Unit 6 Business Decision Making HND in Business Regent College Level 4

TASK 1

1.1 Creating a plan for data collection

Data collection is a process for collecting and measuring the information of any segment. Data are collected from two major sources that are primary sources and secondary sources. Data collection is one of the most important component of the business which collects all the information of past and current. It helps to the business in gathering the informations. The researchers are doing research for collecting the past informations and to know the current trends of market (Heintz, Belaud and Gerbaud, 2014). The researchers are need to research data to understand past conditions and current by which the firm can make the strategies according to achieve the current trend. The data are collected by primary as well as secondary sources. In primary data it is an information that researcher collect specifically for purpose of the research project. While, secondary data refers to the information that were gathered and published by others researchers.

Primary data are those informations which are gathered through first hand investigation. This data are collected by researcher first time to know the current trend of market and business. These data gives information to company about what is going in market presently as well as to know the current situations of the current market and business. In order to data collection the secondary data are those which are already published in the market (Resende and de Sousa, 2013). Secondary data are researched and published by other scholars or investigators. Primary data are collected through interviews, questionnaires, experiments, surveys, measurements and focus groups while the secondary data are collected from the journals, newspapers and publishers.

The data collection are very necessary for every businesses. From this the company know the past performance of business and analyse the current market trend as well. The management of business need to data for know the business situation by which managers can predict about the future trend as well. Management need to data collection to know from past to present what are fluctuations are arises in business (Wang and Zhang, 2013). On the basis of past to current information they can predict about the future and on the basis of that they set the business goal and make strategies to achieve goal. Hence, the data collection is very important component for business.

1.2 Survey methodology and sampling techniques

For survey in the present report, sample of 50 people will be taken for research. Questionnaire will be distributed among these 50 people to collect informations. There are various sampling techniques for survey which are given as below:

Stratified Sampling Method: It is one of a method of sampling techniques in which sample is taken from population on the basis of the demographic factor. In this the people are grouping in order to gender, age, marital status, occupation, income, education etc. This method is very useful to know opinion of different people as per the above demographic factors (Caniëls and Bakens, 2012). This method of sampling is used by researcher from various types of people to get valid and reliable information. The method is most useful for consumer behaviour segment in business. In this present study or research the stratified sampling technique is using.

Cluster Sampling Method: Another method of sampling is cluster sampling method where the researcher take sample from population on the basis of geographic areas. In this method the researcher divide different area and take the sample from the sub divisions of the geographic areas. It is used in marketing research because they have to do research in every areas.

Simple Random Sampling Method: Simple random sampling method is well known and very simple method for survey or research. In this method sample is taken randomly among the population (Morita and et.al., 2014). To do survey from this method there is any parameter not used by the researcher to take sample from the population. This method is appropriate where researcher not wants to any specific response such as geographic or demographic. The method not gives proper and valid answer of survey.

Convenience Sampling Method: Last method of sampling is convenience sampling method where investigator take sample from population according to its convenience. In this method there is no parameter used by investigator. It is similar to simple random method. There are high degree of similarity between simple random and convenience sampling method (Lin, Cole and Dalkir 2014). The researcher are like to use simple random method instead of relevant method.

1.3 Questionnaire for research

1. Are you satisfied with the cloth brands offered by Marks and Spencer ?

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

2. How frequently you purchase cloths from showroom of Marks and Spencer?

• Once in a weak
• Once in a month
• Once in a year
• Never

3. Which source made you prefer to purchase products from Marks and Spencer ?

• Newspaper   
• Television  
• Friends  
• Others

4. For which segment you buy branded cloths ?

• Females
• males  
• kids  

5. Will you give preference for discounts and attractive offers given by an enterprise?

• Strongly Agree
• Agree   
• Neutral  
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

6.You give preference for price of the apparel while purchasing clothing products ?

