Total return to shareholder analytics

• US 20050209948A1
• Filed: 03/02/2005
• Published: 09/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Ballow, John J., McCarthy, Brian F., Relvas, Anthony J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,349,877 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/36.R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for analyzing the relative performance of a business unit of a company is provided. The method may include: receiving financial data about the business unit; determining with a data processor NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the business unit at least at a first time and a second time from the financial data; determining with the data processor at least two data point from the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values, each data point including a first component indicative of NOPLAT/revenue for the business unit and a second component indicative of revenue/capital charge for the business unit, the at least two data points indicative of values determined at one of the first time and the second time, respectively; and displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit, the at least two data points, a first indicia for each data point indicative of the capital value, a second indicia indicative of a spread percentage, and a third indicia indicative of a relationship between the at least two data points between the first time and the second time.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing the relative performance of a business unit of a company, the method comprising:

receiving financial data about the business unit;

determining with a data processor NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the business unit at least at a first time and a second time from the financial data;

determining with the data processor at least two data point from the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values, each data point including a first component indicative of NOPLAT/revenue for the business unit and a second component indicative of revenue/capital charge for the business unit, the at least two data points indicative of values determined at one of the first time and the second time, respectively; and

displaying the at least two data points, a first indicia for each data point indicative of the capital value, a second indicia indicative of a spread percentage, and a third indicia indicative of a relationship between the at least two data points between the first time and the second time, so as to advise a user of the performance of the business unit,

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the business unit includes a business unit type selected from group consisting of the company, a product line, a geographical region, an SKU, a competitor of the company, a competitor'"'"'s product line, a competitor'"'"'s geographical region, or a competitor'"'"'s SKU.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first indicia comprises a size for the associated data point.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the displaying further comprises displaying a graph, wherein the second indicia comprises at least one isoquant indicative of a spread percentage for the business unit on the graph.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the received financial data further comprises financial data about a second business unit different from the business unit, the computer-implemented method further comprising:

determining with the data processor NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the second business unit at least at the first time and the second time from the financial data;

determining with the data processor at least two second data points from the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values, each second data point including a first component indicative of NOPLAT/revenue for the second business unit and a second component indicative of revenue/capital charge for the second business unit, the at least two second data points indicative of values determined at one of the first time and the second time, respectively; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit and the second business unit, the at least two second data points, a fourth indicia for each second data point indicative of the capital value, and a fifth indicia indicative of a relationship between the at least two second data points between the first time and the second time.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the second business unit includes a business unit type selected from group consisting of the company, a product line, a geographical region, an SKU, a competitor of the company, a competitor'"'"'s product line, a competitor'"'"'s geographical region, or a competitor'"'"'s SKU.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the business unit and the second business unit are of the same business unit type.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

projecting with the data processor NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the business unit for a third time in the future;

projecting with the data processor a third data point from the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values, each third data point including a first component indicative of NOPLAT/revenue for the business unit and a second component indicative of revenue/capital charge for the business unit, the third data point indicative of values projected for the third time; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit, the third data point.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an operator input indicative of a growth percentage for at least one of the group consisting of the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the business unit; and

projecting with the data processor at least one of NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the business unit for the third time in the future in accordance with the operator input.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising:

projecting with a data processor NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the business unit and the second business unit for a third time in the future;

projecting with a data processor a third data point and a fourth data point from the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values, each third data point and fourth data point including a first component indicative of NOPLAT/revenue for the business unit the second business unit, respectively, and a second component indicative of revenue/capital charge for the business unit and the second business unit, respectively, the third data point and the fourth data point indicative of values projected for the third time; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit and the second business unit, the third data point and the fourth data point,

wherein the third indicia is further indicative of a relationship between the at least one of the at least two data points and the third data point and the fifth indicia is further indicative of a relationship between at least one of the at least two second data points and the fourth data point.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an operator input indicative of a growth percentage for at least one of the group consisting of the NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the second business unit; and

projecting with the data processor at least one of NOPLAT, revenue, capital charge, and invested capital values for the second business unit for the third time in the future in accordance with the operator input.

