Regulatory changes can significantly impact reporting requirements for companies. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 required extensive new reporting from public companies to restore investor confidence after several major financial scandals. The law mandates periodic reports on financial practices to outside auditors and assessments filed with the SEC beyond traditional annual reports. Compliance has led to increased internal reporting from managers, office staff, and IT professionals on financial procedures and record-keeping. The changing regulatory environment means report writers must be adaptable in analyzing problems, collecting data, interpreting information, and communicating findings through writing.

1. Topic: Consider an international firm you are familiar with,
and consider what the firm needs to be concerned about when
entering a foreign marketplace. Specifically, in terms of the
chapters we covered, what do you consider to be the 3 most
important "uncontrollable environmental variables" that the firm
should consider to gain a better understanding of buyers and
markets (Global Perspective included)
Include the following:
1. A paragraph for each of the three variables where you will
define, in your own words, what the uncontrollable force
involves (three paragraphs total).
2. Cite the page number(s) from the textbook where the
definitions can be found.
3. Two to three comprehensive paragraphs on how the chosen
international company will benefit from understanding buyers
and markets in a foreign land after considering these global
environmental concepts.
Kerin, R.A., Hartley, S.W., & Rudelius, W. (2013). Marketing:
the core. (5th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Replies to following:
1.In researching companies, I stumbled upon some interesting
articles on various issues Disney has encountered while
expanding globally. The three uncontrollable environmental
variables I feel are most important when considering locating a
company globally are cultural differences, language barriers,
and consumer income and spending power.
Cultural differences (page 134-136) can include a country’s
customs, values and symbols. Cross-cultural analysis should be
considered in advance of extending a business operation into
another country. The country should be fully researched to
learn and understand their cultural preferences. When

2. developing Euro Disney, the company did not consider the
French’s love for breakfast and developed their marketing views
based on the American’s habits. The company assumed the
French would skip breakfast and go straight to the
entertainment. Eventually, Disney adjusted the park food to
accommodate this particular habit. This was a costly mistake
which created a large amount of money and time wasted.
Certain countries maintain different beliefs in vacation time and
vacations, such as the French are not as willing to pull their
children out of school to take a vacation as Americans are. A
cross-cultural analysis could have brought such cultural
differences to the attention of Disney.
Language (page 132) is a variable which must be considered by
any business planning to move into a global market. In a
country such as China, Chinese workers are needed to bridge
the language gap and to also teach the American workers the
grammatical meanings of the language. Words or sayings are
sometimes interpreted to mean something totally different in
some countries from what we feel they mean here in America.
Disney must research and understand those language differences
before proceeding into that market. Not understanding each
other’s language can lead to communication problems and
mistrust on both sides.
Consumer income and purchasing power (page 138-139) is
another important variable to be considered. Visiting Disney is
a not a necessity and is not something essential for existence.
Disposable income available to the consumers in that country to
devote to such luxuries or wants must be known prior to moving
into the country. Disney discovered Euro Disney visitors
purchased souvenirs less frequently than Americans causing
their projected revenues to be less than expected. By
developing a marketing strategy based on spending habits in
that country, Disney may have been able to better project their
revenue.
2. Starbucks is an international firm which has built a

