Decision Making Strategies in Business

This assignment covers various aspects of decision making in business, including the use of data mining for prediction and decision making in healthcare, dishonest side of self-monitoring, and links to moral disengagement. It also explores the politics of organizational decision-making and consumer behavior, as well as multiple attribute decision making methods and applications.

BUSINESS
DECISION MAKING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
AC 1.1 Collection of primary and secondary data plan for Food for Friends............................1
AC 1.2 Using Survey methodologies and sampling frame for collecting primary and
secondary data.............................................................................................................................2
AC 1.3 Questionnaire for opening second restaurant of Food for Friends in London................3
AC 2.1 Information for decision-making by summarising data from questionnaire .................5
AC 2.2 Analysis of results through mean, median and mode to draw a valid conclusion for
Food for Friends..........................................................................................................................5
AC 2.3 Dara analysis through measurement of dispersion on the basis of standard deviation. .6
AC 2.4 Uses of quartiles, percentiles and correlation coefficient for valid conclusions............7
TASK 2...........................................................................................................................................9
AC 3.1 Graphs presentation for valid conclusions on the basis of questionnaire.......................9
AC 3.2 Creation of trend lines in future forecasting.................................................................11
AC 3.3 Business presentation...................................................................................................11
AC 3.4 Formation of formal business report to senior authority..............................................12
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
AC 4.1 Information processing tools advantages to benefit decision-making..........................12
AC 4.2 Formation of critical path management........................................................................13
AC 4.3 Benefits of financial tools in relation to make decisions .............................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
In every business, people can only get success through big decisions (Albright, Winston
and Zappe, 2010). Making good decisions is not simple task, to make better decisions for
business, it is necessary to discuss with employees who is going to affect by decision making
process. Their views will be useful to find better alternatives to make a balance between success
of a company and employees satisfaction. A good decisions always gives success to a firm. The
present value of return on investments, expected rate of return from funds invested and effects on
growth of business are some of the criteria which have to be considered while taking any useful
decision for a company.
Food for Friends is a family restaurant that was established in 1995 at Chicago. Its main
aim is to provide organic food to each person. In this report, various tools like mean, median and
mode have been used. Critical path evaluation is used to measure estimated time to accomplish
this new project.
The main objective of this report is to find valid conclusion from data's like
questionnaire, to help Food for Friends restaurant in taking good decisions for companies
growth.
TASK 1
AC 1.1 Collection of primary and secondary data plan for Food for Friends
Primary and secondary sources are selected for collection of data for company. Below is
the plan which is described in steps for collecting valid data for firm:
Primary Data: This source is useful for collecting fresh and high value data, This
method is used to get more accurate results from research (Yager and Kacprzyk, 2012). Primary
data's is collected through number of ways, which is Surveys, Interviews and Observations.
For survey, Non-probability samples were considered for survey methodologies. In this
method, samples were collected through convenience and judgement sampling procedures. The
overall budget invested on primary data were £21,000.

Secondary data: Collection of data from primary sources is not enough. Past data's also
sometimes useful to get a conclusion. Because techniques like trend analysis, regression methods
and least square method is not possible on primary data. Therefore past researches were include
in data collection through secondary sources. Some of methods which is used in collecting
secondary data are given below:
◦ Census and geographical informations has been collected from government
information centres. This method is categorized under collection of data's from
government sources.
◦ Press release news and reports related to rival companies future strategies, policies
and regulations is considered and converted into some estimated figures.
◦ Some paid research firms has been approached to save time for Food for Friends.
£4,000 is invested on acquisition of secondary research reports and tools.
Secondary data is also good because it is cheaper than primary sources. As no extra cost
has to be paid on research teams, employees and department. But alone secondary research
couldn't give valid and feasible report. The mixture of both techniques and methods will give
excellent results.
AC 1.2 Using Survey methodologies and sampling frame for collecting primary and secondary
data
Survey methodologies are those tools and techniques which evaluates sample frame
collected from selected population (Barlett, 2016). This method uses questionnaire, interviews,
online surveys, etc. tools to collect live data from selected people.
Sampling frame is a procedure of deciding the alternatives from where data has to be
collected. Here in the case of Food for Friends, focus will be on lists of all customers who
regularly visits restaurants, there informations will be gathered through bills, credit card and
debit card payments details. Customers of Little French Restaurant and Little Persia Restaurant
will be targetted to collect samples.
In Survey methodology, non-probability samples will be considered and randomly
selection of samples will be done. In this method, chances of occurrence of any event is avoided.
Below are some of the ways through which Non-probability samples will be collected:
 Convenience Sampling: In this sampling method, customers who were regularly visited
to Food for Friends, Little French Restaurant and Little Persia Restaurants were stopped

