MODULE 1: EPS-03-01

CONDUCTING BUSINESS
RESEARCH
 Purpose of the Module
• This module is designed to enable the leaner to conduct business research.

On completion of this module the trainee will be able to:

• Define Business environment
• Understand the effects of environment to the business
• Describe SWOT
• Understand the Importance of SWOT analysis
• Understand the SWOT analysis procedure and conduct SWOT analysis
• Describe PESTEL
• Understand the Importance of PESTEL analysis
• Understand the Effective Business Decision making process
• Understand the types of business decisions.
 LEARNING OUTCOME 1: ASSESSING
BUSINESS ENVIROMENT
Learning outcome objective
• By the end of this learning outcome Leaner will be able to
- Define Business environment;
- Understand effects of environment to the business;
- Describe SWOT
- Understand the Importance of SWOT analysis;
- Understand SWOT analysis procedure;
- Description of PESTEL (political,Economical, social, technological,Ecological, Legal)
- Importance of PESTEL analysis;
- Understand effective Business Decision making process;
- Types of business decisions.
 Learning Outcome 1: Assessing
Business Environment
WHAT IS BUSINESS ENVIROMENT
• Business environment is an entrepreneur`s area of operation which among
other factors includes buyers, suppliers, substitute product/services, potential
entrants and competitors.
• Internal and external factors affecting business operation such as employees,
customers, suppliers , competitors, stakeholders, industry trends and
government activities.
• the sum of all the elements and forces present in its immediate and remote
surroundings, which have a potential impact on its ability to achieve its
objectives.
 Environmental factors

• There are two types of environmental factors:

1. the internal factors (Micro Factors)
2. external environmental factors (Macro Factors)
 1. The Internal Environmental Factors
• The internal environment of business refers to all the factors or forces that
have a more direct impact on the daily activities of the company.
• The main factors in the internal environment are: customers, suppliers,
competitors, shareholders, financial institutions, and employees. Sometimes
they are called business stakeholders
• The business or the owner has full control over them and can be
manipulated to best suit the business or entrepreneur‘s pressing ambitions
or goals.
• These factors are known as the MAIR MODEL

M – otivation, A – bility, I – dea, R– esources

 UNDERSTANDING MAIR MODEL IN
BUSINESS
❖Lets divide ourselves into groups and in those group lets do the following
activity
1. Choose your leader to chair the discussion, choose a recording secretary
for your group and a presenter to present to the class your findings
2. List factors that contributed to the success of your business or Failure of
your Business.
3. Present your findings to the class
 Meaning of the MAIR MODEL
MOTIVATION ABILITY IDEA RESOURCES
 HOW EACH ELEMENT IN MAIRs
MODEL AFFECT BUSINESS

Resources
Ideas

Motivation Ability
• What do you think will happen if you remove one of the pillars
 Points to be considered when looking into
the MAIR MODEL
MOTIVATION
• What is there that is influencing us to do it?
• What do other people say about our idea?
• Do we have the support from our families?
• What good is it going to do to our families and ourselves?
• Is it something interesting?
ABILITY
• Do we have the ability to do it?(health wise)
• Does it call for change of behaviour?
• Do we have all the resources required?
IDEA
• Is this idea something we really want to be doing?
• Is there market for our idea?
• Can we really do it?
• Can it reach our customer?
• Can it be changed if need be?
RESOURCES
• Which resource do we have?
• How productive is our resource utilization?
• How flexible are our resource?
• How balanced are our resource?
• How available are our resource?
 2. External Environmental Factors
• These are factors that affect the performance of the
business from the outside world.
• The entrepreneur has no control over them in some cases,
he or she can only influence some of these forces to his
advantage.
• These factors are known as Michael Porter‘s five forces
working on a business environment.
• We will use 3 models for analyzing the external factors
which are: Michaels porters five forces, SWOT and PESTEL
1. Porters five forces
I. Competition in the industry
The more intense the competition the lower the profitability of the company, for a
large proportion of their margins will be spent on defending or increasing their
market share. It will also be very difficult to establish profitable niche(comfortable)
markets.
II. Potential of new entrants into the industry
Where there are few barriers to entry the profits of existing companies within the
industry will tend to be low either because there are many entrants and therefore
an increase in competitive rivalry or because the existing companies discourage
such entrants by taking lower profits than they might otherwise have achieved
III. Power of the supplier
when suppliers are powerful, they can capture a much greater portion of the value
added by a company‘s activities than when they are weak.
IV. Power of the customer
Similarly when buyers are powerful, they can capture a much greater
portion of the value added by a company‘s activities than when they
are weak.
❖ think of what would happen if the customer was powerful in the
transport industry.
V. Threat of substitute products
Finally the ease with which a product can be substituted partly
determines the price at which it is sold and therefore the profits
which can be made from it e.g. when there is plenty of sweet
potatoes on the market demand for bread decreases. This is so
because bread can be substituted with Potatoes.
 2. SWOT analysis
• SWOT analysis is a method the entrepreneur uses to examine
her/his potential to set up and manage a profitable business. The
entrepreneur examines herself/himself of the available strength,
weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT), against the
competition and nature of business to be set up.
• SWOT analysis enables the entrepreneur to identify his/her
strengths and weaknesses to manage the business, and therefore
formulate strategies to improve on weaknesses in order to win
markets. It is a very important tool in enterprise management.
• SWOT sands for Strength – Weakness- Opportunity- Threat
• It is good to note that Strength and Weakness are internal while
Opportunity and Threat are external
• Therefore SWOT analysis evaluates internal strength and
weakness and external opportunities and threats.
 What is SWOT Analysis?

Acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses,

Strengths Opportunities, and Threats.

Planning tool used to understand Strengths,

Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats involved
in a project / business.

Oppurtunity
SWOT Weakness
Analysis framework for organizing and using data and
information gained from situation analysis of
internal and external environment.

Technique that enables a group / individual to move

Threats from everyday problems / traditional strategies to a
fresh perspective.
 What is SWOT Analysis?

STRENGTHS
Characteristics of the business or a team that give it an
advantage over others in the industry.
Positive tangible and intangible attributes, internal to an
organization.

Beneficial aspects of the organization or the capabilities of an

organization, which includes human competencies, process capabilities,
financial resources, products and services, customer goodwill and
brand loyalty.

Examples - Abundant financial resources, Well-known brand name, Economies

of scale, Lower costs [raw materials or processes], Superior management
talent, Better marketing skills, Good distribution skills, Committed employees.
 What is SWOT Analysis?
OPPORTUNITIES
Chances to make greater profits in the environment - External attractive
factors that represent the reason for an organization to exist & develop.
Arise when an organization can take benefit of conditions in its
environment to plan and execute strategies that enable it to become
more profitable.

Organization should be careful and recognize the opportunities and

grasp them whenever they arise. Opportunities may arise from
market, competition, industry/government and technology.
NOTE
complaisant
Examples - Rapid market growth, Rival firms are complacent, Changing
customer needs/tastes, New uses for product discovered, Economic
boom, Government deregulation, Sales decline for a substitute product .
 What is SWOT Analysis?
WEAKNESSES
Characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to
others.
Detract the organization from its ability to attain the core goal
and influence its growth.

Weaknesses are the factors which do not meet the standards

we feel they should meet. However, weaknesses are
controllable. They must be minimized and eliminated.
Examples - Limited financial resources, Weak spending on R & D, Very narrow
product line, Limited distribution, Higher costs, Out-of-date products /
technology, Weak market image, Poor marketing skills, Limited management
skills, Under-trained employees.
 What is SWOT Analysis?
SWOT ANALYSIS - THREAT

THREATS
External elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business - External
!
factors, beyond an organization’s control, which could place the organization’s mission or
operation at risk.
Arise when conditions in external environment jeopardize the reliability
and profitability of the organization’s business.

