PORTFOLIO EXTRACTS FROM PLACEMENT WITH COCA COLA. Contents Page

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1 PORTFOLIO EXTRACTS FROM PLACEMENT WITH COCA COLA Contents Page 1. My reasons for choosing this placement and the purpose of Page 2 this report 2. The Coca Cola Company and how CCGB fits the whole Coke Page 3 4 system 3. Commercial Finance Department and my role as a Commercial Page 5 7 Finance Analyst 3.1. Commercial Finance Department Page My role within Commercial Finance Page My learning style Page What are Learning Styles? Page My learning style and how it is reflected in the Learning Page 9 10 and Development Plan 5. How could my learning at university contribute to my Page employment? 5.1. What areas and skills did I want to develop during my Page 11 placement? 5.2. How could I apply my theoretical knowledge into practice? Page Conclusion: The impact of my internship learnings on EBA and Page 14 future employment 7. Bibliography Page 15 Appendices: Page 16 Appendix 1: Diary Appendix 2: Learning & Development Plan Appendix 3: Learning Style Questionnaire

2 Appendix 4: Generic Outcome 1. My reasons for choosing this placement and the purpose of this report In April 2003 I began my internship at Coca Cola Great Britain, as a Commercial Finance Analyst in the Commercial Finance Department. I was particularly interested in this role as I had gained previous experience working for Coca Cola s German bottler Coca Cola Erfrischungsgetraenke GmbH in Berlin. I found the work valuable and it seemed a logical next stage to continue my experience within the Coca Cola organisation. I decided to apply for the position on the basis that this role would help in preparing for the end of year exams, where Finance will be a significant element. Furthermore, gaining an insight into both fields, Financial Controlling and Commercial Finance, allows me to make an informed decision in which field to work in completion of my degree. Although the educational aspect of the role is important it is only part of what should be a culturally stimulating experience as a student in a foreign country. I saw this as a new challenge for me leaving everything behind and starting a completely new life for the second half year of my internship period. The purpose of this report is to give you an insight into CCGB s operations, the Commercial Finance function and my role within that Department. Most importantly the report demonstrates how I have contributed my knowledge from university to my placement by turning my theoretical knowledge into practical know how and developing further work based learning for my course and future employment. In summary, this report will demonstrate where my starting point was, where I am now, and the stages of development.

3 3.2 My Role Within Commercial Finance (organisation chart provided) My main role was to support XXXX XXXXX with the System Profitability and therefore my key responsibilities can be divided into the following: 1. Routine data maintenance on Impact My main role was to update every pricing and cost table on IMPACT from 2000 to 2003, e.g. Pricing or Cost of Goods Sold (Diary WK & WK ). After updating Impact, I had to create an Impact reference book for 2002 for the Finance Director (Diary Wk ). 2. Set up routine reports on Excel Monthly, I received a volumes file showing UC sales for that particular month. As a next step, I had to set up reports in Excel (based on YTD) containing the P&L for CCGB & CCE (Diary Wk ). I would analyse the movement in volumes and how profitable the month was. This report was an export of IMPACT and when a new product/package was launched, it was necessary to update Impact (Diary Wk ). I set up reports for the Exec Committee showing updates for the profitability of the business, particularly NSI for Brands and Packs (Diary Wk ) 3. Support during business plan periods Having updated Impact, the Commercial Department was able to create the BP. My responsibility was to support my team for example with setting up a P&L for CCE and CCGB s Total Business or showing System Profit Breakdown (Diary Wk ) and assisting in pulling together the BP presentation that the Finance Director would be giving to the European President. 7 Brief intro to Finance

4 4. Assist in compilation of PowerPoint presentations XXX was doing a presentation about Finance for Non Finance Manager. My responsibility was to support her with the preparation. I updated the course presentation, prepared quizzes for attendees and assisted in preparing the attendee s handbook. During the presentation, I had to present a part (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Ratio Analysis) by myself and supported attendees with the quizzes (Diary Wk & Wk ). Additional presentation tasks included preparing numbers for meetings in PowerPoint for example when I set up a table containing the NSI development for a presentation on a half year business development (Diary Wk ). 5. Support Financial Planning Department I supported the Financial Planning Department in producing Actual Reports at the month end (Diary Wk ).