and asked to fill up the questionnaire form. As this survey was carried on Saturday, so
people who prefers to visit Saturday and Sunday were also included in sample.
Judgement Sampling: In this method, the subject matter specialists which is cooks, chefs and
stewards were asked to frame a questions for questionnaire, to get valuable responses from
selected samples (Wu and Pagell, 2011). They were also asked to give their response on
customers behaviour and preferences on the basis of their judgement, as they are the only
persons who regularly interacts with them.
AC 1.3 Questionnaire for opening second restaurant of Food for Friends in London
A questionnaire is a printed or written questions which is having a choice of answers, put
there for the purposes of a survey or statistical study (Zsambok, 2014). In this questionnaire
various questions like open-ended, close-ended, Yes-No, multiple choice, rating and descriptive
question has been asked from customers and their valuable response have been collected. This
questionnaire is given below:
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Q1. Which age group are you from?
 18 – 20 years
 20 – 30 Years
 40 – 60 years
Q2. How frequently you visit the restaurant?
 Regularly
 Weekly
 Monthly
 Sometimes
Q3. Is the food price appropriate?
1. Yes
2. No

Q4. Which factor attracts you to visit the restaurant?
 Location
 Party
 Time spending
Q5. Choose the range which is most relevant price level.
1. £10 - £15
2. £16 - £21
3. £22 - £27
4. £27 and above
Q6. Is the location of restaurant feasible to you?
 Yes
 No
Q7. Which transport you generally use to visit restaurant?
1. Public Transport
2. Cab
3. Personal Vehicle
4. Other
Q8. Provide valuable rating for Food for Friends.
 5 – Excellent
 4 – Very good
 3 – Good
 2 – Average
 1 – Below average
Q9. What suggestions you would like to tell us to improve our quality of food and
services?
________________________________________________________________________
Q10. Share your overall experiences with us_____________________________________

AC 2.1 Information for decision-making by summarising data from questionnaire
As a sample, 80 people were participated in filling questionnaire form. On the basis of
their responses, a valuable conclusion is provided to support decision-making process of Food
for Friends. Below is allotment of responses provided by consumers in questionnaire form:
Questions R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total
1 60 15 5 80
2 10 40 28 2 80
3 30 50 80
4 35 50 5 80
5 50 25 3 2 80
6 50 30 80
7 10 25 40 5 80
8 15 30 20 10 5 80
(* R stands for responses collected from customers)
On the basis of above informations, it has been analysed that theirs variance in customer's
taste, prices adaptability and experiences. Food for friends requires to implement some changes
while executing their plans for new restaurant. Company has to modify its quality and pricing
policies of a product to meet customers requirements. This survey supports Food for Friends
restaurants by providing valid and relevant outcomes from questionnaire as food management of
this restaurant able to observe presence of variance in customers tastes and preferences.
AC 2.2 Analysis of results through mean, median and mode to draw a valid conclusion for Food
for Friends
Mean: This method represents average of all frequencies of number of people who
participated in sampling method. It also shows the average responses of people (Goodwin and
Wright, 2014). For example in question 1, total frequencies are 80 and number of responses are
3. Hence, the value of mean is 26.6. Formulae for calculating mean is Total frequencies/no. of
responses.