Compound the vulnerability when they relate to the

weaknesses. Threats are uncontrollable. When a threat comes,
the stability and survival can be at stake.
Examples - Entry of foreign competitors, Introduction of new substitute products,
Product life cycle in decline, Changing customer needs/tastes, Rival firms adopt new
strategies, Increased government regulation, Economic downturn, Increased inflation
rate, Power cuts which increase costs of production
How to conduct SWOT Analysis

1. Analyze Internal & 2. Perform SWOT Analysis 3. Prepare Action Plans

External Environment & Document
 How is data analysized?
1. Analyse Internal & External Environment
Example of Data Analysis
 2. Perform SWOT Analysis & Document

Carry your findings forward - Make sure that the SWOT

analysis is used in subsequent planning. Revisit your
findings at suitable time intervals.

Evaluate listed ideas against Objectives -

With the lists compiled, sort and group
facts and ideas in relation to the
objectives.
List Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, & threats
Create a workshop environment -
Encourage an atmosphere conducive
to the free flow of information.

Allocate research & information gathering tasks -

Select contributors - Background preparation can be carried out in two
Expert opinion may be stages – Exploratory and Detailed. Information on
required for SWOT Strengths & Weaknesses should focus on the
internal factors & information on Opportunities &
Threats should focus on the external factors.

Establish the objectives - Purpose of

conducting a SWOT may be wide / narrow,
general / specific.
 3. Prepare Action Plan

Once the SWOT analysis has been completed, mark each point with:

Things that MUST be addressed immediately

Things that can be handled now

Things that should be researched further

Things that should be planned for the future

 Broader Benefits of SWOT Analysis

Benefits of
SWOT
Analysis

Knowing the Competion Forecasting

Reviews a company's competitors & Provides a variety of information
benchmarks against them to critical to forecasted variables.
configure strategies that will put Threats, for e.g., can impact a
the company in a competitive Decision Making Tool business's forecast. By
advantage. understanding the company's
Provides well-rounded
advantages & disadvantages,
information that prompt
forecasts will be more accurate.
well-informed decisions.
 Other Benefits
Besides the broad benefits, here are few more benefits of conducting SWOT Analysis:

Helps in setting of objectives for strategic planning

Provides a framework for identifying & analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats

Provides an impetus to analyze a situation & develop suitable strategies and tactics

Basis for assessing core capabilities & competencies

Evidence for, and cultural key to, change

Provides a stimulus to participation in a group experience

Assignment
• Divide the class into two groups and name each group
• The group should appoint a team leader and a group secretary
• As students your goal is to be certified as technicians which is done
through continuous assessment and summative examination.
Conduct a SWOT analysis which will help you pass both summative
and continuous assessment examination.
• Make sure you put in place a plan which you shall follow to address
weaknesses, threats and how you are going to capitalize on
opportunities available
• Submission is Monday 24th January 2022.
 3. PESTEL:
• A PESTEL analysis is an acronym for a tool used to identify the macro
(external) forces facing an organisation. The letters stand for
• P-olitical,
• E-conomic,
• S-ocial,
• T-echnological,
• E-nvironmental
• L-egal.
• They are other major external environmental factors that affect the
businesses in addition to Michael Porters five forces.
 ANALYSIZING PESTEL
Political Factors
• These determine the extent to which government and government policy may
impact on an organisation or a specific industry. This would include political policy
and stability as well as trade, fiscal and taxation policies too.
Economic Factors
• An economic factor has a direct impact on the economy and its performance,
which in turn directly impacts on the organisation and its profitability. Factors
include interest rates, employment or unemployment rates, raw material costs and
foreign exchange rates.
Social Factors
• The focus here is on the social environment and identifying emerging trends. This
helps a marketer to further understand consumer needs and wants in a social
setting. Factors include changing family demographics, education levels, cultural
trends, attitude changes and changes in lifestyles.
Technological Factors
• Technological factors consider the rate of technological innovation and development that
could affect a market or industry. Factors could include changes in digital or mobile
technology, automation, research and development. There is often a tendency to focus on
developments only in digital technology, but consideration must also be given to new
methods of distribution, manufacturing and logistics.
Environmental/Ecological Factors
• Environmental factors are those that are influenced of the surrounding environment and
the impact of ecological aspects. With the rise in importance of CSR (Corporate
Sustainability Responsibility) and sustainability, this element is becoming more central to
how organisations need to conduct their business. Factors include climate, recycling
procedures, carbon footprint, waste disposal and sustainability
Legal Factors
• An organisation must understand what is legal and allowed within the territories they
operate in. They also must be aware of any change in legislation and the impact this may
have on business operations. Factors include employment legislation, consumer law,
healthy and safety, international as well as trade regulation and restrictions.
• Political factors do cross over with legal factors; however, the key difference is that
political factors are led by government policy, whereas legal factors must be complied
with.
 PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal,
Environmental) analysis template and prompts

Political Considerations Economic Considerations

•How could a change of government impact policy impact or •How stable is the current economy? Is it growing, stagnating, or
change the trend towards re-regulation/deregulation? declining?
•Could any pending legislation affect the company, either positively •Is disposable income rising or falling and will this change?
or negatively? What is the likely timescale of proposed legislative •What is the unemployment rate? Will it be expensive or difficult
changes? to hire skilled labour?
•How will government regulation, along with any planned changes •How is globalisation affecting the economic environment? Are
to it, affect the company? governmental controls more difficult to enforce in a global world?
•Are there any other political factors that are likely to change? •Are there any other economic factors that you should consider?

Social Considerations
•What is the population's growth rate and age profile? How is this likely to change?
•Are generational shifts in attitude likely to affect what the company is currently doing?
•What are the levels of health, education, and social mobility? How are these changing, and what impact does this have?
•What employment patterns, job market trends, and attitudes toward work can you observe? Are these different for different age groups?
Are people more or less likely to want to work in the public sector or in your company? Is the public sector experiencing difficulty in
attracting the same level of talent as the private sector?
•How will you address
•What social attitudes could impact the company?
•How do religious beliefs and lifestyle choices affect the population?
•Are any other social factors likely to drive change for the company?
 PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal,
Environmental) analysis

Technological Considerations Legal Considerations

• Are there any new technological or digital themes, trends or products • Is there enabling legislation requiring the company to carry out specific
available or on the horizon that could radically affect the company or its functions? If so, what does the legislation require? Is there scope to add value
market? in another way?
• Is there anything the agency can do to take advantage of research being • Is there future legislation that will affect the company?
undertaken by other agencies or jurisdictions or tech hubs/research bodies? • How do regulatory bodies or processes impact the company or business?
• How have infrastructure changes affected work patterns (for example, levels • Are there legal regulations relevant to the company? Do they limit what the
of remote working)? company can offer or do they create Opportunities for the agency?
• Are there any other technological factors that the company should consider? • Does employment law affect how the company recruits staff?
• Does the company need to comply with industry-specific regulations?

