also posted a question up on the groups Facebook page, which can be seen below. I am just interest to see if any political changes in the UK have been a challenge for other people’s companies.

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

Studiosity

I have been fortunate enough to have used Studiosity in the past but never have I received feedback so fast before! I submitted it at around 12 at night and by the time I woke up I had an email saying it was ready to view. Truly amazed with the service! I mainly wanted to hand it in and get another opinion on word choice and grammar because I believe it is the little things that can make a big difference. The feedback I received was very encouraging as I know my work was really all over the place when I submitted it. I must admit I didn’t do a very good draft as it was very rushed so the feedback was very honest in that they suggest I read it all allowed and fix up errors and add commas and so forth. Overall I am very happy that a program like this exists because without out it my assignment would be 10x worse than it is. Would highly recommend it to anyone and I will definitely be using it again!

My top 3 Blogs

I am really enjoying reading all different blogs about how people are dealing, what part of the assignment they are up to and all their lightbulb moments in between. After looking at a range of different ones I have narrowed it down to my top 3.

1. Jessica Bishop’s Blog - https://jess682167292.wordpress.com/I was instantly drawn to Jess’s blog as the pictures and the big headings drew me in. When I first read her introduction I was really intrigued as she explained that she was in the defence force before she had a family. This resonated with me as the defence force was definitely one of the options I wanted to take because as she said you get paid to travel the world. I also found her company GKN highlights to be quite interesting as only 6000 staff serve North Queensland. She has also posted a segment on the possible takeover from her company which was interesting to read about. Overall I believe that Jess has done a terrific job and I cannot wait to see more blogs and I am also considering using one of her drafts to provide feedback with for step 6.

2. Louise - https://twopointoh.school.blog/Louise’s blog was the first person to have really interacted with my blog so I in return I looked over hers and instantly loved it. I especially love the post ‘PASS, the ace up my sleeve’ because I myself found it to be very useful as well. The way Louise would write down her thoughts and research was very engaging which made it more enjoyable reading about another company. By adding in links and videos to her posts made it much simpler to get your head around. Overall her posts are very entertaining as she makes reading about companies and annual reports fun.

3. Kassidy Rose - https://kassidyhinton.home.blog/

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Meaghann Pearce Assignment 1 12058261

This last blog really hit home for me as Kassidy is still in year 11 and completing this subject through CQU’s SUN Program. I myself did 2 subjects through this program when I was in year 11 as well so I am glad to see others doing it as well. When Kassidy mentioned already feeling behind in her second post I could really relate. Kassidy’s wording throughout her blogs are really engaging and I think it is because she is being so honest. She was especially honest when she talked about how she wasn’t that into Peerwise. Which I understand because if I’m honest I haven’t touched it since week 1. In summary, I am intrigued to see how Kassidy grows through this subject and wish her all the best.

Step 4

Below I have added links to my spreadsheet and to my blog where I made some comments on doing my spreadsheet.

Blog comments

Company Excel Spreadsheet

Step 5

Straight up I will admit I have read and re-read chapter 2 at least 5 times. The main reason being I keep zoning out and just read the words as black and white and don’t absorb it. I have stopped that now though… I hope, and I am starting to learn new concepts I never thought existed. By doing accounting in year 12 I thought I’d be all over the theory of accounting and the rules involved but, turns out I am not. I know right, what a shocker. The first concept that I was surprised to learn was that there are two accounting aspects one is financial accounting and two is management accounting. So, far I have gathered that financial accounting is the number one go to just because it is a way of accounting that can be shared with outside parties. Whereas, management accounting is providing accounting information to people within the company. Why two you may ask? I am not to sure but it was noted that usually firms only have one set of accounting information. Which makes sense because it would save money, time and resources.