• Strongly Agree  
• Agree  
• Neutral  
• Disagree  
• Strongly Disagree

7. Do you give preferences for purchasing branded products ?

• Strongly Agree
• Agree  
• Neutral  
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

8. Do you give preferences for purchasing clothing brand that have popular celebrities as their brand ambassador?

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Neutral  
• Disagree  
• Strongly Disagree

9.  Do you agree that a well known clothing brand represents better quality ?

• Strongly Agree
• Agree   
• Neutral  
• Disagree  
• Strongly Disagree

10. Do you agree that Clothing brands of Marks and Spencer offer value of money?

• Strongly Agree  
• Agree   
• Neutral  
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

TASK 2

2.1 Information for decision making

Above table is related to the revenue and research is based on the revenue. In the table revenue is derived of two companies. Total revenue is of Marks & Spencer company and another is revenue of general merchandise. The revenue is from the financial year 2005 to the financial year 2015 is mentioned in above table.

Mean: Mean is a statistical tool which gives the average value of overall data. Mean is very important tool for analysing business performance in terms of profit (Govindan and et.al., 2015). In this the current value is compared by the average value. If current profit is higher than the average profit then it can be said that performance of the firm is better. On the other hand, if current profit is lower in comparison to average profit then it can be concluded that the firm is not performing well.

Median: Median is another one of the important tool of descriptive statistics. In median the entire divides into two parts for analysis. The median tool is to be used in that situation where data is too much huge, not possible to identify various trends and there is no possibility to divide data into two parts. From analyzing with this method both data are sets a specific variable. In this from one variable company can easily define that where changes are occurs in business.

Mode: Apart from above both analytical tools, mode is also one of the most important analytical tool which used to analysis (Akpalu, Alnaa and Aglobitse, 2012). This is most widely used method in statistics. From this method it can be easily identify that which value is repeated in business. For example price of stock 200 is repeated in one month than researcher can easily identify this value from mode. It is a better way in organisation for prediction. So, it is also important method of research.

2.2 Analysis of results

Mean: Mean is the value which gives the average value of overall data. In this above analysis of revenue of Marks & Spencer it can be analyses that revenue of the company is continuously increases from year 2005-2010. In this the company is not performing well up to 2009 in comparison to average profit. After that it's performance is better because profit of particular year is higher than average profit of company. In context of general merchandise revenue the performance is moderate.

Median: From the above analysis of company's revenue it can be said that the company performing well in market up to 2010 after that it's performance is decline. Mark & Spencer firm's profit is increases every year but growth rate of revenue is better in initial years. After year 2010 the growth of revenue is decrease in the company. In general merchandise the revenue is fluctuating every year. Here also up to 2010 revenue is little good and afterwards it is decreases.

Mode: Mode shows the frequency of the data that means particular data is how much frequent and how many times it repeated in business. In above case mode value is zero in both side which means in both, the firm and general merchandise there is not any particular revenue is repeated. The company is generating every year different revenue so the same revenue is not repeats and value comes to zero.

2.3 Analysis of variance and standard deviation

Interpretation: Standard deviation is the another tool in statistics for research. Standard deviation shows that how much difference is there in standard or current value of profit and mean value of profit. If the value of mean change from previous than standard deviation shows that up to which level it changes from previous level. In the above case variance and standard deviation are calculated. For calculation of standard deviation it is important to calculate variance value. Standard value is square root of variances. In this standard deviation value of Mark & Spencer and general merchandise is 968.18 and 199.41 respectively. It shows that there is not a big difference between mean value and actual value of the profit level of both companies. The standard deviation tool of statistical is most widely used by investigators to analyse because the data is give more and clear reflection of the variables and performance. From this analysis it can be interpreted that due to not big difference between actual and mean value the company is performing moderate in market. The company Mark & Spencer is performing well in comparison to the general merchandise. From the standard deviation value also the business entity performing better and general merchandise is not performing well compare to another enterprise. Hence, it can be interpreted that the group is better in comparison to merchandise in order to performance.