Environmental Considerations
• Do changes in weather and climate have a direct impact on the company or its role?
• Is the company required to assist in the achievement of environmental outcomes for the community alongside other social, economic or
community outcomes? How will the company do this?
• Do laws regarding pollution and recycling have specific relevance to the company?
• Does waste management raise Threats or Opportunities for the company?
• Does the company have significant policies or practices regarding use or supply of green/eco-friendly products and services?
• Is the company in a geographical location which merits giving special attention to environmental impacts?
• Does the company’s work need to comply with any specific environmental regulations?
 Importance of a PESTEL Analysis:

• It provides an advance warning of potential threats and

opportunities
• It encourages businesses to consider the external
environment in which they operate
• The analysis can help organisations understand external
trends
 Effective Business Decision making
process
• Decision making is the process of making a choices by identifying a decision ,
gathering information and assessing alternative resolution.
• A decision is defined as a conclusion or resolution reached after a
consideration
 Types of Decisions
Strategic:
• Those decision that has an influence over years, decades or beyond life time of the project.
• Strategic decision once made are very unlikely to be changed in the short term
EXAMPLE:
A manager of Masina Solar Technologies company notices that his customers
prefer higher quality solar lanterns to cheaper solar lanterns with a short life time. The
mission of the company is to be the leading supplier of solar lanterns in Malawi. In order to
adopt to the changing needs of the customers the manager decides to shift focus quality.
The company start producing high quality solar lanterns since customer are ready to pay
more the quality.
Tactical:
• Taken more frequently used and less important, for example, decisions concerning training
of new staff and methods of advertising
Operational/functional:
• These are day-to-day decisions which will be taken by the lower level managers e.g. about
staff levels and stock control
• strategic, tactical, operational and functional
 Practice work
• For the past four years the pass rate of student at Solar Energy and Ecology
Institute continue to decline.
1. Identify the Main problem in the statement problem
2. Outline the causes of the problem
3. Identify the possible solution
4. Weigh the available solutions
5. Decide on the best option
6. Take action.
DECISION MAKING PROCESS
• Is a series of steps taken by an individual to determine the option or
coarse of action to meet their needs
• In a business context , it is a set of steps taken by managers in an
enterprise to determine the planned path for business initiative and
to set specific actions in motion.
STEPS IN DECISION MAKING
PROCESS
 STEPS IN DECISION MAKING
PROCESS
1. Define the problem
• It involves diagnosing the situation to establish the real problem other than symptoms.
• this it the most difficult thing and the most important step in decision making.
2. Gather relevant information
• Before making any decision you need to have relevant information that will help you to make the right
decision
• To get the right information you need to identify best sources. Sources can be both internal and external
3. Identify alternatives that will solve the problem
• As you collect information you will get several other possible of action or alternative. Some times you can use
your imagination to construct new alternative.
• At this step you will list all possible and desirable alternatives.
4. Weigh the available alternatives
• This is done by looking at the benefit and problem that may arise from such decision if choose for
implementation.
Example: pass rate is declining – should we change the requirement of enrollment, fire the current staff, upgrade
the staff, change approach to students, - you weigh the good side and bad side of taking such action and you go
for the one with a lot of benefits not the one that is simple.
5. Take Action
After analyzing and choosing the best option available you take action
(implement)
6. Review your Decision
• Consider the results of your decision and evaluate whether or not it has
resolved your problem
• If the problem is not solved go to step 1
Decision making style
END OF LEARNING OUT COME 1
MODULE 1: EPS-03-02

CONDUCTING BUSINESS
RESEARCH
 LEARNING OUTCOME 1:
Carrying Out Business Research
Learning outcome objective
• By the end of this Learning out come Learners should be able to:
I. Define Business Research
II. Understand types of business research
III. Understand the Importance of carrying out Business research
IV. Identifying sources of information
V. Define sampling
VI. Demonstrate Methods of sampling
VII. demonstrate Data collection methods.
VIII. Develop data collection tools
IX. Collect data
WHAT IS A RESEARCH
• Research is something that people undertake in order to find out
things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge.
• In case of business and management research, we would say it has to
do with systemic collection and interpretation of data to find out
things about business and management.
 BUSINESS RESEARCH
What is Business Research
• Business research is the application of the research strategies, techniques and
methodology to studying and solving business problems.
• Business research is defined as ‘the systematic and objective
process of collecting, recording, analyzing and interpreting data for
aid in solving managerial problems’
• Business research is 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.
• The purpose of business research is to gather information in order
to aid business related decision-making.
• In general, when people speak about business research it means
asking research questions to know where the money can be spent to
increase sales, profits or market share.
 Distinct characteristics of Research
• 1. Data is collected systematically
• 2. Data is interpreted systematically
• 3. There is a clear purpose ( a specific thing to find out)
• 4. There is an underlying philosophy to development of knowledge and nature
of that knowledge from the process
 Why do people do Business Research?
• Business research as a scientific activity meets or tries to satisfy a
number of objectives or goals;
I. To develop theory or refine existing theory in business
II. To apply research results, test theory, evaluating its usefulness to
business
III. To solve business local and world problems
IV. To increase knowledge in business or entrepreneurship
V. To contribute to the world of learning in business and
entrepreneurship.
VI. To earn a living – commissioned business research or consultancy.
VII.To some people research is a pass time, to others a profession.
TYPES OF BUSINESS RESEARCH

• This broad field of business research has been distinguished

into two types namely,
1. Qualitative Research
2. Quantitative Research.
 1. qualitative research
• Moreover, the goal of Qualitative Business Research is to get in-depth
knowledge about the subjects of the research. Moreover, qualitative research
enables us to put the perspective of the consumer in front of the researcher,
so that we can understand and see the alignment of the ideas between the
market and the business.
• It involves putting open-ended questions to the audience through different
channels of communication to understand why researchers think in a
particular manner.
• Stress is laid on understanding the intent, attitude, and beliefs to figure out
the behaviour and response of the customers.
• It involves the collection and analysis of non- numerical data to understand
concept, opinion or experience.
DATA COLLECTION TECHNICS FOR
QUALITATTIVE RESEARCH
• Interviews
• Case Study
• Focus Groups
• Ethnographic Research
• Website Visitor Profiling

Let us take a detailed look at some of the ways above

 Interview
• An interview is a structured conversation where one participant ask questions
and the other one responds. It is a one to one conversation between an
interviewer and interviewee .
• Interviews and surveys are similar in nature. The only difference lies in the fact
that the responder can put a question in an interview whilst it is not possible
during a survey. Through interviews, it is easier to understand a detailed
perspective of the person with respect to the subject of research.
Example: A mobile brand conducted research to understand why certain colours
are preferred by male and female customers. The research revealed that since pink
is assumed to be a feminine colour, it is more preferred to females than males.
 Focus Groups
• Focus groups are a type of business research that involves only a set of
individuals. Each selected individual represents a particular category of the
target market. The major difference between interviews and focus groups is
the number of people that it involves.
• With an intention to launch a new product for a particular group of society,
focus groups prove out to be the best way to understand the needs of the local
audience.
• For example, Ching’anya energies Ltd decides to launch their latest solar
powered boat engine. The company, therefore, will require feedback from the
lake shore audience only.
• Example 2 : Amazon, the internet giant changed its payment strategy to enter
the Indian market. Since the Indian economy was not entirely ready for online
modes of payment, amazon introduced a new payment method and came up
with ‘cash on delivery’ to gain consumer’s trust.
 Case Study
• It is an in-depth study of a person, group or unit which is aimed
to generalise over several individual , groups or units.
• One of the most effective ways for business research is
conducting case studies. With the motive to understand
customer satisfaction, challenges that usually the customers
face while using the product and hence, providing them with
the right solution can be achieved by analysing data secured
through case studies.
• Case study research are conducted in many fields of business
that ultimately aid organisations in improving their product or
service.
 Ethnographic Research
• Is a type of social research that involves examining of the behaviour of the
participants in a given social situation and understand the group members own
interpretation of such behaviours.
• Ethnographic Research refers to understanding people as a whole. One must
be able to grok their consumers or target audience which will help identify
patterns, flaws, etc. Ethnography is a branch of anthropology that is a study of
what elements or features make us humans. How did people live? What aspect
made us so dependent on smartphones and technology. Why would people
buy one product over the other? It refers to asking questions about lifestyle,
communities, etc., and trying to gain insight into consumer behaviour and
buying patterns.
• EXAMPLE: anthropologist travelling to the island living with the society on the
island for years researching its people and culture through observation
 Website Visitor Profiling
• Every website visitor is important for every business. Satisfying these customers
should be primary goal of these customer
• The survey template offers customizable questions that can be helpful in obtaining
insight about the use of website, such as visitor demographic and other details
regarding website visitor.
• A profiling survey is used to accumulate key demographic information of your
customers. These surveys are used to upgrade your customer’s experience by giving
them a bird's-eye view of an upcoming opinion poll.
• This also monitors that once you have collected information, those profiles don’t get
asked repeated questions or request for repeated information so that the respondent
isn’t irritated or put off to repeat your website again.
This sample questionnaire also includes questions to gain information about the
frequency of customer visits on the website, whether they are first-time visitors and
reason for visiting the website.
 Literature Review
• Is an overview of the previously published works on specific topics such as
books, journals and theses related to a specific topic or research question.
• It involves a critical evaluation of the material that’s why it is called a review
and not a report.
 2. Quantitative Research Methods
• Is the process of collecting and analysing numerical data or data that can be
converted into numbers.
• With the employment of mathematical, statistical and computational
techniques, quantitative research is carried out to deal with numbers.
• This systematically experiential investigation starts with the acquisition of the
data and then moving on to analysing it with the help of different tools.
• As the method of business research employs a questionnaire to determine the
audience response, the questions are built around the idea that the audience
knows about the product or the services that the firm offers. Some of the key
questions answered in quantitative research methods include, how many text
messages do you receive per a day, how many text messages do you send per
day. Many messeges do you send by the day, how many messages do you send
at night
 The data is collected based on the
following research:

• Correlational
• Survey
• Experimental
Let us take a detailed look at some of the ways-
 Correlation Research
• Is the study of correlation or relationships between two variables
• There are two types of correlation – the positive correlation and Negative
correlation
• Positive correlation is when Variable A increases Variable B increases where by
the Negative Correlation is when variable A increases variable B decreases.
• Under this research, usually two entities are put together to examine the
impact they create over each other.
• As suggested by the name it is the best process to understand patterns,
relationships and trends.
• the data grasped through correlation research is generally combined with other
tools as one cannot achieve a firm conclusion using this type of business
research.
 Survey
• A survey is a list of question aimed for extracting specific data from a
particular group of people .
• Survey may be conducted by phones, Email, internet, shopping malls etc.
• It is the most common method under quantitative research via which a huge
amount of data can be collected with respect to a product or service.
• A common set of questions are asked to the people and they are asked to
provide their inputs.
• To understand the nature of the market in-depth, this method is massively
used by leading organisations all across the globe. Analysing data recorded
through service helps organisations in taking suitable decisions.
Experimental Research
• Experimental research is purely based on proving a particular theory
that is pre-assumed.
• True experimental research companies can understand varied
behavioural traits of the customers that further assist them in
generating more revenue.
• Exposing a set of audience to common parameters, their behaviour is
recorded and hence analysed.
• This can be understood as the main basis of the experimental
research.
 Importance of carrying out Business
research
• Business Research plays the role of a catalyst in identifying potential threats,
issues as well as opportunities.
• It provides a detailed analysis of customers and the target audience, thus
helping in building better relationships with one’s audience and capturing the
areas which we might be missing out on.
• It also anticipates future problems thus the enterprise is able to tackle those
uncertainties and prepare for them beforehand.
• It keeps a continuous track of competition in the market and gives businesses
the scope to come up with better strategies to tackle their competitors.
• Business Research also conducts a thorough cost analysis thus helping the
company efficiently manage resources and allocate them in an optimal manner.
• It keeps you updated with the latest trends and competitor analysis.
 Research paradigms or models
Quantitative Approach
• Research paradigms- is the set of common beliefs and agreements shared
between scientist about how problems should be understood and addressed.
• Paradigms include the methodology, approach, ontology, and epistemology to
conduct a research.
- Research Methodology- the practical “How” of any given piece of research or
set of methods, principle and rules of regulating a given discipline
- Approach- a way of dealing with a situation or problem.
- Epistemology- is the study of nature, origin and limits of human knowledge.
e.g. a research paper on the source of knowledge ( asking question such as
what is knowledge, how is knowledge acquired, how do we know what we
Know)
- Ontology is the study of existence – e.g. does God exist?
 Quantitative Research paradigms/
models
• Quantitative Approach paradigm has three essential characteristics, namely:
1. Reductionism
This assumes that parts can be separated from the whole for study without
changes in the property of either the whole or its parts.
2. Repeatability
emphasizes that what has been discovered by one researcher should be
repeated by another researcher.
3. Refutability
asserts that what is discovered and presented should be confirmable or
refutable through public scrutiny.
 Procedures
• It follows the strict rules and principles of science listed below:
• 1. Randomization in sampling research subjects
• 2. Controlled experimental conditions
• 3. Clear definition of research objectives – sampling plan.
• 4. Structured instrumentation which generates quantitative data and employs
statistical techniques in data analysis. (descriptive and inferential)
• 5. Generalization of the research results is the rule.
• 6. Establishing law/theory is the interest/objective.
• Because of following strict rules of science this model is usually called
Quantitative.
 Naturalistic/Qualitative research
Model
• Qualitative approach is a natural way of responding to the environment by
using feelings, opinions, emotions and perceptions.
• That reality can be constructed and perceived subjectively through the
thoughts, imaginations etc. and that human beings are made by the
environment that has natured them. It rejects that there is objective reality out
there except constructed subjectively.
• 5.2.3 Procedures 1. No strict rules are followed. 2. Randomization is not
adopted in sampling subjects. 3. Rarely do research here use controlled
experiment conditions. 4. Sampling plan and clear definition of research
objectives. 5. Samples, instruments and procedures are qualitative. 6. These
generate qualitative data – verbal/linguistic. 7. These are analyzed thematically
through coding etc. 8. Generalization of results is possible. 9. Establishing
law/theory is not the objective/interest. 10. It is concerned with subjective
assessment of attitude, opinions and behaviors. These depend (involves)
researcher‘s insights and impressions.
Common Business Researches

• Business students and managers or entrepreneurs in general do a

number of researches such as:
- Marketing research,
- Operations research,
- Business Management research
MARKET RESEARCH
• Is the process of determining the viability of a new product, service
through research conducted directly with customers.

• Market research refers to the systematic gathering, recording and analysing

of information to help managers make marketing decisions for firms those
operating under the marketing concept.
• It is a systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant
to specific marketing situation facing an organisation
• Market research allows a company to discover the target market and get
opinion and other feedback from customers about their interest in the
product or service.
 Key role played by market research
1. Identifying customer needs
2. Developing new products and marketing strategies
3. Assessing the effectiveness of marketing programs and
promotional activities.
Coverage of Market Research
I. It covers all areas of the marketing mix, thus, product,
price, promotion, place (distribution) and People
(customers).
II. The research also looks into competitors and
environmental factors
 Reasons for Conduct Marketing
Research
• firms generally conduct marketing research for one or more of five basic
reasons:
I. To develop product, price, promotion and distribution plans
II. To identify problems in their market place and discover new opportunities
III. To learn about their competitors and how they are marketing their products
IV. To find out what consumers think about their product category
V. To gauge the performance of their existing products
VI. To reduce risks of business or product failure
VII. Forecast future trends
 The Five Stage Process of Market
Research
• Market research is normally a five-stage process that addresses the following:
Stage 1: Identifying your business problem.
This is done to find out how you are fairing in the following areas
a. Promotion?
b. Quality of products?
c. Pricing?
d. Distribution of products
e. Display?
f. Sales?
g. Location?
h. Type of business?
 Stage 2. Determining information
needs.
• At this stage you think of the information needed to best
solve the problem identified in stage one above
• The following are some of the questions asked to determine
the information need
- What is the quality of the product versus that of the
competitors?
- What is the price of your product relative to what customers
wish to pay?
- How available is the product in terms of shape, size, and
colour?
 Stage3: Identifying a process to
collect information
• At this stage you collect answers to the question raised in stage 2 above.
• You decide either to use secondary, primary or both data sources
• answers to the questions identified in the second stage can be acquire
through:
A. Interviewing individual buyers
B. Conducting focus group discussions
C. Conducting small surveys
D. Reading books, newspapers etc.
 Stage4: Interpreting the answers
gathered
• The fourth stage of the market research process involves interpreting the
answers collected in the third stage.
i. What did customers or buyers tell you?
ii. What conclusions can you draw from their answers?
iii. If, for example, customers‘ response is that both the prices and quality are
low, does that mean that they are prepared to pay higher prices if quality was
to be improved?
Stage5: Using the information gathered to
make changes to the business
• The final stage of the market research process is to use the
information collected to make changes to the business.
• For example,
a. if customers say that quality was poor, what changes could be made
to the product?
b. If your market share is poor how are you going to improve
c. If your pricing strategy is a problem what other pricing strategies
can you use
Steps in Business Research Process
• A more comprehensive research process is a task of a sequential
process involved in steps that some can be repeated
 Steps in Business Research Process
1. Observe to discover, experience a dilemma or problem; then define the
problem/opportunity as to what it is and why
2. Explore, select and settle on research topic for the study. State the research problem as to
why is it a problem and to whom
3. Justify the topic and the significance of the study with objectives
4. Review literature available about the study to see where others left and build from there
to address the shortfall currently
5. Develop the relevant research plan (proposal)
6. Design the actual research process: Components, procedure for data collection,
techniques for data analysis
7. Collect data
8. Analyze data
9. Interpret and conclude on the data
10. Report on the data
11. Use the data for decision making in business
 Types of data

