Decision Making and Problem Solving Worksheet for Talal's Business Future

• The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format only) via allocated folder.
• Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted.
• Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented, marks may be reduced for poor presentation. This includes filling your information on the cover page.
• Students must mention question number clearly in their answer.
• Late submissionwill NOT be accepted.
• Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or other resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions.
• All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism).

Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted

• Identify and analyze different perspectives on understanding problems for different situations. (3.1)
• Utilize different decision making tools to enhance problem solving and decision making approaches.   (4.3)
• Develop numerical skills required for quantitative decisions in complex situations. (4.1)
• Create a Decision Making and Problem Solving worksheet document.  (4.5)

Talal has completed his Master’s in Business from SEU. Talal’s hobby is body building. He bagged several awards in body building. His father has a small jewelry shop. His mother running a beauty salon, while brother has a car rental service.

Talal is thinking seriously about his future. He realized that this is not the end, but the beginning of another phase of life. It is time to plan his future career. He doesn’t want to do any job. He want to do business but how and what business?

Talal is confused about what kind of business should he start, traditional or e-commerce? Though his family is running a traditional business, Talal has heard and learnt lots about the e-Business and e-marketing.  The question he need to deal with whether he should join his father’s or brother’s business or he should do his own.  He is also considering the financial aspects. Should he take from father? Or bank or other sources such as partnership, etc.

Therefore, this is a question with no easy solution. Considering the above situation prepare a Decision Making and Problem Solving Worksheet answering the following question:

Step 1: Defining and Clarifying the Question (1 Mark)

Step 2: Develop mind mapping for the alternative (2 Marks)

Step 3: Generating Alternatives (1 Mark)

Step 4: Variables to consider (1 Mark)

Step 5: Weighing the considerations (2 Mark)

You may notice that the variables to consider are not of equal importance. Therefore, you need to weigh how important each variable is before you make your decision. In this activity, the following rating scale can be used:

Step 6: Weighing the alternatives (2 mark)

When weighing the various alternatives, how well each alternative fulfills the variables to consider can be expressed as scores. A different rating scale will be used to assess each alternative:

Note: Positive numbers (+2 or +1) indicate that the alternative is able to fulfill the variables, whereas negative numbers (-2 or -1) denote the opposite.  

Step 7: Calculating a decision and Overall assessment (1 mark)