2.4 Analysis by using quartile and correlation

Interpretation: Quartile is also one of the important tool for statistics. Quartile and median both are had degree of similarity up to certain level. Median divide data into two parts while quartile divide the data into four parts (Schneeweiss, 2012). Quartile have three degrees i.e. 25^th, 50^th and 75^th. In Mark & Spencer quartile degree is continuously increases which reflects that the company is generating more and more revenue. Increases quartile value is better for company. On the other hand the merchandise is also having same situation that it increases, that means profit is increases.

Correlation shows the relation between two variables. Value of correlation is had the limit that is -1 to 1. If the value of correlation is -1 to 0 than it shows that there is negative relation between two variables. On the other hand if the values is 0 and 0-1 which reflects that there is no relation and positive relation respectively between two variables. It shows that if the value of one variable will change then another variable also will be change in order to positive and negative relation. In above case correlation value is 0.82 that means there is very strong relation between revenue of Mark & Spencer and general merchandise.

TASK 3

3.1 Graphical Representation of data

Interpretation of Bar Graph: Bar graph or bar chart is a graph which presents the grouped data with the rectangles. Bar graph is that which shows the changes happen in data in order to increase and decrease (Collier, 2015). The bar chart can be in vertical form as well as in horizontal form. It is easy to visualize and easy to interpret for researcher. Bar chart shows that in every year value is in which order fluctuating such as increasing or decreasing. In the present case total revenue of Mark & Spencer company is continuously increases from year first to last that is 2005 to 2015. In middle year revenue is little decreasing but overall profit of the company is on increasing level which shows that company is performing better in market. The profit is increasing due to high sales as well as high consumer demand of its products and services.

From the graphical representation of revenue of general merchandise it can be interpreted that the revenue is fluctuating every year rather than continuously increase or decrease. Here from first year to last year revenue level is overall increasing but it is performing lesser in comparison to the relevant organisation. The revenue is fluctuating due to sales and cost factors of the merchandise is also fluctuated as well as the consumers are not attracted towards that company in same proportion of every year.

Interpretation of Scatter Graph: Scatter graph or scatter chart is that which represent the data in the dotted form. The scatter chart represent the trend of the data such as incline trend and decline  trend (Mital, Goetschalckx and Huang, 2015). The graph is represented in only dot form where it shows only a place of data on plot. The graph is little typical to interpret after visualize in comparison to the bar chart. It shows the upward trend and down ward trend of the values. In present study total revenue of the Mark & Spencer is in upward trend in every year. In very few years the profit is declining which shows the downward trend. Here the company is performing well as per its values of profit increases.

Above scatter graph of the revenue of General merchandise is also shows that how the trend of total revenue of profit is increasing and decreasing. In this the general merchandise or a retail store of products and services is not generating the profit in comparison to another selected firm. Here the profit of general merchandise is very low initially and then up to 7 years it is overall on the upward trend. After that it is continuously decreases which shows the downward trend of the profit.

3.2 Trend Analysis

Interpretation: The above graph of trend analysis shows that revenue is increasing consistently. The total revenue of the firm in upward trend which shows that revenue of the company is increases. Here the revenue is increase but with the low growth rate. On the basis of this trend line the company predict that in future also total revenue will increase but with the low growth rate.

Interpretation: From the above graphical representation with help of trend line it can be interpreted that the general merchandise is generating revenue consistently. In this revenue is increases with better growth rate. From this the management predict that the future revenue will be increases with the better growth rate.

3.4 Formal business report

TASK 4

4.1 Information processing tools

Management and decision support system: This is the system that is used by the managers in which huge set of values are processed and output is generated which is used to make business decisions (Stanková, 2012). It can be said that both information systems have significance for the business firm.

Excel: It is a system that is used to perform complex calculations and building models related to LPP and sensitivity analysis etc. This tool is widely used by firms irrespective of their size.

Transaction processing system: It is a system in which cost related facts and figures are saved. Reports are generated in this information system which are used to make cost curtail related decisions (Wan, 2014).

