Review Attached Guidelines and Instructions and Label Slides based on each requirement

Locate any report or periodical article that contains at least two different graphical representations of data or use one of the supplied articles. Interpret the graphs and present your findings in a brief PowerPoint presentation (6 slides). Explain the points in your 5-8 minute presentation with very detailed presenter’s notes in the PowerPoint slides.

Business administrators and managers are often called upon to interpret data that analysts have provided to them. This requires an understanding of the data sources (when, where, and how data is collected; formatted or stored; and used), as well as what that data looks like and how it can be summarized. In this first assessment, you are asked to locate any report or periodical article used in a business context of interest to you that contains at least two different graphical representations of data. You will interpret the graphical data representations and present your findings in a brief PowerPoint deck, as if you were presenting during a company meeting.

In this assessment you will learn about the collection, formatting, and use of raw data, as well as graphical and tabular methods for summarizing it. You will also get started with the technology that you will use in this course: Microsoft Excel (including the Data Analysis ToolPak add-in).

Review Attached Guidelines and Instructions and Label Slides based on each requirement

Scenario

You are an analyst in a business. You may choose a real or fictional business of interest. Any business that has practical meaning for you is an appropriate choice for this assessment.

You have been given you a report containing some graphs and charts and must interpret and explain two of them at a department meeting.

Your Role

You have been invited to be one of many presenters at a departmental meeting that employees of all levels will attend. You have been allotted 5–8 minutes, and the purpose of your speech is to explain the two charts or tables that your analyst has given you.

 

Instructions

1. Select two graphical representations of data, such as pie charts, bar charts, scatter plots and trend lines, or tables.

. You may use published articles, annual report graphics from publicly traded companies, or any published business report.

. A list of appropriate articles has been compiled for this assessment. You may select one of the articles from the list in Resources or find your own article that meets the criteria.

. If you cannot find any published data graphics, you may create them.

· Identify the business context, such as an online store, a brick-and-mortar business, year-end review, product kickoff, recently merged or new IPO company, or a family-owned business.

. This company background information should help explain why the data is relevant.

· Interpret your chosen data representation in the context of the business situation. The following are typical questions an analyst would use to interpret the data:

. What is being measured (the variables)?

. What are the relationships among the variables?

. What are the trends in the data?

. How can the data be applied in the business context?

· Create an effective 6-slide PowerPoint presentation that could be presented at a departmental meeting.

. An effective PowerPoint presentation for this purpose typically includes:

. 1 title slide, APA formatted.

. 1 introduction slide explaining the business context.

. 1 slide for each of the two graphics in your report.

. You may insert or paste the charts and include an appropriate citation (2 total slides for this portion of the presentation).

. Explain the meaning of each graphical data representation.

· 1 conclusion slide in which you explain how the data may affect the business context or how each graph may be applied in your business context to inform decision making.

· 1 slide with APA-formatted references, including the source of each graph.

· Prepare a short speech that presents your analysis so that it is relevant to people of all levels of the company and include detailed presenter’s notes in the PowerPoint slides.

Case 15-2 Penthouse International v. Barnes

United States Court of Appeals 792 F.2d 943 (9th Cir. 1986)

Priscilla Barnes was a hostess at a club in Hollywood, California, when she was approached by a freelance photographer (Dunas) who sold nude photographs to Penthouse magazine. Dunas was an independent contractor. He asked Barnes to pose nude. She agreed but did not want her actual name used. Dunas agreed to her terms, and Barnes signed a “Release, Authorization and Agreement Form” that gave Penthouse the right to “republish photographic pictures or portraits.” Dunas added the term AKA (also known as) on the contract to indicate that the photographs would not be published under her actual name, but under a pseudonym. Penthouse did so in 1976.

Later, Barnes became a well-known television broadcaster for a station in Los Angeles. When Penthouse informed her in 1983 that it wished to republish her nude photograph, she threatened to sue, claiming that Dunas had implied agency to write the term AKA and that Penthouse was thus bound by his actions and representations. Penthouse requested a declaratory judgment from the federal district court allowing it to republish a nude photo of the defendant. The district court found for Barnes and issued an injunction against Penthouse. Penthouse appealed.

Judge Boochever

Under California law, questions regarding the existence of agency are questions of fact that we review for clear error. California Civil Code Section 2316 defines actual authority as “such as a principal intentionally confers upon the agent, or intentionally, or by want of ordinary care, allows the agent to believe himself to possess.” At issue is whether Dunas contracted to act on behalf of Penthouse.

Penthouse instructed photographers “to get a signed model release and not to alter the release in any way, without our permission.” However, Penthouse carried Dunas’s name on its masthead, gave him blank Penthouse contracts, may have given him business cards, and had him present contracts to models. Thus, although the record conflicts as to whether Dunas was an actual agent of Penthouse, on review, we cannot find that the district court clearly erred in finding Dunas to be a Penthouse agent.

Having found that the district court did not err in characterizing Dunas as an agent, we next turn to whether Dunas was acting within the scope of his authority by modifying the contract. Barnes does not contend nor is there evidence that Dunas possessed express actual authority to modify the contract. Dunas, however, had implied actual authority. Implied actual authority requires that (1) Dunas believe that he was authorized to modify the contract based on Penthouse conduct known to him or (2) such a belief was reasonable.

Circumstantial evidence exists that Dunas placed “AKA” on other contracts with no objection from Penthouse. In June 1974, a year and a half before Barnes posed, contracts prepared by Dunas had “AKA” on them. Further, Penthouse internal memoranda reflect an understanding among Penthouse employees that “AKA” added to a contract meant that Penthouse was to associate a fictitious name with a woman’s photograph. The evidence thus indicates that Dunas reasonably believed that he was authorized to add “AKA” and modify the contract to require that only a fictitious name be used. *

*  Penthouse International v. Barnes, United States Court of Appeals 792 F.2d 943 (9th Cir. 1986).

Affirmed in favor of Defendant, Barnes.

Critical Thinking About The Law

One of the primary purposes of a judge’s opinion is to explain the court’s reasoning in a particular case. A judge’s opinion is not arbitrary, in the sense that a judge must give due consideration to relevant facts and rules of law for any legal issue. From a judge’s opinion, we are, therefore, able to know not only a judge’s conclusion but also the reason the judge ruled for one party over another. These opinions provide the court’s rationale in a particular case, which may later be used as precedent for subsequent cases that contain similar fact patterns. In Case 15-2, the judge provided several reasons to support the conclusion. The next two questions relate to the judge’s reasoning in Case 15-2.

1. What reasons did the judge provide for ruling in favor of the defendant?

Clue: To ensure that you have found a reason, ask yourself whether what you have listed answers this question: “Why did the court rule for the defendant?”

2. What aspects of the court’s reasoning were particularly strong or weak? (Remember that just because reasons are given does not mean that these reasons are necessarily strong.)

Clue: Reverse the roles in this case and assume that you are the plaintiff’s lawyer. With which parts of the judge’s opinion would you still disagree based on the court’s reasoning? Would there be parts of the judge’s reasoning with which, even though you were the opposing party, you would agree?