Median: The "middle" of the sort order list of frequencies is known as Median. To
determine the average value in the order of numbers, the number must first be arranged from
lowest to highest in order of value (Yu, 2013). If there is a strange amount of numbers, then the
average value is the number between which is the same, with the same amount of the number
below.
Mode: The mode of set of data values is the frequency that is most often displayed. This
value is X, which its probability of the mass function takes its maximum value (Muindi, 2011).
In other words, this is the value that is likely to be sampled.
Questions R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Mean Median Mode
1 60 15 5 26.6 15 60
2 10 40 28 2 20 19 40
3 30 50 40 40 50
4 35 50 5 26.6 35 50
5 50 25 3 2 20 14 50
6 50 30 40 40 50
7 10 25 40 5 20 17.5 40
8 15 30 20 10 5 16 15 30
Interpretation: With the information collected by the calculation of mean, mean, and
mode, it can be concluded that average age between 20-30 years is common participants,
whereas median shows that the average people are of 20 to 30 years of age. By calculating the
mode, it was found that the majority of people participating were between 18 - 20 years of age.
The average of price preference responses through mean, shows that £16 - £21 is
appropriate price range for common people. Hence, Food for Friends should adapt a competitive
price strategies to satisfies customers price range.

AC 2.3 Dara analysis through measurement of dispersion on the basis of standard deviation
In the data, dispersion (also called variability, scatter, or spreading) is the limit, whose
distribution is extended or squeezed. Common examples of statistical dispersion measures are
variation, standard deviation, and in quartile range (Vercellis, 2011). Below is the calculation of
standard deviation for measurement of dispersion:
Questions R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Mean Standard Deviation
1 60 15 5 26.6 29.29
2 10 40 28 2 20 17.2
3 30 50 40 14.14
4 35 50 5 26.6 22.91
5 50 25 3 2 20 22.64
6 50 30 40 14.14
7 10 25 40 5 20 15.81
8 15 30 20 10 5 16 9.61
Interpretation: The above set of notices can be concluded that the responses received
from 80 people are very different because all the figures except question 8 are more than 10.
Therefore, food is recommended for friends to reduce these differences, otherwise it will not be
able to change whether all customers are loyal or regular because in the above case if the
company tries to meet the requirements of a customer He may be dissatisfied with other
consumers (Milovic, 2012).
AC 2.4 Uses of quartiles, percentiles and correlation coefficient for valid conclusions
Quartile: A quartile is a type of quantile in which the first quartile (Q1) is defined as
the middle number between the small number and the center of the data set. The second quartile
(Q2) is the middle of the data. The third quaternary (Q3) is the middle value between the mean
and the highest value of the data set (Ogunfowora, Bourdage and Nguyen, 2013). It divides
series in 25%, 50% and 25% in the form of Top, medium and below sections.
Percentile: A percentile is a measurement used in statistics, whose value is shown below,
which gives a percentage of observations in the group of observations. For example, the 20th

counterfeit value (or score) is below, 20% of which can be observed (Kline, 2010). It allots rank
to a series of frequencies, percentile more than 75% means that particular response has low
occurrence while frequencies having percentile below 15% considered to be having maximum
occurrence.
Correlation Coefficient: Correlation coefficient is a measure that determines the degree
in which two variable 'movements are associated with the range of values for correlation
coefficients -1.0 to 1.0 (Griffin and Moorhead, 2011). If a calculated relationship is less than 1.0
or less than -1.0, then the mistake has been made. Correlation of -1.0 shows a full negative
relationship, while correlation of 1.0 indicates a positive positive relationship.
Below is the calculation of Quartile and percentiles:
Relationship between 1 and 4 questions with quartile and percentile:
Quartile Percentile
5 16.67
25 50
52.5 83.33
Interpretation: On the basis of above calculations, it can be interpreted that people from
sample having age range of 40 to 60 years are visiting restaurants to spent their free time.
Relationship between 2nd and 5th questions with quartile and percentile:
Quartile Percentile
2.25 25
17.5 50
37 75
Interpretation: Above calculations indicates that, people who accepts price range
between £22 - £27 as an appropriate cost of food, prefers visiting restaurants on monthly basis.
Below is the calculation of coefficient correlation of Food for Friends:
Correlation Coefficient has been calculated for finding relationship between R1 and R2
responses:
Questions R1 R2