3. worldwide reputation for offering much more than just a cup of
coffee. The Starbucks brand serves as an identity which
encapsulates not only unique variations of coffee but more
importantly a lifestyle.
The first "uncontrollable environment variable" is economic.
The love of coffee seems to penetrate most cultural and
environmental obstacles...the key is finding areas where people
are willing to spend $4 plus for a cup of coffee. Along with
with analyzing the consumer's lifestyles it's important to
evaluate the local disposable and discretionary income which
will affect the "buying value" for their purchase decision.
(Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius, 2012. p.62,82) The brilliance of
Starbucks is their efforts to maintain predictability and
consistencty with their product. My close friend works in the
"lean" department at the Starbucks headquarters and his entire
job is to find ways to reduce waste through movement in any
particular branch. His whole purpose is automation. The fact
that a department like this exists is a clear indicator of the
status Starbucks has reached regarding it's research and
development.
Secondly it's important to find the consumer lifestyle. "How
people spend their time, and resources, what they consider
important in their environment." (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius,
2012. p. 92) Starbucks' target audience is teenagers (13-17),
young adults and adults. The fact that caffeine is a highly
addictive drug helps sales but Starbucks has also been able to
tap into other niches with Frappuccino and Tazo tea. I live in
Seattle and 9 out of 10 times I will go out of my way to find a
local coffee shop to help support...and then I remember that
Starbucks is local! I prefer more distinct, unique and
unpredictable flavors from my coffee. In other words:
character. The key to Starbucks is, "You know what you're
going to get each time you order a product" and they have
attained a staggering level of "brand loyalty" (Kerin, Hartley,
Rudelius, 2012. p. 90) because of this quality.
Thirdly Starbucks has been excellent at recognizing the

4. importance of "Going Green" which ties into not only
"Corporate Culture and Expectations" but "Ethics" as well.
Starbucks recently built a store which was made from
reclaimed shipping containers. A greater awareness and
sensitivity toward conservation and recycling permeates culture
and environment as well because we all share this world.
Starbucks has taken a multitude of steps in establishing
themselves at the forefront of "Green" companies. ("Recycling
& Reducing Wast." Starbucks Coffee Company. N.p., n.d. Web.)
"Socially responsible efforts on behalf of the general public are
becoming more common." (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius, 2012. p.
73) This is cause marketing, which displays Starbucks effort in
not just making profit, but helping the environment as well.
Starbucks has and will benefit from understanding the
marketplace throughout the world because the market is
changing. Knowledge of the consumer is key to establishing
what they want and need and finding a way to fill both
categories. Because of the success in the United States
Starbucks has gained a reputation which has helped thrust it's
brand to new regions.
i
ll
1!
.,.tI N T R O D U C TO H Y S I T I.J AT I O N
Report Writing

5. lntroduce yourself to the subj€ct of report writing by assuming
the role of administrative assistant to the president
of Technisoft, lnc. Much of your work at this large software
company involves getting information for your boss'
Yesterday, for example, you looked into the question of
excessive time spent by office workers web surfing. A
few days earlier, you worked on an assignment to determine the
causes of unrest in one of the local branches.
Before that assignment you investigated a supervisor's
recommendation to change an evaluation process. You
could continue the list indefinitely, for investigating problems
is a part of your work.
So is report writing, for you must write a report on each of your
investigations. You write these reports for good
reasons. Written reports make permanent records. Thus, those
who need the information contained in these repons
can review and study them at their convenience. Written reports
also can be routed to a number of readers with a
minimum of effort. Unquestionably, such reports are a
convenient and efficient means of transrnitting information.
Your repofi-writing work is not unique to your job. ln fact,
report writing is common throughout the company. For
example, the engineers often report on the technical problems
they encounter. The accountants regularly report to

6. management on lhe company's financial operations. From time
to time, production people repod on various aspects
of operations. The salespeople regularly report on marketing
matters. And so it is throughout the company' Such
reporiing is vital to your company's operations-as it is to the
operations of all companies'
Writing to external audiences can also be critical to an
organization's success, ll the organization is a consuliing
firm, reports to the client may be its primary deliverable. lf the
company is publicly traded, it is required by law to
publish financial reports to the government and to shareholders.
Depending on the nature of its business' a company
may have to write reports to various agencies about its impact
on the environment, its hiring practices, or its compli-
ance with quality standards,
Sometimes reports are written by individuals. lncreasingly,
however, they are prepared in collaboration with
others. Even if one person has primary responsibility for a
report, he or she will often need contributions from many
people. lndeed, report writing draws on a wide variety of
communication skills, from getting information to presenting
it clearly,
This chapter and the following two chapters describe the
structure and writing of this vital form of business
communication.

