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268 PART 3 • STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

strategies and their implementation are expected to result in a sales increase from $100
million to $150 million and in a net increase in income from $6 million to $9.75 million
in the forecasted year.
There are six steps in performing projected financial analysis:
1. Prepare the projected income statement before the balance sheet. Start by forecast-
ing sales as accurately as possible. Be careful not to blindly push historical percent-
ages into the future with regard to revenue (sales) increases. Be mindful of what
the firm did to achieve those past sales increases, which may not be appropriate
for the future unless the firm takes similar or analogous actions (such as opening a
similar number of stores, for example). If dealing with a manufacturing firm, also
be mindful that if the firm is operating at 100 percent capacity running three eight-
hour shifts per day, then probably new manufacturing facilities (land, plant, and
equipment) will be needed to increase sales further.
2. Use the percentage-of-sales method to project cost of goods sold (CGS) and the
expense items in the income statement. For example, if CGS is 70 percent of sales
in the prior year (as it is in Table 8-8), then use that same percentage to calculate
CGS in the future year—unless there is a reason to use a different percentage. Items
such as interest, dividends, and taxes must be treated independently and cannot be
forecasted using the percentage-of-sales method.
3. Calculate the projected net income.
4. Subtract from the net income any dividends to be paid for that year. This remain-
ing net income is retained earnings (RE). Bring this retained earnings amount for
that year (NI - DIV = RE) over to the balance sheet by adding it to the prior
year’s RE shown on the balance sheet. In other words, every year a firm adds its
RE for that particular year (from the income statement) to its historical RE total
on the balance sheet. Therefore, the RE amount on the balance sheet is a cumula-
tive number rather than money available for strategy implementation! Note that
RE is the first projected balance sheet item to be entered. Due to this accounting
procedure in developing projected financial statements, the RE amount on the
balance sheet is usually a large number. However, it also can be a low or even
negative number if the firm has been incurring losses. The only way for RE to
decrease from one year to the next on the balance sheet is (1) if the firm incurred
an earnings loss that year or (2) the firm had positive net income for the year but
paid out dividends more than the net income. Be mindful that RE is the key link
between a projected income statement and balance sheet, so be careful to make
this calculation correctly.
5. Project the balance sheet items, beginning with retained earnings and then forecast-
ing stockholders’ equity, long-term liabilities, current liabilities, total liabilities,
total assets, fixed assets, and current assets (in that order). Use the cash account as
the plug figure—that is, use the cash account to make the assets total the liabilities
and net worth. Then make appropriate adjustments. For example, if the cash needed
to balance the statements is too small (or too large), make appropriate changes to
borrow more (or less) money than planned.
6. List comments (remarks) on the projected statements. Any time a significant change
is made in an item from a prior year to the projected year, an explanation (remark)
should be provided. Remarks are essential because otherwise pro formas are
meaningless.

Projected Financial Statement Analysis for Mattel, Inc.
Because so many strategic management students have limited experience developing pro-
jected financial statements, let’s apply the steps outlined on the previous pages to Mattel,
the huge toy company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Mattel designs, manufac-
tures, and markets toy products from fashion dolls to children’s books. The company Web
site is www.mattel.com. Mattel’s recent income statements and balance sheets are pro-
vided in Table 8-9 and Table 8-10 respectively.