Business Decision Making: Strategies to Address Stock Out Issue

The report discusses the issue of stock out in Heavenly Chocolates and proposes primary and secondary data collection methods to address the issue. It also highlights the advantages and disadvantages of using secondary and primary data sources. The report recommends using thematic analysis to analyze the collected data.

Business Decision Making

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PROBLEM STATEMENT..............................................................................................................1
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................1
SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA............................................................................................2
Advantages of using secondary data sources...............................................................................2
Disadvantages of using secondary data.......................................................................................2
METHODS OF PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION......................................................................3
Advantages of primary data collection........................................................................................3
Disadvantages of primary data collection....................................................................................3
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Strategic decision-making affects the business in the form of the productivity and
profitability because these decisions are taken for the specific situations. The study on Heavenly
Chocolates will be carried out to address the issue related to stock out through which company is
unable to meet the increased demand of the product. Owing to this, it has been proposed that
interview will be carried out to gather the specific information related to current production
capacity and forecasting related aspect. Also, the secondary data will be gathered fpm the annual
report through which solution ca be derived. In this way, strategies to improve the current
scenario will be formed whereby company can meet the demand of customers and retain them
for longer time span.
INTRODUCTION
Strategic decision-making refers to choose the best alternative among various options for
the development of the business (Lunenburg, 2011; Pettigrew, 2014). Further, decision-making
is one of the important aspects for the management to take decisions and act on the problems.
The current report is based on the Heavenly Chocolates that is situated at Hay Market, Sydney is
dealing with the products such as premium and dark chocolate pralines (Heavenly Chocolates,
2018). The study is to deal with the stock out issue of the company wherein demand of the
product is high but business is unable to meet the same. For this purpose, research will be carried
out to uncover potential issues and accordingly form the suitable strategies. In this context,
primary and secondary data will be collected with the use of suitable alternative. It would be
helpful to understand the issue and accordingly address the same with the application of effective
strategies. Also, recommendations have been provided to use the gathered data.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
According to the case study, Heavenly Chocolates is facing the problem in meeting the
increased demand of the due to production constraint. However, company has an opportunity to
increase the sales turnover by retaining the customers for longer time span. This affects the
competitive edge of the business because customers are switching towards the next brand which
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might create threat for long run survival of the business. Owing to this, it is important to look
into the issue and resolve the issue related to stock out.
Thus, a company will have to focus on increasing the production capacity for online
market and sustain the existing customers along with new buyers. Moreover, a company will
prepare new strategies to face the problem of reduction in sales volumes and an effective
management of the all online stores.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To identify the online effectiveness of selling for the products
 To develop strategies to meet the demand of increased sales and maintain future growth
 To determine the location for online selling
 To identify the benefits of collaboration with foreign markets
 To determine the location to open a new store
SOURCES OF SECONDARY DATA
There are several sources to collect the secondary data such as newspapers, magazines,
professional associations and media etc. (Boslaugh, 2007). Additionally, internet and broadcast
will also be used for the collection of secondary data. Further, annual reports of the company will
also be helpful to collect the data for the findings and more related information (Calantone &
Vickery, 2010). Thus, annual reports will provide the authentic data, so the Heavenly Chocolates
will prefer the annual reports for the secondary data collection. This reflects that application of
suitable sources provides valid and authentic data so as to accomplish the specific aim of the
study in an effectual manner. In this way, a company will be able to know about the reasons
behind the reduction of sales of online products.
Advantages of using secondary data sources
 It will be easy for the manager to access the data.
 It will provide the complete guidelines to the researcher regarding reasons for the
decrease in sales volume.
 It will be helpful to save the money, time and efforts to collect the data relate to sales and
production.
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 It will offer a facility to compare the previously collected data with current data (Cooper,
Schindler & Sun, 2006).
Disadvantages to using secondary data sources
 It will not be easy to believe in the secondary data because the collected data might be
unauthentic or inadequate.
 Secondary data collected on the basis of environmental variables and variables differ
from one location to another. Thus, those same data cannot be used for the further
locations.
 The collected data might be outdated and it will not provide the correct information
regarding the research problem (Vartanian, 2010).
METHODS OF PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION
Primary data sources rendered the complete and related information regarding the
problem of the business. There are different types of methods that can be used for the collection
of primary data including interviews, surveys, questionnaires and focus group etc. (Gill & et al.,
2008). However, the use or application of specific method is based on the requirement of the
study. On the basis of analysis of the case study of the report, it has been found that interview
method will be more suitable because it would provide the in-depth information. Further,
production and forecasting manager will also be preferred to collect the other specific
information respective sales, profitability and growth of the Heavenly Chocolates (Hox &
Boeije, 2005). They will go through interview wherein the will be asked certain questions related
to the problem. This would be helpful in getting the detail information related to production and
forecasting department so as to address the issue. In this manner, primary data will be helpful to
communicate the actual facts of the problem. In the current situation, Heavenly Chocolates will
adopt interview method by considering the production and forecasting manager.
Advantages of primary data collection
 The company is facing the problem of reduction in online sales and primary data will
provide the current, original and relevant information regarding the issues.
 Higher reliability will take place in the primary data collection because these are
collected by the concern people such as production and forecasting manager.
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 Primary data will provide the updated information related to sales and customer demand
(Gratton & Jones, 2010).
Disadvantages of primary data collection
 It will take more time, money and efforts to collect the original data regarding reduction
in sales and profitability.
 To cover the wide area for the response, it will require the higher number of a researcher
to collect the information related to sales and revenue of the Heavenly Chocolates (Burns,
Bush & Sinha, 2014).
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order to address the issue related to stock out of the business, collected primary and
secondary data will be analyzed with the use of suitable analytical technique like thematic. At
this juncture, secondary data would provide information related to the current production
capacity through which management of the business can estimate about the exact one whereby
increased demand can be met. This would be matched with the primary data outcome extracted
from interview of the production and forecasting manager. This collected information will be
analyzed in the light of aim and objectives and accordingly valid outcome will be derived. These
analyzed information facilitates to address the key issues and increase the worth of online
advertisement and sites of the business. This is because company would keep the minimum stock
through the specific analysis related to the problem under consideration. At this juncture,
thematic analysis will be used under which in-depth analysis will be carried out for the collected
data.
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REFERENCES
Boslaugh, S. (2007). Secondary data sources for public health: A practical guide. Cambridge
University Press.
Burns, A. C., Bush, R. F., & Sinha, N. (2014). Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.
Calantone, R. J., & Vickery, S. K. (2010). Introduction to the special topic forum: using archival
and secondary data sources in supply chain management research. Journal of Supply Chain
Management, 46(4), 3-11.
Cooper, D. R., Schindler, P. S., & Sun, J. (2006). Business research methods (Vol. 9). New
York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Gill, P., Stewart, K., Treasure, E., & Chadwick, B. (2008). Methods of data collection in
qualitative research: interviews and focus groups. British dental journal, 204(6), 291.
Gratton, C., & Jones, I. (2010). Research methods for sports studies. Routledge.
Heavenly Chocolates (2018) [Online]. Available at:
<https://www.heavenly-chocolate.com/contact/>. [Accessed on 26th July 2018].
Hox, J. J., & Boeije, H. R. (2005). Data collection, primary versus secondary.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Decision making in organizations. International journal of
management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1-9.
Pettigrew, A. M. (2014). The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.
Vartanian, T. P. (2010). Secondary data analysis. Oxford University Press.
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