7. How often you write reports in the years ahead will depend on
the size and nature of
the organization you work for. If you work for a very small
organization (say, one with
fewer than 10 employees), you will probably write only a few
But if you work for
a midsize or larger organization, you are likely to write many,
In fact, the larger the
organization, the more reports you are likely to write. The
explanation is obvious, The
larger the organization, the greater is its complexity; and the
greater the complexity,
the greater is the need for information to manage the
organization.
The nature of the business can also influence the number and
type of reports you
will write. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires
all publicly traded busi-
nesses to write certain financial reports at regular intervals. A
consulting firm's whole
business efTort may be directed toward infbrmational and
advisory reports to its clients,
A business performing work under government contracts will
also have special report-
ing needs. The frequency with which you will write reports. and
the kinds you will
write, will depend on your employer. But you can be fairly
certain that report writing
will figure significantly in your business career.
DE,FINING REPORTS
You probably have a good idea of what reports are. Even so,
you would be likely to have
a hard time defining them. Even scholars of the subject cannot

8. agree, for their defini-
tions range from one extreme to the other. Some define reports
to include almost any
prescntation of information; others limit reports to only the
most formal presentations.
Reports are vital to large '
organizations.
The nature of the
business also determines
how many and what
kinds of reports are
needed.
Repori writing is likelY
to be important in your
career.
A business report is an
orderly and obiective
communication of factual
information that serves a
business purpose.
CHAPTER l0 Basics of Report Writing 293
The key words are
orderly, objective,
communication, factual
infarmation, and serves a
business purpose.
Work on a repoft begins

9. with a business need
(problem),
Your first task is to get
the problem clearlY in
mind.
For our purposes, this middle-ground definition is best: A
business ,"part is an orderly
antl objective conxmunication of factual information that serves
a bttsiness purpose.
The key words in this definition deserve emphasis. As an
orderly communication, a
report is prepared carefully. Thus, care in preparation
distinguishes reports from casual
eichanges of information. The objective quality of a report is its
unbiased approach.
Reports seek to present facts. They avoid human biases as much
as possible. The word
communication is broad in meaning. It covers all ways of
transmitting meaning: speak-
ing, writing, drawing, and such. The basic ingredient of reports
is factual infotmation.
Factual information is based on events, records, data, and the
like. Not all reports ar€
business reports. Research scientists, medical doctors,
ministers, students, and many
others write them. To be classified as a business report, a report
must serve a business
purpose.
This definition is specific enough to be meaningful, yet broad

10. enough to take into
accolrnt the variations in repofis. For example, some reports
(information reports) do
nothing more than present facts. Others (analytical reports) go a
step further by includ-
ing interpretations, sometimes accompanied by conclusions.
Recommendation reports
go further yet, presenting advice for future action. There are
reports that are highly for-
mal both in writing style and in physical appearance. And there
are reports that show a
high degree of informality. Our definition permits all of these
variations'
DETERMINING THE REPORT PURPOSE,
your work on a report logically begins with a need, which we
refer to generally as the
prcblemin the foliowing discussion. Someone or some group
(usually your superiors)
needs information for ibusiness purpose. Perhaps the need is for
information only;
perhaps it is for information and analysis; or perhaps it is for
information, analysis' and
i"co*m"ndations. Whatever the case, someone with a need
(problem) will authorize
you to do the work. Usually the work will be authorized orally.
But it could be autho-
rized in a written message.
After you have been assigned a report problem, your first task
should be to get your
problem clearly in mind. Elementary and basic as this task may

11. appear' all too often it
is done haphaiardly. And all too often a report fails to reach its
goal because of such
haphazardness.
The Preiiminary Investigation
Getting your problem clearly in mind is largely a matter
of,gathering all the informa-
tion ne-eded to understand it and then applying your best logic
to it. Gathering the right
information can involve many tasks, depending on the problem'
It may mean gathering
material from company files, talking over the problem with
experts, searching through
print and electronic sour""*, and discussing the problem with
those who authorized the
report. In general, you should continue this preliminary
investigation until you have
the information you need to understand your problem.
l{eed for a Ciear Statement oi the Problcm
After you understand your problem, your next step is to state it
clearly' Writing the
problem statement is good practice for several reasons. A
written statement serves as
u tt"tptut touchstone, [eeping you on track as you continue
through the project. In ad-