5 4.1 What are Learning Styles (description of theory) 4.2 My learning style and how it is reflected in the Learning and Development Plan The results of my completed Honey & Mumford questionnaire show that primarily I am a Reflector indicating that I need time to review and listen carefully before making my own contribution. It does also signal that I do prefer not to work under pressure. Furthermore, it will also be reflected in my Graduate Skills Outcome. The results show low scores for the remaining learning styles giving me an indication of an unbalanced learning style. Therefore, in order to become an effective learner I need to develop other learning styles. A Learning and Development Plan shall lay the foundation to adopt further learning styles: My scores for an Activist are very low, proving that my behaviour is reserved and that I hold back from direct participation. To develop an activist style, I included Working effectively with others in my L&D Plan. Therefore, I can learn from other people and improve my Team Work skills. Other people can suggest improvements and point out mistakes. Another important aspect is to ask questions for clarification, e.g. ask them to repeat, explain or give examples. Additionally, I included Assisting with Finance for Non Finance Managers Course : By presenting a financial topic in front of a group of other employees I have to try something new because I have never given a presentation to a large group before. Showing flexibility to problem solving is another priority to learn how to do things quickly, without regard for errors at first At this stage, assisting during BP Period will be supportive because I have to prepare data for the Finance Director without ensuring that my work is 100% correct due to tight deadlines. It does also imply to take some risk. Another point I would like to raise is, that my scores for Pragmatist are the lowest telling me that I do not put a model or theory into practice. To become more a pragmatist I have included apply theories learned at University in my L&D Plan. An example is to apply Ratio Analysis to CCGB s Annual Report or the DCF method to calculate profitability of investments. Therefore, I am able to evaluate if models work

6 in practice. Developing System Skills is also a priority to improve my pragmatist style: I have never worked with Access or PowerPoint before, but IMPACT is a Microsoft Access Database and I have to set up PowerPoint presentations. As a consequence, I have to try things out. My next highest scores are those of a Theorist but I need to further develop my theorist styles. I added Accurate and Timely Maintenance of IMPACT in my L&D Plan: I have to establish routine workloads around key deadlines implementing that I have to write an action plan to stick to these deadlines. By working with others I will also be able to look for weaknesses in others arguments. My diary reveals that the majority of my key responsibilities are deadline driven, involving team meetings to discuss progress. Thus, it will also contribute to adopt other learning styles: My starting point was to work unassisted (Theorist), followed by the team meeting (Pragmatist/Activist). SECTION How could I apply my theoretical knowledge into practice? (Extract) Business Analysis 1 introduced me to various graphical and computer based techniques. I learned basic formulas in Excel which I have applied to analyse data from the YTD Reports, e.g. sum up the volumes, look up a product code in IMPACT with the v lookup function, or using the IF function to avoid a division by zero. In my course I was also introduced to Pivot tables which was very useful because my YTD Reports were based on Pivot tables (Diary Wk ). Business Analysis taught me effective ways of presenting data graphically. Within my job, I had to draw many graphs, for example to show the development of Net Revenue of CCE (Diary Wk ), or the growth of 500ml bottles over years (Diary Wk, ). I have also applied my knowledge from Accounting and Investment & Costing. Accounting inaugurated me to basic financial statements (Balance Sheet, P&L). My key responsibilities at Coca Cola were to set up and analyse P&L s (Diary Wk & Diary Wk ). During my accounting lesson I learned the structure of a P&L. Therefore, I was able to successfully set up P&L s. Accounting also showed me different ways to analyse P&L s. One model was Gross Profit Margin 11 and Net

7 Profit Margin 12 I used these models in the Total Business P&L s (Diary Wk ). Another useful model that I could apply in practice was the Break Even Analysis 13 which I needed for the customer evaluations to calculate the minimum UC that customers need to sell to cover CCGB s fixed costs (Diary Wk ). In my Investment & Costing lessons we have covered methods for analysing Capital Investment Proposals by a model called Discounted Payback method 14 : A quiz for the Finance for Non Finance Managers seminar was dealing with a case study about a possible future investment in a new mould. I applied NPV and IRR to calculate profitability of the investment (Diary Wk ). I could also apply the CAGR method as I had to calculate the growth of 500ml over time (Diary Wk ). (This student's diary was compiled on a weekly basis and consisted of a brief factual description of the new tasks undertaken, followed by her reflections on the week.)