Business Decision Making

Business Decision Making Order Description Task one Write a report to the board of directors of a listed company in which you: • Conduct a strategic review of the firm to prioritise the key strategic decisions that the firm must make; (LO2&7) • Present original forecasts (estimates) of the firm’s annual sales for the next five years; (LO5&6) • Use academic concepts/theories to critically reflect on the ethical dimensions of the firm’s activities or decisions. You will need to refer to recent strategic activities or decisions of the firm in this part of your report. (L01&2) Task two The board of directors of Pinched plc are approaching the final stages of choosing between versions of their latest pharmaceutical product that should be included in their next product launch. The board has been provided with a summary information of likely market scenarios, probabilities of each scenario, likely incremental revenues and costs as outlined below: Scenarios 1 2 3 Probabilities 30% 50% 20% Incremental revenues £m £m £m A 150 190 140 B 220 250 160 C 180 140 230 D 175 185 190 E 280 200 210 F 300 350 280 Incremental costs £m A 95 B 150 C 135 D 115 E 230 F 235 • The actual names of the products have not been disclosed for confidentiality reasons. The suggested drugs will require specialist staff with distinctive competences and the estimated total hours for each product has been estimated as follows: Product Million/hours A 5 B 4 C 6 D 5 E 3 F 6 There will be 25 million hours of the required specialist time available over the planning cycle. The results of scientific tests recommend the combined usage of drugs ‘E’ and ‘F’. It is therefore expected that if clinicians recommend ‘E’, then ‘F’ will be recommended too. For other strategic decisions, either ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ must be launched. Required: Write a report to the board of directors of Pinched Plc in which you recommend which of the product(s) should be launched. You will need to state any assumptions you make and provide a copy of any quantitative estimates that informed your recommendations. (LO1, 2, 3 & 4)