• Marketing information collected through research is generally divided into

two categories:
1. Desk or Secondary Data:
- this is the published data and the data collected in the past or other parties.
Advantages of secondary data
• May have fewer resource requirements
• Can provide comparative and contextual data
• Can result in unforeseen discoveries
• Permanence of data – data is in available form
 Disadvantages of secondary data
1. Collected for the purpose not matching ones needs
2. Access may be difficult and costly
3. Aggregations and definitions may be unsuitable
4. No real control over data quality
5. Initial purpose may affect how data are presented
 2. Field or Primary Data:

• This is the data observed or collected directly by the researcher him or

herself
ADVANTAGES
• The researcher can focus on both qualitative and quantitative issues
• It addresses specific research issues
DISADVANTAGE
• It is expensive to collect
• It requires proper planning to be collected
• It valuable data is difficult to collect
• There is low response late.
 External sources
Trade and employers‘ associations such as MCCCI
Specialist journals and magazines
Research reports
Newspapers
Government reports and statistics
Media reports
Market research agencies‘ reports
Books
Internet
Competitors
Television and radio recordings
 Ways of collecting data:
Census
• data collection about every unit in a group or population, e.g. if a service provider collects data about the number of fishermen owning their own
fishing gear in a specified community, that would be considered a ―fishermen census‖
• Census involves the whole population concerned other than just part of it
Sample Survey:
• only part of population is approached for data, e.g. if you are researching on the enrolment of females in specific programs and you only select a
few institutions to be sampled, that would be considered a ―sample survey of the programme
• In sample survey the data collected is generalized
Administrative data:
• collected as a result of an organization's day-to-day operations, e.g. data on enrolment , up take rate of a particular product
Tracer studies:
• Sometimes it is called follow up study
• Refers to investigations in which a sample of individual are studied at a given time and then studied again at given time.
• The same subject is studied at two or more points in time.
Questionnaire
• Questionnaire comprises of a set of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents
Types of Questions
• A research questionnaire comprises of two types of questions which includes closed-ended and open-ended
questions
1. Closed-Ended Questions:
• Closed-ended questions limit respondents' answers to the survey. The participants are allowed to choose
from either a pre-existing set of answers, such as yes/no, true/false, or multiple choice with an option for
"other" to be filled in, or ranking scale response options.
• One example of a ranking scale questions is called the Likert scale question. This kind of question asks the
respondents to look at a statement (such as "The most important education issue facing our nation in the
year 2000 is that all third graders should be able to read") and then "rank" this statement according to the
degree to which they agree ("I strongly agree, I somewhat agree, I have no opinion, I somewhat disagree, I
strongly disagree").
2. Open-Ended Questions:
• Open-ended questions do not give respondents answers to choose from, but rather are phrased so that the
respondents are encouraged to explain their answers and reactions to the question with a sentence, a
paragraph, or even a page or more, depending on the survey.
• For example : If you wish to find information on the same topic as asked above (the future of elementary
education), but would like to find out what respondents would come up with on their own, you might choose
an open-ended question like "What do you think is the most important educational issue facing our nation in
the year 2000?" rather than the Likert scale question.
• Or, if you would like to focus on reading as the topic, but would still not like to limit the participants'
responses, you might pose the question this way: "Do you think that the most important issue facing
education is literacy? Explain your answer below."
Research Population
• Research population is generally a large collection of individuals or
objects that is the main focus of the scientific query. Population
comprises all the possible cases (persons, objects, events) that
constitutes a known whole.
Sampling Techniques
• Sampling is the selection of a subset of individual observations within a
population of individuals intended to yield some knowledge about the
population of concern. Sampling is an important aspect of data collection.
• Researchers rarely survey the entire population for two reasons: the cost is
too high, and the population is dynamic in that the individuals making up
the population may change over time.
• Advantages of sampling
• 1. The cost is lower,
• 2. Data collection is faster, and
• 3. It is possible to ensure homogeneity and to improve the accuracy and
quality of the data since the data set is smaller.
Sampling Process
The sampling process comprises several stages:
• Defining the population of concern a of items or events possible to
measure
• Specifying sampling methods for selecting items or events from the
frame
• Determining the sample size
• Implementing the sampling plan
• Sampling and data collecting
 Sampling frame
• The sampling frame is the list from which units are drawn for
the sample.
Example:
1. a complete list of unit as in in a phone book from which
phone numbers will be sampled.
2. A list of names of people in a certain town for a survey you
are going to be conducting a survey on usage of Solar
component system.
 Factors to consider when Sampling
Factors commonly influencing research sampling include:
• Nature and quality of the frame
• Availability of auxiliary information about units on the frame
• Accuracy requirements, and the need to measure accuracy
• Whether detailed analysis of the sample is expected.
• Cost/operational concerns
Sampling methods
a) Probability Sampling A probability sampling scheme
is one in which every unit in the population has a
chance (greater than zero) of being selected in the
sample, and this probability can be accurately
determined.
Types of Sampling
• There are two types of sampling methods:
- Probability sampling involves random selection, allowing you to
make strong statistical inferences about the whole group.

- Non-probability sampling involves non-random selection based

on convenience or other criteria, allowing you to easily collect
data.
Probability sampling
- probability means the chance that a given event will occur.

There are four main types of probability sample.