1 60 15
2 10 40
3 30 50
4 35 50
5 50 25
6 50 30
7 10 25
8 15 30
Correlation Coefficient (R) = -0.35
Interpretation: Above calculation reflects negative value of R which indicates that there
is negative and opposite relationships between responses R1 and R2. Which means if the people
having age range between 18 – 20 years finds the price of food appropriate than persons having
age between 20 – 30 years would found it inappropriate (Pettigrew, 2014). Therefore, company
has to use techniques to move them in same directions.
TASK 2
AC 3.1 Graphs presentation for valid conclusions on the basis of questionnaire

Interpretation: On the basis of above graph, it can be interpreted that most of the people
which has a age range of 18 – 20 years were participants of survey methodologies. Therefore any
solutions or outcomes from mean, median and mode will be applicable or suitable to these
people.
R1 R2 R3 R4
0
10
20
30
40
50
Question 2
Row 5
Resonses
Consumers
R1 R2 R3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Ages
Row 5
Responses
Consumers

Interpretation: Above graph indicates that maximum number of people likes to visit at
restaurants on weekends. The reason is they only get time on Sunday and Saturday, they like late
night parties here.
Interpretation: On the basis of above pie chart it can be concluded that maximum
number of people are disagree with present pricing policy of Food for Friends. Hence, firm
requires to adopt effective pricing policies to attract more customer's.
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Question 4
Row 5
Responses
Consumers
Question 3
R1
R2

Interpretation: Above data from the graph indicates that maximum persons likes party
at restaurants. After relating it with previous findings in which it was found that most people
visits weekly.
AC 3.2 Creation of trend lines in future forecasting
Interpretation: On the basis of above trend line, it can be interpreted that personal
transport is more preferable by public compare to public transport or Cabs.
Interpretation: After analysing these trend lines, it could be interpreted that it is moving
towards downwards from response 2 to response 5 this indicates that very good rating is given by
maximum people. Form this informations, it can be concluded that Food for Friends have good
status among consumers but it is recommended to company to work on its overall pricing,
quality and services improvement to move good, average and poor rating customers towards very
good and to move customers who has given very good ratings towards excellent rating.
AC 3.3 Business presentation
Covers in PPT
R1 R2 R3 R4
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Row 5
Logarithmic (Row 5)
R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Row 5
Logarithmic (Row 5)

AC 3.4 Formation of formal business report to senior authority
To,
The Management
Dated: 14th December, 2017
Subject: Recommendations and Suggestion for better plan
Based on the data collected through all the technical tools and methods, it was found that
the company could be the target of the age between 18 to 20 years. The people of these youth
should be included in the market segmentation. It was also found that these age group preferred
to party late nights usually on Saturday's and Sunday's and they are also ready to spend £16 -
£21 and above. They use their personal vehicle to visit at restaurant which indicates that they
are like to spend their time late nights. Location can be the major factor to attract these people
because these age group people are usually students of college and employees of a company.
So, the location should be near to offices or college campuses. Also, some people has suggested
to increase number of food products at new location at London, as they wants some change in
their tastes. Launching new food dishes can be advantage over companies competitors because
no one has launched new product yet.
TASK 3
AC 4.1 Information processing tools advantages to benefit decision-making
Information for every business in the decision-making process is an important tool, it
supports every company to make a decision that is beneficial to a firm, different processing for
converting the manager of Food for Friends into the appropriate results (Tzeng and Huang,
2011). Use the appropriate combination of different data available through the tool.
It is useful in analysing every types of data's and it is also mandatory to encode and
decode informations in easy form to make it understandable.
Below is the list of software's that are used for processing informations:
 Wike: It is a project management software tool, it can also be used by the company to
schedule their tasks, discuss and prioritize, and track progress in real time (Groebner,
2011). It provides navigation which is user-friendly and is its main advantage