4.2 Network diagram

Project management is considered as the most important aspect for business in order to implement any kind of business in short time span and deliver good quality of services to large number of buyers. Basically project management technique is applied for selecting new business plan and implementing related resources in order to reduce cost of production and ensure better performance. Further, project management tool plays important role for providing learning among workforce to manage different business activities and deliver good quality of services to large number of buyers (DasGupta, Lahiri and Stoyanov, 2014). Apart from this, project management consists of different aspects such as critical path, Gantt chart and other related aspect which tend to affect performance of the business to a great extent. It is because management consider applying appropriate strategy for improving current performance by using project management tools. According to the given  case study company is planning to implement new project where management need to apply appropriate strategy to extract valid outcome (Stegmueller, 2013).

The following table shows different business activities are needed to complte the project. Here, activities start from requirement analysis and system design which last for hand over and go live. The first activity takes 5 days whereas second activity is completed in 15 days. In this manner, total 120 days are needed for completion of project. At this juncture, project management techniques are applied under which critical path analysis and Gantt chart will be used. This proves to be effective to ensure optimum utilization of limited resources and meet long as well as short term objectives of the business.

Gantt chart

The following table reflects overall time schedule related to starting and end up of the project. Here, requirement analysis is started in the month of December. It would be effective for business to assess total time taken to complete all business activities and in the same manner necessary resources can be arranged. This in turn company can reduce cost of production and increase overall rate of return int the marketplace (Lomax, and Hahs-Vaughn, 2013). The below mentioned gantt chart reflects sequence of all activities along with their starting and end time. This assists project management to get information related to starting and ending each project activity.

The following critical path reflects that all project activities will be completed on right time span and management can easily save the total time taken. It enables personnel to focus upon their task by putting more efforts. Here, critical path plays important role because two or more activities can be completed at the same time in order to reduce overall time invested in the project. However, cost might be increased at certain point of time because of association of more personnel. Furthermore, most of the management ensure to impart training for personnel so they can effectively manage the allotted task. This proves to be effective to create competitive edge of the business in the marketplace.

I) Critical path of the project- Moreover, activities covers in critical path of the present project are; 1+2+3+6+7+8+9. To complete the project total time duration is to be taken according to critical path is 5+15+25+10+10+5+5 = 75 days. Hence, the project is will be complete in 75 days. It is showing that project was to be completed in 120 days however application of critical path make it easier to save overall time. Owing to this, critical path method is applied for saving overall time and accomplishing the set objectives of the business.

ii) Planned duration of project in weeks- The planned duration of project will be 17 weeks and some additional time. However, this time reduce to a great extent because critical path method would reduce total 20 days from entire project.

iii) Non-critical tasks and float on each

Float for each non-critical and critical activities are covered in the following table. It assists management to take decision accordingly.

4.3 Investment appraisal tools

Investment appraisal techniques play important role in selection of right project. In order to select appropriate project for business company follows the different techniques such as net present value method and internal rate of return. These two are important methods which facilitate to accomplish the target of business in an effectual manner.

Net present value method

It is the most effective method to assess the value of project, Under this, total present value of project is calculated by considered discounting factor and accordingly value of project is derived. It is considered as the most effective method because present value of money is considered and investment decision is taken. This aids to select most suitable project in term of rate of return and recovery of investment (Bulmer, 2012). Apart from this, following available information reflects that project A should be selected as it has higher net present value. On the other hand, project B cannot be selected as net present value of the same is lower.

Internal rate of return method-This is another method to assess the value of project on the basis of rate of return (Alpert and et.al., 2012). According to the following information, it has been found that project A should be selected because internal rate of return for the same is 50%. However, the cost of other project is lower as 34.33%. Owing to this, second project will be selected by the management.

Conclusion

From the above report it can be articulated that research is very important tool of business to know the performance of business as well as to the business decision making. From the analysis of the Mark & Spencer and general merchandise with help of statistical tools it can be concluded that the organisation is performing well in comparison to general merchandise. From this report it can be concluded that the organisation is generating revenue but with low growth rate and another firm is generating revenue with high growth rate.

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