Development of a Data Collection Platform for Wesfarmers Company

This report details the development of a data collection platform using MS Excel for Wesfarmers, an Australian company. The platform is designed to gather data from various stakeholders, including shareholders and department heads, to aid in investment decisions. The report outlines the platform's design, emphasizing its user interface and data collection capabilities. It addresses the challenges Wesfarmers faces in deciding on future investments, particularly the need to involve shareholders. Recommendations include encouraging shareholder participation, leveraging business intelligence tools, and conducting market studies. The report also explores potential external data sources such as stock market analysis and external audits to inform decision-making. The research aims to provide a practical data collection tool and offer strategic insights for Wesfarmers' future investments and business decisions.

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Research objective..................................................................................................................................3
Designing of the data collection platform................................................................................................3
Decision items.........................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations...................................................................................................................................7
Potential external data sources...............................................................................................................8
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................8
List of reference...........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Wesfarmers is a giant Australian firm created by a group of farmers as a cooperative society who
lived at Western Australia in the year 1914, almost a century old. According to Gilchrist (2017),
the company is privileged to have owned the first radio station in the west Australia. The
company has grown from a cooperative society into a fully-fledged business entity dealing in a
multiple businesses including hotels, liquor stores, supermarkets and departmental stores which
mines coal, produce fertilizers and manufacturing of safety products. It acquired its development
pace by purchasing other loss making companies such as the Ash-burton transport company and
transforming them into a profit making business enterprises. In mid twentieth century the year
1950, Wesfarmers purchased it major competitor Gascoyne trading limited which left
Wesfarmers as the sole operator in the west Australia. Ruthen (2018), Walker and Wylie (2017)
and Hatch (2016) all noted that the Wesfarmers Company headed by Rob Scott as the leading
Australian company after beating Woolworth enterprises and BHP to make the largest profit of
AUD 68.99 billion. The company has an operating income of AUD 4.40 billion, net income of
AUD 2.87 billion and total assets amounting to AUD 40.12 billion. Wesfarmers is not only
Australian leading profit making firm but also it is the Australian leading private employer
having employed more than 223,000 employees working at different branches and departments
of the company. According to Lawrence (2009), it also has more than half a million
shareholders.
Despite being the best Australian company, Wesfarmers has many challenges including
marketing and decision making. According to Australian (2018), after selling the Wesfarmers
Curragh coal mine in Queensland to Coronado, the board of directors headed by the former
Western Australian university chancellor Michael and the chief Executive officer Scott would
not come to an understanding of what to invest next on. After making a sizeable fortune from
investing in “dying companies” or rather purchasing loss making institutions and breathing
success onto it, the board wants to involve the shareholders in making the decision about the
company to purchase next since they will not be having a say (chance to make a decision) at the
exchange stock day but the Executive officer Scotts argues that majority of the shareholders up
to 80% have less than one thousand shares, that is 400,000 shareholders of the 500,000
shareholders, he further advises that the market opportunity that fits Wesfarmers well are
investment that are long term and require more time and patience before its fruits are reaped off
and therefore it is the decision of the all the stakeholders of Wesfarmers including the board of
directors, management board, shareholders and other acquaintances linked to Wesfarmers to
decide what to venture and merge into. According to Hewitt (2011) and Lee (2010), shareholders
are investors of the company and there is a need of them to be involved in the major decision of
the company.
According Campbell (2017) and David (2016), at least five major companies including AGL,
Santos, Caltex, Qantas and Brambles are linked to a potential business merge with Wesfarmers.
Despite having over AUD 12 billion to spend on merges, the Wesfarmers Company is limited by
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financial resources since these companies are large and therefore expensive too. The tough task
is to the managers and the board to choose one company to merge into. The company has to use
data collection platform to collect data from heads of various departments, all interest and
willing shareholders, board and the executives to make the choice.
Data collection platform is a tool used to collect data from research and survey participants’
online using web browsers and internet devices to aid data surveys. It is advantageous since it
facilitates collection of data easily from different people at different places uniformly, cheaply,
using time efficiently and stores the collected data in desired excel files and sheets.