• Simple random sampling
• Systematic sampling.
• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling. (Post stratification, Over sampling)
1. Simple random sampling
• In simple random sampling individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member
of the population has an equal chance, or probability, of being selected.
• One way of obtaining a random sample is to give each individual in a population a
number, and then use a table of random numbers to decide which individuals to
include.1 For example, if you have a sampling frame of 1000 individuals, labelled 0 to
999, use groups of three digits from the random number table to pick your sample.
So, if the first three numbers from the random number table were 094, select the
individual labelled “94”, and so on.
• Simple random sampling eliminates entirely bias in sample selection
• SRS can be vulnerable to sampling errors because the randomness of selection may
result in a sample that doesn’t reflect the makeup the population.
2. Systematic sampling
• Individuals are selected at regular intervals from the sampling frame.
• The intervals are chosen to ensure an adequate sample size.
• For example : If you need a sample size n from a population of size x, you should select
every x/nth individual for the sample. Thus, if you wanted a sample size of 100 from a
population of 1000, select every 1000/100 = 10th member of the sampling frame.
• Systematic sampling is often more convenient than simple random sampling, and it is
easy to administer.
• However, it may also lead to bias, for example if there are underlying patterns in the
order of the individuals in the sampling frame, such that the sampling technique
coincides with the periodicity of the underlying pattern. As a hypothetical example, if a
group of students were being sampled to gain their opinions on college facilities, but
the Student Record Department’s central list of all students was arranged such that
the sex of students alternated between male and female, choosing an even interval
(e.g. every 20th student) would result in a sample of all males or all females. Whilst in
this example the bias is obvious and should be easily corrected, this may not always be
the case.
3. Stratified sampling
• In this method, the population is first divided into subgroups
strata who all share a similar characteristic.
• It is used when we might reasonably expect the measurement
of interest to vary between the different subgroups, and we
want to ensure representation from all the subgroups.
• For example, in a study of stroke outcomes, we may stratify
the population by sex, to ensure equal representation of men
and women. The study sample is then obtained by taking
equal sample sizes from each stratum.
•
• In stratified sampling, it may also be appropriate to choose non-equal
sample sizes from each stratum. For example, in a study of the health
outcomes of nursing staff in a county, if there are three hospitals each
with different numbers of nursing staff (hospital A has 500 nurses,
hospital B has 1000 and hospital C has 2000), then it would be
appropriate to choose the sample numbers from each
hospital proportionally (e.g. 10 from hospital A, 20 from hospital B and
40 from hospital C).
• This ensures a more realistic and accurate estimation of the health
outcomes of nurses across the county, whereas simple random sampling
would over-represent nurses from hospitals A and B.
• Stratified sampling improves the accuracy and representativeness of the
results by reducing sampling bias.
• However, it requires knowledge of the appropriate characteristics of the
sampling frame (the details of which are not always available), and it can
be difficult to decide which characteristic(s) to stratify by.
• OVER SAMPLING
• The data is first stratified on the target and the sample
is taken from each strata
• This is done to make sure the representation of the
most rare character
4. Clustered sampling
• In a clustered sample, subgroups of the population are used as the sampling unit, rather
than individuals.
• The population is divided into subgroups, known as clusters, which are randomly selected
to be included in the study.
• Clusters are usually already defined, for example towns could be identified as clusters. In
single-stage cluster sampling, all members of the chosen clusters are then included in the
study.
• Cluster sampling can be more efficient than simple random sampling, especially where a
study takes place over a wide geographical region.
• For instance, it is easier to contact lots of individuals in a few GP practices than a few
individuals in many
• There is an increased risk of bias, if the chosen clusters are not representative of the
population, resulting in an increased sampling error.
 Types of clustered sampling
1. Single stage cluster sampling
For one-stage cluster sampling, the researcher allows every member of the selected
clusters to participate in the systematic investigation. In other words, sample
selection is only made once before the research takes off.
• Examples of One-Stage Cluster Sampling
1.An organization is researching to discover how many people use its product in a
community. Using single-stage sampling, the researcher splits the community into
districts and randomly selects clusters to form a sample. Every member of the
chosen clusters participates in the systematic investigation.
2.To know what students think about the school's administration, the researcher
chooses specific classes to provide feedback. All the students in the selected classes
have the opportunity to share their views on the school's administrative process.
2. Two stage Cluster sampling
• For a two-stage cluster sampling, the researcher selects the research sample
twice. First, they conduct single-stage sampling where subgroups are chosen
randomly. Next, they narrow down the sample by selecting a few research
participants from the selected clusters.
• Most times, the final survey sample is a fair representation of distinct
characteristics and elements of the single-stage clusters.
Examples of Two-Stage Cluster Sampling
1.After selecting a particular class to participate in educational research, the
teacher chooses specific students in the class to respond to survey questions.
2.As part of market research, an organization randomly selects participants
from an age group within its target audience. These people form the survey
sample and respond.
3. Multistage cluster sampling
• Multi-stage cluster sampling allows the researcher to filter the target audience
and select a particular sample for the systematic investigation. After choosing
the two-stage sample, the researcher further selects the research sample
based on standardized criteria.
• Examples of Multi-Stage Cluster Sampling
1.During research about multilingualism in a community, the investigator uses
the single-stage method to select clusters. Then, he uses the two-stage method
to choose a subset within the selected groups. Finally, the researcher adopts
the simple random sampling method to choose research participants from the
subsets.
2.A researcher wants to know how many people earn above $5,000 a month in
Africa. First, he identifies specific countries for the research then narrows down
to particular districts within the country then uses random sampling to come
up with final respondents.
 non-probability sampling
What is non-probability sampling?
• Non-probability sampling is a sampling method in which not all members of the population have an equal
chance of participating in the study.

• This means each member of the population has a known chance of being selected.

• Non-probability sampling is most useful for exploratory studies like a pilot survey (deploying a survey to
a smaller sample compared to pre-determined sample size).

• Researchers use this method in studies where it is impossible to draw random probability sampling due
to time or cost considerations.
Types of non-probability sampling
1. Convenience sampling:
• Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling technique where samples are selected from
the population only because they are conveniently available to the researcher.

• Researchers choose these samples just because they are easy to recruit, and the researcher did
not consider selecting a sample that represents the entire population.

• Ideally, in research, it is good to test a sample that represents the population. But, in some
research, the population is too large to examine and consider the entire population. It is one of the
reasons why researchers rely on convenience sampling, which is the most common non-probability
sampling method, because of its speed, cost-effectiveness, and ease of availability of the sample.
2. Consecutive sampling:
• This non-probability sampling method is very similar to convenience sampling, with a slight
variation. Here, the researcher picks a single person or a group of a sample, conducts research
over a period, analyzes the results, and then moves on to another subject or group if needed.
Consecutive sampling technique gives the researcher a chance to work with many topics and fine-
tune his/her research by collecting results that have vital insights
 Quota sampling:
• This method of sampling is often used by market researchers in which
Interviewers are given a quota of subjects of a specified type to attempt to
recruit.
• For example, an interviewer might be told to go out and select 20 adult men,
20 adult women, 10 teenage girls and 10 teenage boys so that they could
interview them about their television viewing. Ideally the quotas chosen
would proportionally represent the characteristics of the underlying
population.
• Whilst this has the advantage of being relatively straightforward and
potentially representative, the chosen sample may not be representative of
other characteristics that weren’t considered.
 Judgement (or Purposive) Sampling
• Also known as selective, or subjective, sampling, this technique relies on the
judgement of the researcher when choosing who to ask to participate.
• Researchers may thus choose a “representative” sample to suit their needs,
or specifically approach individuals with certain characteristics.
• This approach is often used by the media when canvassing the public for
opinions and in qualitative research.
• Judgement sampling has the advantage of being time-and cost-effective to
perform whilst resulting in a range of responses (particularly useful in
qualitative research).
• However, in addition to volunteer bias, it is also prone to errors of judgement
by the researcher and the findings, whilst being potentially broad, will not
necessarily be representative.
Snowball Sampling
• Snowball sampling is usually done when there is a very small population
size.
• In this type of sampling, the researcher asks the initial subject to identify
another potential subject who also meets the criteria of the research.
• Snowball sampling is a sampling method that researchers apply when the
subjects are difficult to trace.
• For example, it will be extremely challenging to survey illegal immigrants.
• The downside of using a snowball sample is that it is hardly representative
of the population.
Research errors
• The two types of research errors are