12. A computer-implemented method for analyzing the relative performance of a business unit of a company, the method comprising:

receiving financial data about the business unit;

determining with a data processor spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the business unit at least at a first time and a second time from the financial data;

determining with a data processor at least two data point from the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values, each data point including a first component indicative of spread percentage for the business unit and a second component indicative of future value/invested capital for the business unit, the at least two data points indicative of values determined at one of the first time and the second time, respectively; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit, the at least two data points, a first indicia for each data point indicative of the invested capital value and a second indicia indicative of a relationship between the at least two data points between the first time and the second time.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the business unit includes a business unit type selected from group consisting of the company, a product line, a geographical region, an SKU, a competitor of the company, a competitor'"'"'s product line, a competitor'"'"'s geographical region, or a competitor'"'"'s SKU.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the first indicia comprises a size for the associated data point.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the received financial data further comprises financial data about a second business unit different from the business unit, the computer-implemented method further comprising:

determining with spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the second business unit at least at the first time and the second time from the financial data;

determining with a data processor at least two second data points from the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values, each second data point including a first component indicative of spread percentage for the business unit and a second component indicative of future value/invested capital for the business unit, the at least two second data points indicative of values determined at one of the first time and the second time, respectively; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit and the second business unit, the at least two second data points, a third indicia for each second data point indicative of the invested capital value, and a fourth indicia indicative of a relationship between the at least two second data points between the first time and the second time.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the second business unit includes a business unit type selected from the group consisting of the company, a product line, a geographical region, an SKU, a competitor of the company, a competitor'"'"'s product line, a competitor'"'"'s geographical region, or a competitor'"'"'s SKU.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the business unit and the second business unit are of the same business unit type.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 further comprising:

projecting with a data processor spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the business unit for a third time in the future;

projecting with a data processor a third data point from the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values, each third data point including a first component indicative of spread percentage for the business unit and a second component indicative of future value/invested capital for the business unit, the third data point indicative of values projected for the third time; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit, the third data point.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving an operator input indicative of a growth percentage for at least one of the group consisting of the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the business unit; and

projecting with the data processor at least one of spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the business unit for the third time in the future in accordance with the operator input.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 further comprising:

projecting with a data processor spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the business unit and the second business unit for a third time in the future;

projecting with a data processor a third data point and a fourth data point from the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values, each third data point and fourth data point including a first component indicative of spread percentage for the business unit and the second business unit, respectively, and a second component indicative of future value/invested capital for the business unit and the second business unit, respectively, the third data point and the fourth data point indicative of values projected for the third time; and

displaying, to advise a user of the performance of the business unit and the second business unit, the third data point and the fourth data point,

wherein the third indicia is further indicative of a relationship between the at least one of the at least two data points and the third data point and the fifth indicia is further indicative of a relationship between at least one of the at least two second data points and the fourth data point.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving an operator input indicative of a growth percentage for at least one of the group consisting of the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the second business unit; and

projecting with the data processor at least one of the spread percentage, future value, and invested capital values for the second business unit for the third time in the future in accordance with the operator input.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, further comprising selecting a series of displayed colors to fill in the circles;

wherein each color represents a selected time period.

22. A computer-implemented method for analyzing the relative performance of a business unit of a company, the method comprising:

receiving publicly available historical financial data forecast financial data in an electronic readable format about a plurality of business units from a data source;

calculating with a data processor a plurality of ratios of financial performance measures based on the received financial data;

selecting a business unit from the plurality of business units and populating a plurality of report templates with the received data and calculated ratios for the selected business unit;

displaying the plurality of report templates;

receiving inputs of forecasted change in performance measures or calculated ratios through active input fields on the displayed templates;

pre-defining a plurality of the ratios to represent the major axes of one or more displayed graphs;

selecting a first ratio for a first axis of a displayed graph and selecting a second ratio for a second axis of the displayed graph, wherein the first ratio and the second ratio are calculated from a common metric such that the first and second ratio have a relationship that results in a series of isoquants being defined and depicted on the graph;

depicting on the graph for each business unit a line connecting a plurality of data points corresponding to the calculated first and second ratios for a plurality of predefined time periods;

wherein each data point is depicted by a circle, the diameter of which corresponds to a financial metric associated with the business unit at the corresponding time period.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, further comprising displaying a navigation tool on the same screen display with the graph having active buttons, which when activated by a user selects the business unit from the plurality of business units for which the data is populated on the templates.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the data processor updates the calculated ratios and performance metrics upon receiving a changed value in an input field and substantially immediately thereafter graphs the new data points reflective of the updated ratios and performance metrics.