Research objective
The main objective for this research is to develop a data collection platform using MS Excel.
Designing of the data collection platform
The data collection platform can be created from Excel using the Microsoft office excel surveys
in the MS One Drive or basically using the MS Excel spreadsheet website to design a data
collection platform. The design in this assignment is developed using the MS spreadsheet
website.
The research questions typed and then created in the Microsoft Excel sheets and must be
included as named ranges. The possible answers to the research question must also be typed and
included as named ranges. The possible answers can be placed at the same Excel sheet or
different Excel sheet but in the same Excel file with the research questions.
Excel sheet
However, the closed survey answers should be placed in a list named ranges to allow for
customization of the available options. For instance, for survey question about number of shares
in possession its answers are polled downed and listed as options such that upon clicking that
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item the survey closed answers: below 1000 and above 1000 pops up. This feature allows the
research participant to enter desired answer.
The SW designer module in the spreadsheet web enables the user to edit the platform and modify
its contents. The colors are edited and desired colors are added and modified accordingly. The
name of the application is the same as the name of the excel file uploaded into the spreadsheet
website.
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The user interface of the excel spreadsheet website allows one to modify the content that will be
visible in the data collection platform. It has excellent tools including the input menu, calendar,
options tabs and data editing parts which edit text sizes, alignment and style that are been used to
create great interfaces that will be visible in the final data collection spreadsheet.
The advantage of using the excel spreadsheet website in creating data collection platform is that
it is efficient in recording and streamlining of the data collected into required MS excel sheets
and cells which would make data analysis easier. It also significant since it allows for multiple
users at the same time which fits the needs of a large organization such as Wesfarmers since it
has over 200,000 employees and at least 500,000 shareholders.
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This the data collection platform display designed using MS Excel and the Excel spreadsheet
website. After signing into the webpage using a phone, tablet or a computer you can answer the
questions by clicking it and if it has closed answers an answer menu poops up where you have to
select the answer of your choice and if the answer is open then a typing menu automatically pops
at the screen.
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Decision items
This includes decisions that are sourced from the website and the data collection platform
 There is a need to know the exact percentage of the shareholders having more than 1000
shares and the alternative percentage. Also here the type of the share hold should be
classified since the ordinary share is more superior to preference share. This is important
in knowing how can make the investment decision
 There is a challenge in knowing what to invest on, whether AGL, Santas, Caltex, Qantas
and Brambles. To make the decision is the real task here. The ideas from the
shareholders might be of great help and the use of business intelligence will result in a
better investment decision.
 Upon studying the company problem you will realize that the problem is of market and
investing challenges that can be solved better using marketing studies. The board of
directors and or the executive can be instrumental in the process.
Recommendations
The recommendation panel of this study includes actions that are suggested to solve the
problems and the challenges the Wesfarmers Corporation is facing.
 The data collected via the data collection platform will include the research participants’
data such as their age, shares number information, their opinion on the company
investment and also the shareholders’ name and number though some of the participants
might opt to ignore stating their names since it was listed as optional. This data will be
helpful to the company since what the majority of shareholders want can be identified
and might be helpful to the board in choosing what to merge with. With this information
at hand, it is recommended that the shareholders should be motivated and encouraged to
buy more shares since at least 80% of them had Wesfarmers shares less than 1000 shares.
According to Kenny (2012) and Rowe (2014),Wesfarmers company before investing
usually consider a return on capital techniques which has been a major building stone on
story of its success. Therefore, the shareholders who are the unit owners of the company
should be advised to invest big in profit making company. The presence of differed types
of shares available both ordinary and preference should be easier for the shareholders to
increase their share though those of preference might not be allowed to vote at the
company general meeting but can be redeemed into ordinary shares. According to Tice
and Vivian (2009), capital contributed by the shareholders is used by the company to
invest and later on the shareholders are paid back their capital as dividends.