12. dition, a written statemenl can be reviewed, approved, and
evaluated by people whose
assistance may be valuable. Most important of all, putting the
problem in writing
forces you to think it through.
Theproblem statementn-ormally takes one of three forms:
infinitive phrase, question'
or declarative statement. To illusirate each, we will use the
problem of determining
why sales at a certain store have declined:
l. InJinitive phrase: "To determine the causes of decreasing
sales at Store X."
?. Question: "What are the causes of decreasing sales at Store
X?"
PART 4 Fundamentals of Report Writing
To do this, you should
begin by gathering all the
information you need to
understand the Problem.
Then you should express
the problem clearlY,
preferably in writing.
The problem statemenl
may be (1)an infinitive
phrase, (2) a question,
or (3) a declarative
statement,

13. 294
ffi
iterpnrt-Writing Fractices ancl the !iarb;rnes-Oxley,{ct
Changes in the regulatory environment can have a signilicant
impact on the kinds of reporting that companies musl do. One
of the most major changes in recent history was the adoption of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002J The law, which applies to
all publicly traded companies, is intended to prevent financial
scandals like those involving Enron, ArthurAndersen, Tyco,
and WorldCom and to restore investor confidence. lt requires
companies to submit periodic reports on their financial prac-
tices to outside audit committees and assessments of those
practices to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
beyond the financial repofts they were already submitting (such
as their annual 10-K reports). But chief financial officerc
are not the only ones writing more reports. Managers, office
personnel, and information lechnology professionals also must
do much more repoding on procedures and controls involving
financial transactions and record keeping. And the process
of bringing these companies into compliance has generated
thousands of internal directives and reports.
You will not be able to predict all the kinds of reports you may
be asked to write. At any moment, your company, its
needs, or its environment may change. You must be ready to
adapt with your problem-analysis, data-gathering, interpret-
ing, and writing skills.
"For further information, see the Securities and Exchange
Commission website at
<http://www.sec.gov/about/laws.shtml#sox20o2> and the

14. Beginner's Guide website at
<http://beginnersguide.com/aCcounting/sarbanesoxley/>.
3. Declqrative statement: "Store X sales are decreasing, and
management wants to
know why."
You may use any of the three forms for stating the report
problem. All of them should
give a problem statement with equal clarity and with the same
intended meaning.
One way to make sure you have the problem clearly in mind is
to state it in one
form (say the infinitive phrase) and then state it again in
another form (say the question
fbrm). No differences in meanings should exist between the two
problem statements.
If there are differences, you should rethink the report problem
for clarity before you
proceed further in the report process,
understand, though, that no matter how earnestly you've tried to
frame the prob-
lem correctly, your conception of it may change as you continue
with your research.
As Chapters 1 and 5 point out, effective writing often involves a
certain amount of
revisiting earlier steps (rectffsivify). You may need to revise
your conception of the
probiem as you gather more information. But a clear statement
of your problem-solv-
ing purpose at any given point is essential, both to guide your
research and ro let others
know where you are headed. It will also be an essential
component of the infocluction

15. for your finished report and of other front matter intended to
orient your readers (for
example, the letter of transmittal and executive summary).
DETERMINING THE FACTORS
After stating the problem, you determine what needs to be done
to solve it. Specifi-
cally, you look for the factors of the problem. That is, you
determine what subjecl areas
you must look into to solve the problem.
Problem factors may be of three types. First, they may be
subtopics of the over-
all topic about which the report is concerned. Second, they may
be hypotheses that
must be lested. Third, in problems that involve comparisons,
they may be the bases on
which the comparisons are rnade.
L.lsc of 5ubto1:ics in ii:fornlari$n fteports
If the problem concerns a need fbr information, your mental
effort should produce
the main areas about which information is needed. Illustrating
this type of sitriation is
One form is not superior
to the others.
State the problem in
several forms. The
meaning should be the
same.
You may need to revise
your problem statement
as you continue your

