EMBA 8150 Assignment
1
Answer Q1 as a team.
Q2 is individual. For Q1, it is sufficient for one person from each team to
upload the answer. For Q2, each of you should upload your own to D2L’s dropbox.
1. Complete the decision
tree for the decision analysis problem discussed in class (condo construction).
Solve the tree and answer the following:
a. Is
it worth hiring the consultant? What is the value this adds over not hiring?
b. Interpret
the probability P(S1/F) = 0.122 on this tree. What is
that number telling us in the context of this problem?
c. Interpret
the probability P(S2/U) = 0.47 on this tree. What is
that number telling us in the context of this problem?
d. Interpret
the EV of 528.9. It occurs in two places on the tree. How does the
interpretation change at each location?
2.
Cognitive
Biases Exercise
Name one cognitive bias. Write one paragraph (150 words is enough, more if you find it necessary) discussing it with an example, and how you might go about overcoming that bias.
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The following case is no longer a requirement for this assignment. However, I leave it here for anyone that wishes to think about it. It shows the kind of issues that a business faces.
3.
Mini
Case: The Shiny Furniture Company
Sally Wood, one of the partners of the
Shiny Furniture Company, has called you in to help analyze a situation and make
recommendations. She and her partner, Carl Cushion, started the company a few
years ago, and it quickly started to grow and make a profit. They bought a
large warehouse, and Carl went around the world, mainly China, looking for good
deals on furniture that they could buy and then sell it locally in Atlanta. He
relied on his intuition to buy the items he thought would be in demand. As they
grew, they added several employees, and lately they noticed their profits have
dwindled.
Sally tells you that right now the
problem is how much furniture they should stock up on for the next quarter
beginning in three months – the decision has to be made soon, since it takes
about three months for the shipment to reach their warehouse. They can buy from
manufacturers a “bundle” of 500 pieces of furniture (that includes a mix of
different items determined by the supplier) or 1000 pieces at a discount, or
they can order specific pieces to create their own mix (minimum 500 pieces
overall), but that would cost more and cut down on the margin. They are not
sure what exactly they have in inventory currently, since they grew quite fast
and do not have an inventory management system in place. There is a possibility
that they might accidentally purchase too many of items they already have in
stock. She believes that the market can fluctuate based on the economy as well
as people’s tastes in furniture. If the next quarter turns out as expected,
they can hope to sell about 800 pieces. If the demand is good, they could sell
up to 1200 pieces of furniture, and if the demand falls, they might only sell
about 400. The probabilities of the low, medium and high demand levels are
estimated by her to be 0.30, 0.50, and 0.20, respectively. The profit
contributions (in thousands of dollars) of each scenario are shown in the table
below:
|
Low Demand |
Medium Demand |
High Demand |
Buy 500 Bundle |
200 |
300 |
300 |
Buy 1000 Bundle |
-400 |
400 |
1400 |
Custom order 500 |
100 |
250 |
250 |
Custom order 800 |
-500 |
200 |
1000 |
With some more talking with various
people, you discover that Carl wants to expand the business more, selling more
items and exploring selling online, while Sally wants to focus on a smaller set
of items and do well in that. The lower profits are creating tension, and Carl
routinely berates his employees for anything he sees as a small mistake on
their part. They are getting some customer complaints too, about not having
items in stock that they had ordered and were told were available.
a) Briefly
identify the key problems that this company has, and what your
approach/recommendations will be to Sally.
b) Compute
the expected values for the alternatives in the table, and interpret.