 The dependent of board of directors and shareholders to make important decision might
not fruitful, to make the best decision the company should also appreciate use of business
intelligence tools such as visualization, data reporting, predictive analysis and drill-down
services. Turban (2010) defined business intelligence as collection of information, data,
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technologies and application used to aid business decision making. To aid decision
making, the Executive and the board of directors are recommended to use business
intelligence in making the company decision. This will break complex issues into smaller
manageable items that can be analyzed easily and it will make decision making easier.
The data collected from the data platform might be significant but will not decide what to
invest on, this calls for the use of the business intelligence which will absolute solve the
puzzle.
 It recommended that the company should conduct a different study dealing with
marketing so that it would much easier for the board of directors and management to
decide what to venture into. It is a difficult role for the directors’ board and the Executive
officers to decide which to buy among the five listed potential companies: Qantas,
Santas, Caltex, Brambles and AGL.
Potential external data sources
 Bordino (2012) believes that stock exchange market can be used to give insight
information about the company’s performance. How their stock rises or falls determines
if the company is good for investment or bad. However, this tactic needs to be tactical
and purely professional to make the best decision since buying a failing stock share can
result in profits in the future while a rising stock does not guarantee success in the
exchange market and increase in the company’s profits margin.
 Secondly, hiring a team of world class auditors who will conduct audits jobs in all the
five potential companies to buy. The team of auditors will give their report upon
completion of the audits and also name the best company to venture into.
 Important data about the five listed companies can be sourced by accessing the profit and
loss statements, balance sheets, sales figures of the prior companies and also asking
question the salesmen, dealers, consumers regarding the status of their companies.
Conclusion
 The research aim is achieved by the completion of the construction of the data collection
platform using MS Excel which can be used to collect data by the Wesfarmers
shareholders to participate in the research study conducted by the Wesfarmers Company.
 The combination of collecting data using data collection platform, suggestions of the
board and those of the Executive, the use of business intelligence tools and considering
external data sources would all aid the decision of the Wesfarmers Corporation to decide
which company to buy among the listed five; AGL, Caltex, Qantas, Brambles and Santas.
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List of reference
Australian Met (2018) Wesfarmers will sell Curragh coal mine [online]. Available from:
https://search.proquest.com/openview/bc8e434d67fbc965ce03e70638f8e816/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=39 [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Bordino, I., Battiston, S., Caldarelli, G., Cristelli, M., Ukkonen, A. and Weber, I., 2012. Web
search queries can predict stock market volumes. PloS one, 7(7), p.e40014.
Campbell, J., 2017. Insights from the company monitor: Wesfarmers. Equity, 31(8), p.16.
David Rowe (2016) Wesfarmers has $12 billion for merging [online]. Available from:
https://www.afr.com/street-talk/wesfarmers-has-12b-for-ma-citi-20180606-h111kn [Accessed 5
September 2019].
Hatch Patrick (2016) Wesfarmers shinning [online]. Available from:
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/coles-owner-wesfarmers-moves-up-to-australias-
top-company-by-revenue-20160307-gnc449.html [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Hewitt, P., 2011. The exercise of shareholder rights
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Gilchrist, D.J., 2017. A Step Too Far: Western Australian State Socialism (1912–1930).
In Imperial Theory and Colonial Pragmatism (pp. 209-230). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Kenny, G., 2012. Diversification: best practices of the leading companies. Journal of Business
Strategy
Lawrence, M., 2009. Applied Corporate Governance: Remuneration Reports Contributing to
Shareholder Engagement. Keeping Good Companies, 61(6), p.338.
Lee, K.F., 2010. Retail minority shareholders and corporate reputation as determinant of
dividend policy in Australia. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 18(4), pp.351-368.
Rowe, A.L., Nowak, M., Quaddus, M. and Naude, M., 2014. Stakeholder engagement and
sustainable corporate community investment. Business Strategy and the Environment, 23(7),
pp.461-474.
Ruthven, P., 2018. The strategist: Jack of all trades. Company Director, 34(5), p.32.
Turban, E., Sharda, R. and Delen, D., 2010. Decision support and business intelligence systems
(required). Google Scholar.
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Walker, N. and Wylie, J., 2017. Game changers-risk: Dialling up the risk. Company
Director, 33(9), p.36.
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