16. research.
Next, you should
deterrnine the factors of
the problem,
The factors may be
subtopics of the overall
topic, hypotheses, or
bases for comparison.
Subtopics of the overall
topic are the factors in
information reports.
CHAPTER 10 Basics of Report Writing 295
Most email messages
are written informally.
Some resemble letters
and follow letter form,
Some are repofts. Such
email reports tend to
be formal, factual, and
problem related.
There are many types
of shorl reports. Here
we cover five common
types.
Routine operational

17. reports keep others
informed about company
operations.
The form and content will
vary, depending on the
company,
These repons should
deliver the required
intormation efficiently,
clearly, and on time.
Your word-processing
program's template
macro or merge feature
can save you time on
routine reports.
Because ernail is primarily communication between people who
know each other,
it is usually informal. In fact. many are hurried, casual
messages. Some email, how-
ever, is fbrmal, especially reports directed to readers high in the
administration of the
organization.
As indicated in Chapter 5. some email messages resemble
letters. Others, however,
are more appropriately classified as reports. Most email reports
tend to be more formal
and factual. In fact, some email reports rival the longer forms in
formality. Like the
longer forms, they may use headings to display content and
graphics to support the
text. Email reports tend to be problem related.

18. TYPES OF SHORT REPORTS
Because organizations depend heavily on short reports, there are
many varieties, writ-
ten for many different purposes. We cover some of the most
common types herc, but
the form they take will vary fiom company to company. Also,
most companies will
have developed cerlain unique report forms for their special
purposes. Always study
your company's ways of reporting before contributing a report
yourself.
ltoutjne Operationai ll"eports
The majority of the reports written within companies are routine
reports that keep
supervisors, managers, and team members informed about the
company's operations.
These can be daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports on the
work of each depart-
ment or even each employee. They can relate production data,
information on visits to
customers, issues that have arisen, or any kind of information
that others in the orga-
nization need on a routine basis.
The form and contents of these reports will vary from company
to company and
manager to manager. Many will be submitted on predesigned
forms. Others may not
use forms but will follow a prescribed format. Still others will
be shaped by the writ-
er's own judgment about what to include and how to present it.
The nature and culture
of the organization can heavily influence the forms taken by
these reports. One innova-

19. tive format for weekly reporting is the 5-15 report.l
The name comes from the fact that it is intended to be read in 5
and written in
15 minutes. Its typical three-part contents are a description of
what the employee did
that week, a statement about the employee's morale and that of
others he or she worked
with, and one idea for how to improve operations. Clearly, this
format would work
best in an organization where employees have nonroutinized
jobs and the management
vaiues the employees' opinions.
Whabver the form, the routine operational report should convey
clearly and quickly
what readers most need and want to know about the time period
in question. It is also
an opportunity for you, the writer, to showcase your ability to
gather needed informa-
tion on deadline.
When using standardized forms for periodic reports, you should
consider develop-
ing a templaie macro or merge document with your word
processing software. Amacro
would fill in all the standard parts for you, pausing to let you
fill in the variable infor-
mation. A template merge document would prompt you for the
variables first, merging
them with the primary document later. However standardized
the process, you will still
need to be careful to gather accurate information and state it
clearly.
Ilrogress lleprclvls

20. You can think of an internal progress report as a routine
operational report except that
it tends to be submitted on an as-needed basis and, as its name
implies, it focuses on
r For a fuller description and history, see Joyce Wycoff, "5- I 5
Reports; Coirmunication for Dispersed Organizations,"
2001. InnovationNet* ork. 8 lay 2006
<http://www.thinksmart.com/articles15l5-report-s.html>.
PART 4 Fundamentals of Report Writing
Progress reports review
progress on an activity.
340