Question

Write your thoughts on this discussion

Being in the Active Duty military and more specifically being an Electronic Combat Officer gives me access to quite a bit of data on enemy systems as well as what we collected. Specifically I work in collecting and identifying various emitters and emissions from air and ground sites. I collect data to pass to intel to help with identifying enemy capabilities and characteristics as well as identifying what particular emitters are in the theatre. This helps with both targeting and threat management. I use this data to inform other players in the area what enemy systems are active and emitting and push that out so that everyone has the same 'picture' of what is going on. There is a massive list of parametrics I use generally, from frequency and so forth and other classified information/statistics.

- Business research can be defined as a process of acquiring detailed information of all the areas of business and using such information in maximizing the sales and profit of the business.

- Business statistics is the science of good decision making in the face of uncertainty and is used in many disciplines such as econometrics,auditing and production/automation including services improvement and marketing research

When it comes to business, decision models are the unique representation of business logic. These 3 are very important for business for many reasons. For starters, not doing any research is foolish. Not knowing the marketspace or anything is just asking for a loss of money. Relying on statistics can show various critical information points, such as who is buying products from you. And decisions models help streamline decisions and free up time.

Answer 1

The example quoted in the discussion above outlines the various stages of decision making in the military. While the Electronic Combat Officer lays extensive resources to gather and research important data on enemy systems, it allows him/her to identify and narrow down various possible emissions from sites that could be the target for the military. Relaying that data over to intel allows a special team to analyze the emissions thoroughly and identify the capabilities of the enemy. Finally, this data is transmitted to the management team for decision-making and informing the active squads of the way forward.

The three key factors in the aforementioned scenario highlight the factors responsible for decision making even in the world of businesses. It is what we term as:

• Business research methods
• Business statistics analysis
• ​Business decision model​​

In this extract, we are going to discuss the role and importance of each of the above factors in the world of business and identify some steps that need to be followed to attain the desirable results.​

​BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS

​

​Business research methods ​focus on ways to gather effective information about an industry, its competition or other existing relevant opportunities in the market.​ Some of the recommended methods include data collection, conducting interviews, running surveys, etc. Each method has its own pros and cons and hence, it's important to have knowledge of all the variations and their applications.

​Need for Business Research Methods​

​Carrying out extensive research allows for the business owners or potential start-up operators to get an understanding of the market before making decisions of financial or any other form of investment. It's a prudent form of analyzing the way ahead without making decisions in haste. One of the most important benefits of effective business research is risk reduction. Getting a fair knowledge about demographics, opportunities, markets, costs, client response, and benefits can potentially be the difference between the success and failure of business decision making.

Examples of Business Research Methods

It's absolutely critical to choose the appropriate method to meet the research criteria. Some research methods can be easily put to use with resourcefulness and time while some might require financial investments and strategizing.

• Focus Groups: ​often an expensive method of research, it is highly dependent on the person running the group to be able to drive discussions in the desired direction,
• ​Interviews:​ usually takes place in a one-to-one or up to three-on-one groups and have the option of being customized to suit the needs of the research,​
• Case Studies: ​a rather expensive form of research, this provides for a thorough understanding of customer reaction, feedback and also the existing market conditions,​
• Website Analysis: ​this method of research is highly cost-effective and provides real-time data from potential customers​ regarding the services they are currently using to the information about the services they are interested in,
• Data Collection: ​this can range from using published statistical data of the market, to information about competitors,​
• ​​Anecdotal Online Evidence: ​using anecdotal evidence online from social media and peer-review sites ​can provide any business with proper insight into customers in the same industry.

​BUSINESS STATISTICS ANALYSIS​

​

Business Statistics is the method of applying statistical tools in the areas of production, finance, marketing, research and development, manpower planning, etc. to draw out relevant information for decision-making. Business managers employ the use of various statistical tools and techniques which may be broadly divided into:

• Descriptive Statistics – makes use of ​graphs,​ ​tables, charts, and other statistical tools ​to​ ​describe ​a certain phenomenon or to make general observations,​
• Inferential Statistics – ​involves estimating and validating facts and figures to validate the generalizations made through descriptive statistics.​

Importance of Business Statistics

Business Statistics helps a business to:

• ​forecast​ seasonal, cyclic and general​ ​economic fluctuations​,​
• ​make sound decisions by providing accurate estimates about​ ​costs, demand, prices, sales, etc.
• ​plan on the basis of ​accurate predictions and​ ​assumptions​,​
• ​measure​ variations in the performance of products, employees,​ ​business units, etc.
• ​compare two or more products, business units, sales​ ​teams, etc.
• ​identify the​ relationship between variables and their effect​ ​on each other​,
• ​validate​ generalizations and theoretical concepts formulated by​ ​managers​.​

​BUSINESS DECISION MODELS​

Business Decision Management is a method of implementing business rules by referencing various analytics in order to manage risk, reduce fraud and improve customer engagement. There are other use cases for business rules, however, using them to automate, manage and improve business decisions is the most important one. There are three major steps in applying this approach:

• ​making substantial changes to the process of completing requirements in order to ensure that the decisions are ​discovered, described and understood explicitly​,​
• ​making use of decision management technologies to create decision services as an integral part of the systems development and implementation effort,​
• ​incorporating processes and systems that are needed to track decision effectiveness in order to be able to perform ongoing decision analysis and continuous improvement.​

​It is widely agreed that decision modeling is the ideal way to specify requirements for business decision management projects. Decision modeling enables ​businesses to:

• ​​simplify ​the ​process models by modeling decision-mak​​ing separately​,​
• ​identify the scope, ​formulate ​the structure and manage business rules harvesting and implementation​,​
• ​r​euse knowledge ​attained ​from ​various ​project​s​ by creating an increasingly detailed and accurate ​representation of decision-making​,​
• ​explore the potential for ​business ​analytics to improve decision-making.​​

​It can be agreed upon that as a process model is to workflow or a data model is to information, ​the decision models play a similar role in decision-making!