SKILLS AND LEARNING STATEMENT –

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 Skills and
Learning
Statement
This document is the property of The Mentors Network – TMN (www.mentorsnetwork.co.uk) (SLS)

Skills and Learning Statement

(SLS)

The Business and Financial Performance of Atlas Honda Limited

Pakistan (AHL) For the Financial Years 2011-2009

Prepared By: xxx

ACCA Registration No. xxx

Mentored By: The Mentors Network - TMN
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Word Count: 2000 words
 Skills and
Learning
Statement
This document is the property of The Mentors Network – TMN (www.mentorsnetwork.co.uk) (SLS)
Learning through presentation and meetings with the project mentor
Meeting is "an act or process of coming together as an assembly for a common
purpose"[17].

Jean Roberts[18] outlined following requirements for a successful meeting:

 Agenda must be known and agreed.

 Information must be available and gathered in time.
 Decisions should be noted and expressed correctly.
 Maintenance of quality.

For compliance with these points, I used an audit methodology which I usually carry out
at client; I took their print so that before and after the meeting I could see whether I have
satisfied them. This sheet is attached in appendix[Appendix10].

Ms.X (ACCA) is my project mentor and I selected her owing to her dedicated teaching
style. Our three meetings took place at School of Professional and Career Education
(SPACE).

 First Meeting:

Before the first meeting, I had read B.Sc. info pack [1], had discussions with those who
had already attempted the thesis and extracted some queries for my mentor.

I selected seven topics and after a detailed discussion with my mentor on the queries I
had and the topic selection, topic eight was chosen because of its significance in my
future as I am developing a career in business and finance.

Five companies were short-listed and having discussed each in detail, ATLH was
selected as being a listed company, a lot of information on it is available. Ms.X guided
me about the best sources of information, their limitations and importance of referencing
under Harvard referencing system. Grasping the latter was initially confusing but after a
detailed guidance I finally got the hang of it.

Finally, she concluded the meeting by setting the agenda for the next meeting which
involved detailed guidance related to the analysis.

 Second Meeting:

Before the second meeting, I had emailed the work done so far to Ms.X, so she could
review it and give feedback in the meeting.

I carried my laptop with me to make notes of her guidance and recorded the meeting so
as to not miss out on any prime points. Guidance provided was regarding:

- Carrying financial analysis and important ratios including the limitations and graphs
usage. Having used excel extensively in my job as well, it didn’t take me long to
grasp how the appendices should be made.
- Importance of business analysis and models along with their implications.

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 Skills and
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Statement
This document is the property of The Mentors Network – TMN (www.mentorsnetwork.co.uk) (SLS)
- Cross-sectional and cash-flow analysis.
- Ethical matters and behavior that should be maintained.

After an intense discussion and feedback on previous work, we set the agenda for next
meeting, which was presentation and review of the project.

 Third Meeting:

After completion of entire project, final meeting was held before which I emailed her the
presentation to be presented in the meeting.

Ms.X carried out a final review of the RAP and gave suggestions for improvement before
its final submission. The presentation session was intriguingly also attended by 25-30
fellow students.

Having delivered presentations before in school and later on job, preparing Microsoft
power point slides was perhaps the most exciting part of the entire RAP as it provided an
opportunity to depict my hard work in a visual representation. However delivering a
presentation on entirely my own research rather than teamwork was a confidence
booster.

I knew my fellow students would critically analyze my work the thought of which made
me nervous initially during the presentation. However having practiced the presentation
several times at home, I quickly overcame the nervousness and delivered a well-focused
presentation. The presentation itself was conducted as an interactive session instead of
a one-way speech.

Interaction with audience and handling them turned out to be a bigger challenge
compared to interacting with mentor, as all sorts of questions were hurled at me.
Catering successfully to the questions I was mentally prepared for infused in me,
confidence to answer the ones that took me by surprise initially. Some irrelevant
questions were also asked which I tackled respectably and diverted the Q&A session
back to my own research.

Ms.X also asked various questions but despite my familiarity with her she maintained a
very rational and professional attitude. I was successfully able to get my point across as
was evident by facial gestures of mentor and audience. However, I personally believe I
would have done better had I streamlined the presentation more in line with my initial
research, the groundwork for which was carefully thought upon. Overall delivering a
presentation was one of the best professional experiences I have had so far.

Demonstration of communication and interpersonal skills

 Listening:

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 Skills and
Learning
Statement
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“Listening is the complex and selective process of receiving, focusing, deciphering,
accepting and storing what we hear…,” according to Mohammad Amin Khalid in his
book Business Communication.

Steps involved in the listening process are:

(Business Communication by Mohammad Amin Khalid)

Discussions with those who had attempted RAP before even meeting Ms.X helped me
channel my focus on the prerequisites of a successful RAP.

During the meetings, I had to listen carefully and focus on what Ms.X was trying to
communicate and also had to accept, store, sense, remember, interpret and respond to
her guidance.

After the meetings I evaluated her guidance to base my research on and was aided by
the voice recording of the meetings I had done. During the presentation I listened
carefully to any question posed at me before giving a detailed answer. There were
occasions during the presentations that questions were literally hurled at me one after
another, so quickly that listening and answering them became a challenge which I
successfully stood up to due to the extensive research I had carried out.
 Questioning:

Being an auditor, I already knew the importance of questioning. There are several types
of questions, According to Max Eggert in his book Perfect Answers to Interview
Questions.

