Your examination of the company should have convinced you that the key issue is that of survival. The company has £675 in the bank and running expenses of more than £110k each month. The most urgent priority is to generate some cash immediately. Then you need to think about other prompt changes that will at least stop the haemorrhage of more cash until a longer term solution can be found.
Your report must focus on the existing situation and cost and efficiency changes that could quickly be made in the coming months. It is NOT about longer term changes such as revisions to the product line in the light of market analysis - that is for stage 2, and the group presentation and portfolio; you need only suggest what investigations should be made once the immediate problems are resolved.
You are writing a business report, addressed to the company’s bankers. As such it should fit the usual requirements for such a document – clear, concise, easy to read, use appropriate language, and be carefully structured to tell a story from introduction, through analysis to conclusions. Bear in mind that you are acting on behalf of the bank, so you should try to be objective, although you clearly also have responsibility to your clients at Cyclermate.
We have suggested a maximum of 3,000 words as a guide, but far more important is that the report is focused on the needs of the bank and provides them with the detail and analysis they have requested. It should be possible to do this within the word limit, but a well-written and concise report that exceeds this a bit will not be penalised; a rambling and unfocused report of 4,000 words certainly will be. Similarly you might be able to make all the necessary points in a well-structured, carefully tabulated report of 2,000 words, but if detail and analysis are missing, this also will be penalised.
A possible structure of your report