Financial accounting however comes with a few rules. These rules include GAAP (Generally accepted accounting principles) which are the minimum standards accountants must follow. I did find it interesting when Martin wrote that all these rules could not all be possibly written down as they are very complex. Which got me really thinking, is it possible that many rules are bent? And who would be able to pick it up if rules were bent? Because one

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person does not know all the rules. I guess for an OCD person like me I find it hard to comprehend things when all the rules are not set out in straight black and white in front of me. Slight character flaw? Yes! But it is okay because Martin has taught me how the rules act more like guidelines and framework. Which makes me think of accounting rules as a type of scaffolding and the businesses financial records and reports at the end are the finish building.

The next accounting that concept that was mentioned was accrual accounting. Now this I already knew, as it was drilled into me during high school. Yet, I was very impressed with the way it was it was explained in the study guide. I really like the idea of accrual accounting because it makes the company look like it’s in a better financial position then they really are because they haven’t physically received the cash yet. This concept also links into the quality of information that is displayed in all financial reports. I was surprised to read that accountants and management can ‘guess’ figures, use ‘hopeful’ and present information in a way that may be confusing to outside parties. But yet I guess this goes back to what I thought previously, which was people are able to bend the rules.

Except I jumped the gun because once I read ahead, I saw that the reports need to be relevant and a faithful representation of a business. Which is fair enough because what good are reports and financial statements if they are unable to be understood. No one would even attempt to look over reports if this was the case. Marin then goes on to explain other qualities that reports need. Now I must be pretty slow today because it took me a while to realise that I already knew all this because of a school exam (Big yay for me for listening in class). So I understood that all reports must be comparable, verifiable, timely and understandable otherwise they are next to useless for anyone.

After reading chapter two I definitely gained more confidence as the majority of this chapter was covering terms, I already had some knowledge on. However, the game is not over. It is time to tackle chapter three.First up I absolutely loved how Martin related being introduced to financial statements to meeting someone at party because that is exactly what it is like. However, for me it is more like seeing your cousin at a family BBQ that you haven’t seen since you were five but now you are both 15. You don’t know how to start a conversation because you don’t know If they remember the good old times playing on the slip and slide and you are both so different now. But as the night goes on you start to open up more and more and suddenly you pick things up from where they left off ten years ago.

Skimming through, I was able to have a brief read of what balance sheets and annual reports were which I was already quite familiar with because of my business subject and accounting class in school. I only found myself slowing down when I came across the terms ‘group’, ‘consolidated’ and ‘parent’. I had no idea what the differences were but I knew it

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was important to know as I noticed my own company had the word consolidated in their balance sheet title. Turns out a consolidated balance sheet shows the assets. Liabilities and equity of a group of companies and NOT just the parent company. I had also read that my company is a parent company. What I understand this to mean is that it controls subsidiary companies by ‘calling the shots’ because after all accounting is game.

So fun fact, I learnt that the balance sheets are actually isn’t that reliable as it is only a snapshot and the income statement is really the holy grail of all financial statements. I find it interesting that income statements throughout firms vary quite a lot. Plus I’ve also learnt that a firm doesn’t have to disclose all expenses. Which straight up I start to question why that is. Is a company trying to hide information for a reason or is it really just not that important? I guess I will have to look further into it.

One statement I haven’t heard of before was the statement of changes in equity. This is either because I am having a blonde moment and not remembering my accounting lessons, it was called something else or I am generally learning an new statement. I am going to say option C. After I read it, I was still confused. No shocker. The key word I take out of this statement would have to be the word share’s. But still I will have to look further into it.

I found reading about the cash flow statement to be quite interesting. In the past I never questioned why we had cash flow statements but after reading why it makes total sense. It is amazing that no matter how big a loss a firm can have if it still has cash the business can carry on.

Overall, I would say that a lot of chapter 2, 3.1 and 3.2 was a revision for me and a refresher about what accounting is all about. I am also pleased to announce that this has not scared me away from this subject and I still enjoy accounting as much as I did at school. Which is a big deal to me because I was wondering if I was able to still love it at a university level. I know it is only an introductory level subject but I am actually enjoying learning new things and I never thought I’d say that!

Step 6

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