Situation You are the founder and CEO of a public company in the United States. (It can be any kind of company; you decide.) Earlier this year (2020), you posted your annual shareholder letter for 201

Situation

You are the founder and CEO of a public company in the United States. (It can be any kind of company; you decide.) Earlier this year (2020), you posted your annual shareholder letter for 2019. Then the country went into lockdown in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

So much in the world has changed since then, and before your next letter comes out (in the beginning of 2021) you want to address your most recent letter with a follow-up, a revision, whatever you want to call it. The point is that you feel that the business world is in such an extraordinary time that it’s necessary to essentially update your letter from 10-11 months ago.

Instructions

Write an “update” to your shareholder letter from 2019, based on the situation described above.

Length

1000 words

Guidance

Your letter should make clear what kind of business your company is in (the industry, the services and products), but it should not dwell on this. Instead, it should focus on analysis of the business. The shareholder letter only answers questions of “what happened?/what is happening?” as a means to explaining “how this affects us” and “why this is important.”

For instance, if you talk about supply chains, don’t just say what they are for your business. Discuss how and why’re they’re being affected by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. (As you can see, this will require you to research how COVID-19 is affecting businesses in real life.)

Final thought

Like many of the assignments this semester, this is both a critical and creative exercise. You are inventing a business and giving yourself the maximum power in the business. But that comes with a great responsibility to take stock of the state of the world, understand how it applies to your industry and business, and effectively communicate that to your investors.