1. Sampling errors and biases

• Sampling errors and biases are induced by the sample design. They
include:
a. Selection bias- When the true selection probabilities differ from
those assumed in calculating the results.
b. Random sampling error- Random variation in the results due to the
elements in the sample being selected at random.
2. Non-sampling error
• Non-sampling errors are caused by other problems in data collection
and processing. They include:
a. Over-coverage: Inclusion of data from outside of the population.
b. Under-coverage: Sampling frame does not include elements in the
population.
c. Measurement error: E.g. when respondents misunderstand a
question, or find it difficult to answer.
d. Processing error: Mistakes in data coding.
e. Non-response: Failure to obtain complete data from all selected
individuals.
 LEARNING OUTCOME 3: preparing
business research report
PURPOSE The students should be able to prepare business research
reports.
Learning outcome objective
1. students should demonstrate 2. will demonstrate competence by:
understanding of ▪ Processing data
▪ Data analysis ▪ Interpreting data
▪ Statistical presentations ▪ Writing research reports
▪ Report format ▪ Presenting business research reports
▪ Research report writing ▪ Using research
▪ Implementation of research findings. recommendations.
 Data Presentation
➢After the actual gathering of data has been done the next step is to present data in
user-friendly way.
➢There are many ways of presenting research data such as -through verbal (telling
people the facts), use of visual aids especially in offices to support written and oral
presentation.
➢Raw data from business research need to be converted into a form that is to be
understood; so information could be displayed and presented into forms such as:
Tables, charts, graphs, diagrams
 1. Table (Tabulation)
• If data is brief and does not contain a lot of information a table would be
sufficient. For example, a company that has three types of products A, B, and C
with sales of each for the past 8 months from records prepared by sales
representatives as shown on table below.
Example of Tabulation of Sales for 3 Products at different months
Product A B C Total
Months / (K000) (K000) (K000) (K000)
1 275 285 165 725
2 285 325 195 805
3 295 320 205 820
4 275 295 205 775
5 290 300 200 790
6 330 335 200 865
BENEFIT OF USING TABLES
The three major important benefits of tabulating data are that:
a. It makes clear what data has been gathered;
b. It allows further analysis such as statistical calculations to be done; and
c. It allows the information to be put into an order so that can be easily understood.

WEAKNESS OF TABULATION
The weaknesses with this method of presentation are that:
a. To understand the figures it takes time and not easy (for instance, it can take some time for you to find
the lowest or highest amount of sales from the regions and for huge data even more difficult)
b. it is difficult to draw conclusion from the table unless analyzed in a different way such as by drawing
a chart.
 2. Charts
▪ A chart shows the total figures for each piece of data or the
proportion of each piece of data in terms of the total number.
▪ Charts are of various types such as line, bar and multiple-chart, pie
and tally charts. The chart might help to show for instance which
area has the highest or the lowest percentage of sales.
▪ Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet) processing application software of
computers makes it easier to produce the various charts and graphs
using already existing temperate deriving from tabulation.
Bar graph
SALES OF PRODUCT FOR SIX MONTH

330 335
320 320
295 295 300
285 285 290
275 275

205 205 200 200

195
165

MONTH 1 MONTH 2 MONTH 3 MONTH 4 MONTH 5 MONTH 6

product 1 product 2 product 3
Advantages of using charts
a. Most of these are relatively easy to construct and to understand,
b. It is now easy for you to find the month with the lowest and highest
sales, and which product has the highest or lowest total sales in a
particular month, which was proving difficult from the table.
c. Charts such as line chart provide a sense of continuity by the given
line.
d. Most of these charts are perfect medium to enable direct comparison.
Types of charts
• c) Line chart
• Line chart presents information by means of straight line; each length indicates different values of figures
being used.
• It is suitable for comparison of various diagrams but may tend to confuse if too many diagrams with closely
associated values are compared together.
Line Graph showing sales of products
SALES OF PRODUCT FOR SIX MONTH
400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
Month 1 month 2 month 3 month 4 month 5 month 6
product 1 product 2 product 3
 Pie Chart:

▪ A pie chart is a circular statistical graphic, which divided the circle into slices to illustrate numerical
proportions.
▪ Each slice of a pie chart represents a particular component‘s contribution to the total amount.
▪ The chart is often used to illustrate relative quantities, proportions or percentages. The chart can be
drawn manually though faster and accurate by computer as shown on Figure 5.1.3 below:
▪ Figure 5.1.3: Pie Chart showing Sales in Month 2
Sales of solar Panels ( 000)

3%

325 wat panels

35%
100 watts panel
62% 200 watts panel
In groups prepare a presentation on the
following
Pictogram bwinja, Gladys , hills
Diagrams Kelvin , Lameck , Ipyana, Kaponda
Photographs Davie, Kalima, Brian
Maps Gaza , Masina, Levie, Noel
 Data analysis and interpretation -
What is data analysis?
• Data analysis is the science of examining data to draw
conclusions about the information to make decisions or expand
knowledge on various subjects.
IMPORTANCE
▪ Make faster and more informed business decisions backed by facts.
▪ Identify performance issues that require action.
▪ Gain a deeper understanding of customer requirements, which creates better business
relationships.
▪ Increase awareness of risks to implement preventive measures.
▪ Gain competitive advantage.
▪ Better understand the financial performance of the business.
▪ Identify ways to reduce costs and thus increase profits.
 Data interpretation
• data interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the collected
information and determining the conclusions, significance, and
implications of the findings.
• Data interpretation is the final step of data analysis.
 Data Coding
• the process of assigning a code to Data for classification or identification
• The coding is necessary for the efficient analysis of data. The coding decisions
should usually be taken at the designing stage of the questionnaire itself so that
the likely responses to questions are pre-coded.
Example

We may assign a code of `0' to male and `1' to female respondent. These codes
may be specified prior to the field work
 Illustration of Data Coding
Variabl Codes
e
Degree to which a small firm manager delegates to Scale from 1 to 4
their assistants 1=not at all, 4= to a very large degree
Long-term relationship with sales team 1= changed sales persons within last 5 years
2= not changed sales within last 5 years
Firm size in terms of number of employees 1= 1 employee, 3= 2-4 employees, 7= 5-9 employees,
15= 10-19 employees

Degree of competition with other businesses Scale from 1 to 4

1= negligible, 4= very hard
Degree of relations with customers 1= very poor relations
2= poor relations
3= good relations
4= very good relations
▪ Tabulation is best done when data is coded.
▪ Data can easily be processed in application programs such as Excel, Access and SPSS for Windows, when it is coded.
▪ Table above illustrates how codes are used with their corresponding variables to help enter quantified data for a Business
Consultancy firm. Apart from applying codes to quantified data, it also works well with categorical data and missing data so
that they are taken into account at the same time saving time
 Exploratory Analysis
▪ The various ways of presenting data explained earlier help us to use what is
termed exploratory data analysis approach (Saunders et al, (2007), ).
▪ The approach emphasizes the use of diagrams, charts, tables etc. to explore
and understand the data. The analysis makes sure that individual variables
and their components are looked into to ensure that key aspects of the
research objectives are considered.
individual variables show the following:
1. Specific values that makes the simplest way of
summarizing descriptive data, for example, a table
summarizes a number of cases (frequency) in each
category thereby forming a frequency distribution.
2. Highest and lowest values: Charts such as bar chart
unlike tables which do not show visual appearance,
help to indicate the highest and lowest values just by
checking the height of each bar with its
corresponding value.
3. Trend: A trend is a general pattern of events that has
been observed over a long period of time. It falls
under the four types variations which include time
series variations, seasonal variation, random variation
and cyclical variation.
4. Proportions: The most often used figure to show
proportions or share of occurrence is a pie chart. This
is the simplest way of illustrating proportions.
Comparing variables in exploratory analysis
• The variables can be compared to each other to further explore and
analyze data in order to come up with meaningful interpretation. They can
be compared to show:
- Values and interdependence
- Highest and lowest values
- Proportions
- Totals
- Proportions and totals
- Trends and conjunctions
- Distribution of values
- The relationship between cases for variables
 Guidelines for interpreting Statistical Data