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 Skills and
Learning
Statement
This document is the property of The Mentors Network – TMN (www.mentorsnetwork.co.uk) (SLS)

Closed questions target basic facts whereas hypothetical questions ask for a course of
action given a situation. Both were asked during the first meeting to obtain detailed
information. Multiple and alternate questions led me to topic and organization selection.
Open questions encouraging expansive response and behavioral questions were asked
in all interacting times.

I waited until after my mentor was finished explaining before asking questions to ensure I
did not interrupt her chain of thought and always put forth my questions in a clear and to-
the-point manner.

Ms.X asked probing and open questions to test how sure I am about a particular topic.
Her style of questioning encouraged me to look for the solutions to my problems myself.
My mentor asked closed and verification questions after she had reviewed my work in
order to confirm whether I had carried it out according to what we had agreed in our
meetings.

 Stress Management:

Stress is the body's reaction to a change that requires a physical or mental

adjustment[39].

Due to work load this was most difficult task as work, exams and other obligatory
commitments stressed me out initially but effective time management enabled me not
only to submit RAP well within the deadline but also to mitigate stress levels.

 Self-assessment of Interaction is demonstrated through communication cycle:

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Statement
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(The Edge[38])

The sender was me and Ms.X was mostly the receiver. Interaction was either face-to-face,
through emails or through telephone. Communication through telephone was sometimes
disrupted due to noise because of signal problems. Both Ms.X and I exchanged feedback
after decoding what was being communicated in order to make sure what was being
communicated was understood as well.

During the presentation communication channel used was face-to-face and the noise
element was at its peak. On few occasions two people asked questions together and I had
to specifically ask the audience to switch off their cell phones after someone’s phone
disturbed my presentation initially. Feedback was proactive and two-way.

In both meetings and presentation there was no problem regarding encoding and
decoding as all substantial communication was face-to-face.

Role of the RAP in my accountancy studies and current employment role

The topic I had selected was based on my interest in the field of accountancy. RAP
helped me in exploring the knowledge I had gained through ACCA. Ratio analysis is of
my deep interest and although the detailed and through research conducted for my RAP
was time consuming, it was tackled through proper time management. Harvard
referencing system is a new tool I learned and believe will be extremely helpful in the
workplace where I regularly get to report on findings.

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 Skills and
Learning
Statement
This document is the property of The Mentors Network – TMN (www.mentorsnetwork.co.uk) (SLS)
As I am preparing for ICAEW, RAP revised and refreshed my knowledge of accountancy
and finance. It illustrated the practical aspects of theoretical knowledge and taught the
importance of prioritizing issues, ensuring that important issues are resolved in a timely
fashion making sure I adhere to the timelines. I also plan to pursue a Masters degree in
finance, the experience of RAP would give me a greater advantage in excelling in it.

RAP improved my judgment, analysis and presentation skills. It further improved my

interpretation and business analysis skills as I analysed a company facing various
limitations, all on my own unlike the teamwork I am used to at work.

RAP taught me to select and work with relevant and reliable information. As the word
limit for RAP is restricted I had to make sure I provide complete information while staying
within the limits defined, a task I learned the hard way as my fist draft exceeded the word
limit by quite a large margin.

It sharpened my MS Office skills; as, I was not very skilful in using MS Power Point and
MS Word, tools that will be handy in the future. I learned a lot from the professional
conduct of my mentor and other executives I met, which I intend to reflect in the way in
conduct myself as well.

Overall RAP helped me utilize my strengths, overcome my weaknesses and discover my

growth areas which I intend to work upon.

Answering the research questions

RAP started with introduction. Later, performance was evaluated and finally conclusion
was drawn with recommendations.

It was drafted by opting financial and non-financial dimensions as per info pack and
mentor’s guidance. AHL’s financial performance was evaluated through ratio-analysis in
which several critical success factors e.g. profitability, liquidity, management efficiency
etc assessed the performance through their performance indicators e.g. GP margin,
current ratio, EPS etc. AHL’s economic reality had been assessed through cash-flow
analysis but due to lack of external focus its performance was also evaluated in relation
to one of its competitor, “DYL”. Of all these analysis AHL seemed to be financially viable
but due to limitations of financial analysis, non-financial performance was evaluated
through business analysis using SWOT model. The model highlighted various strengths
and opportunities through which AHL could counter the threats and weakness. These
entire analytical tools supported the assessment and detailed evaluation of AHL’s
performance.

I could feel the difference between my current knowledge and skills vis-à-vis the outset
of RAP. My knowledge, by and large, improved through detailed research of various

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 Skills and
Learning
Statement
This document is the property of The Mentors Network – TMN (www.mentorsnetwork.co.uk) (SLS)
data sources such as internet ,mass media, study material, books and journals et al.
Together with this ratio, cash-flow, cross-sectional and SWOT analysis allowed me to
improve my conceptual and analysis skills. After RAP completion, my knowledge
regarding industry, AHL, DYL and Harvard referencing system had also increased
tremendously.

Understanding the limitations and implications of data and sources on analysis was an
uphill task for me as I was more used to analyzing companies based on information
already provided by the examiner in exams. With extensive research and better
mentoring I came to know the importance and limitations of data sources and knew how
to select reliable sources for my RAP.

As my RAP relies heavily on communication, writing and presentation and improvements

in these were sought through meetings and presentation. My observations and analysis
is expressed through several writing styles but whatever the style, the most important
factor, I realized, was to write best and quality content in limited words i.e. each of my
word must contribute towards the succession of the RAP.