 Asana: This is a recommended work and project management app that is useful for teams
to communicate efficiently and effectively with each other. It has top features like many
workstations, real-time updates, activity feeds, email pulls and notifications, which
provide platforms for project creation and help to assign tasks within a project.
 Clarizen: This software links project management with social engagement in a simple
way. The main application of this app is that it can easily add projects, tasks and
conversations to automatically give priority to projects, tasks, resources, budgets and
portfolios. Is also important for.
AC 4.2 Formation of critical path management
Project management of every company uses critical path management tools to know the
estimated times taken by business activities to accomplish desired project (Solomon, 2014).
While launching London's new restaurant, food for friends can use these project management
tools to see the performance of their various works. During the critical management, there are
various activities and functions in each project management. The predecessors are defined as
those functions which are being done on other functions, dependent.
Important Path Management shows that the path that takes maximum time to complete
special projects. It is necessary for Food for Friends to identify maximum time taken by it in
completing whole project. Other small routes are helpful in identifying other possibilities in
which a project can be completed in less time (Zimmermann, 2012). Overall the important path
can be completed by completing a project, which uses the peer calculation to show the number.
Below is the table of activities for Food for Friends and critical path model is also made
on the basis of these activities:
Name of activity Time period Predecessors
Scope in market 3 days
Location for the
restaurant 5 days 1
Investment 5 days 1
Return on investment 4 days 3
Target market 8 days 1, 2

Advertisement 10 days 5
Lay out for decision 3 days 6
Executing the project 4 days 7
AC 4.3 Benefits of financial tools in relation to make decisions
The process of making investment is a process in which the company invests money on
getting the necessary rate of return after analysing all the important factors such as the stability
of a company, cost analysis, risk assessment and cash flow (Hwang and Masud, 2012).
Food for Friends is planning to invest in new project which is opening a new restaurant at
London. It can use two different methods to finding best alternatives which is Traditional and

modern methods. Both approaches have different objectives and uses depends on companies
requirements Below is the calculations of both NPV and IRR of Food for Friends:
Project
Initial investment 190000
Cash flow Year 1 50000
Year 2 64000
Year 3 58000
Year 4 70000
Project Discounting factor Discounted cash inflow
Year Cash Flow 12% Present Value
1 50000 0.893 44645
2 64000 0.797 51020.8
3 58000 0.712 41284.4
4 70000 0.636 44485
Total present value of
five years 181435.2
Initial investment of
year 190000
Net present value
(Total discounted cash
inflow – initial
investment) -8564.8
Internal rate of
return 9.94%
Interpretation: Therefore, 9.94% above the calculation is the result of IRR and negative
NPV. Based on the above results, it is suggested to the company not to go for this project,

because it is not fulfilling its expected rate, which is 12% and NPV is also negative, which
means that the company has its principal The business is unable to recover its original amount.
CONCLUSION
After all the above collections of data and technical analysis, it can be concluded that the
maximum customer age is between 18 and 20 years, the party is in love on Sunday and Saturday.
This important path model shows that the company is taking 28 days to complete the project,
which is the maximum time to complete a project. Less than 12% of previous negative NPV and
IRR required for rate of return alert, do not accept food for friends this project. Management can
use information processing tools in collecting data's in three different stages which is dependent
on each other; Input: In this stage, data is collected and put into information processing tools.
Output: In this stage, a valuable informations is identified from processing tools which can help
management in taking reasonable or feasible decisions. Storage: In this stage, informations
identified in second stage is stored in cloud or server to use it in future for further decisions.

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Online
Food for Friends, 2017. [Online]. Available through<http://www.foodforfriends.com.sg/>.
[Accessed on 22nd November, 2017].