The list of some guidelines below can assist you in analyzing and interpreting
statistical data:
1. Check the accuracy of the statistic and state the source.
2. Look for overall trends and explain problems or causes of inconsistencies
3. Compare different sets of data, for example, comparing staffing levels
with turnover.
4. Use diagrams and charts to present the information and give a clearer
picture of the statistics.
5. Use accurate statistics rather than approximations, for instance, 59 percent
and 43 percent could both be said to be approximately half, but they are
very different figures and so the approximation might be misleading.
 Business research report
the content of a business report may vary depending on the intended purpose of the research and to
whom it intend to serve, but all in all the items of any research report are grouped into three: the front
material, the body of the research and the back material:
1. The front material
Cover page
Acknowledgements
❑ declaration
Table of contents
Abstract
2. The body of the report
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
Findings (results)
Conclusions and recommendations
3. The back material
Appendix
Glossary
References (bibliography)
 Structure of a business research report
Report Cover Page:
• In general, the format should include most (if not all) of the following elements:
1.Title.
2.Subtitle.
3.Author.
4.Author's Title.
5.Company Name/Logo.
6.Date of Completion/Submission.
7.A Brief Description of the Report.
Table of Contents:
• Indicates chapters, headings and subheadings with their
corresponding page numbers. Normally it appears after
acknowledgement and preface though these are also indicated in the
table of content after they have already appeared.
• Introduction: The purpose of an introduction is to inform the reader with the
motivation behind the work, with the intention of defending it. It places the work
in a theoretical context, and enables the reader to understand and appreciate
objectives outlined in the paper.
• Introduction should not exceed two pages and the general issues to be put on
the introduction include the following:
❑Describe the importance (significance) of the study - why was this worth doing
in the first place? Provide a broad context.
❑Defend the model - why did you use this particular approach or system? What
are its advantages? You might comment on its suitability from a theoretical
point of view as well as indicate practical reasons for using it.
❑Provide a rationale. State your specific hypothesis or objective(s), and describe
the reasoning that led you to select them.
❑Very briefly describe the experimental design and how it accomplished the
stated objectives.
Literature review
▪ A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources that
provides an overview of a particular topic.
▪ Literature reviews are a collection of the most relevant and
significant publications regarding that topic in order to provide
a comprehensive look at what has been said on the topic and
by whom.
▪ literature reviews must contain at least three basic elements:
▪ an introduction or background information section;
▪ the body of the review containing the discussion of
sources;
▪ a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the
paper.
Methodology
▪ Research methodology is the specific procedures or techniques used
to identify, select, process, and analyze information about a topic
example
❖Desk Research.............................................................................................
❖ Field Survey.................................................................................................
❖Fieldwalking (Transects) ………………………………………………………………………..
❖ Public Consultations ..................................................................................
Findings (results)
▪ The results section of the research paper is where you report the
findings of your study based upon the information gathered as a
result of the methodology [or methodologies] you applied.
▪ The results section should simply state the findings, without bias or
interpretation, and arranged in a logical sequence.
▪ The results section should always be written in the past tense
 Discussions:
•If discussion is separated from the results then this section is for all the
interpretations.
•The objective here is to provide an interpretation of your results and support
for all of your conclusions, using evidence from your experiment and
generally accepted knowledge, if appropriate.
•If your results differ from your expectations, explain why that may have
happened. If your results agree, then describe the theory that the evidence
supported. It is never appropriate to simply state that the data agreed with
expectations, and let it drop at that; but you need to decide if each
hypothesis is supported, rejected, or if you cannot make a decision with
confidence.
 Conclusions and recommendations
•Finally, the main body of the report should end with
conclusions from the results investigated if not included in the
discussions; and recommendations might be on separate
section or as part of conclusions.
• Draw what conclusions you can based upon the results that
you have, and treat the study as a finished work.
• For each finding there should be at least one conclusion
which means conclusions chapter can be as big as a results
chapter.
• since the findings and results were drawn from research
questions in their order, conclusions should follow similar
structure.
The back material

Appendix
supplementary material at the end of a book, article, document, or
other text, usually of an explanatory, statistical , and bibliography.
Glossary
Is a list a list of word and/or phrases at the back of a
book, explaining or defining difficult or unusual words and expressions
used in the text
References (bibliography)
• The main difference between bibliography and references is that
references contain the sources that you have cited in your paper,
whereas a bibliography includes all the sources that you have used
for your paper, whether they are cited or not.
 REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Discuss two tools for analysing data for business research.
2. Discuss the appropriate way off presenting statistical data in
business research report?
3. Discuss the basic components of the business research report?
4. Explain four factors to be considered when writing a business
research report?
5. Analyse three factors that may affect the implementation of
research findings?
ASSIGNMENT

ASSESSMENT
 MODULE 2:

Managing Marketing Mix

The trainee who achieves this standard will be able to

manage the marketing mix. This will be achieved in such a
way that products, price, place and promotion aspects are
managed and sales are increased.
•EXPECTED COMPETENCIES
A. The trainee assessed as competent against this standard will demonstrate competence by:
a) Providing what customers want

b) Distributing products to the customers

c) Setting attractive prices of products/services

d) Conducting promotion

A. The trainee should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:

a) Definition of marketing mix

b) Components of marketing mix

c) Types of Product life cycle

d) Relationship between product life cycle and managing marketing mix

e) Ways of improving product quality

f) Channels of distribution

g) Methods of pricing

h) Importance of setting attractive prices

i) Methods of promotion

j) Importance of promotion
 WHAT IS MARKETING
⁻ Marketing is the effort to identify and satisfy customers’ needs and wants. It
involves finding out who your customers are, what they need and want, the
prices, the level of competition.
⁻ Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) defined marketing as A
management process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying
customer requirements profitably‘.

⁻ Marketing answers the following questions;

I. Who are my customers?
II. What are my customer’s needs and wants?
III. How can I satisfy my customers needs’?
IV. How do I make a profit as I satisfy my customers needs?
 Who is a Customer?
•A customer is simply, a purchaser of the goods and services produced
by a business on regular basis without actually being the final user.
•Your customers are the people or other businesses that want your
products/services and are willing to pay for them.
•In the text the terms customer and consumer are used interchangeably
to mean „potential and existing buyers of goods and service produced
by a business‟.
 Marketing orientation (concept)
• Marketing Orientations or Concepts are the basic approaches to marketing.
Marketing is regarded as a philosophy based on customer orientation –
putting the customer first distinguished from the following other orientations:
OTHER ORIENTATION
▪ Production Orientation: Producing more goods to increase the sales – believing in
productivity first before customer. Production concept is the idea that consumers will
favor products that are available and highly affordable and that the organization should
therefore focus on improving production and distribution efficiency.

▪ Product Orientation: Focus is on the quality of product. High costs and high prices, low
sales. Under this concept marketing strategy focuses on making continuous product
improvement.

▪ Sales (Selling Concept) Orientation: Focus is on creating more demand for the product
through heavy promotion. The idea behind is that consumers will not buy enough of the
business‘ products or services unless it undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort.
Marketing or Customer Orientation
• is the marketing management philosophy which states that achieving
organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target
markets and delivering the desired satisfactions than competitors do. This
orientation views a customer as a king or a queen integrating all marketing
activities that affect customers.

Marketing societal concept

• Societal Marketing is based on the principle of societal welfare. It
emphasizes that an organization must make strategic marketing
decisions keeping in mind the consumer wants, the organizational
needs and most important the long term interests of the society.
 Marketing mix
•This is the set of controllable variables that the firm blends to
produce the response it wants in the target market.
• a combination of factors that can be controlled by a company to
influence consumers to purchase its products.
• The market mix consists of everything the firm can do to
influence the demand for its products.
• The many possibilities can be collected into four groups of
variables known as the ―seven Ps(4Ps). These four Ps are:
Product, Price, Place, people , physical evidence , process and
Promotion
 Product
•Product refers to goods/services produced for sale, the product /service should relate to the needs
and wants of the customers.

•Products are designed to include qualities such as colours, models, styles, and features that the
business expects to be most appealing to consumers. The actual product may have as many as
five characteristics that combine to deliver core product benefits. They are:
a) Quality level
b) Features

c) Design

d) Brand name

e) Packaging

Some important questions you need to ask yourself include;

• What products/services do I sell?
• Why did I decide to sell these products?
• Do I have the products customers want?
• Do any of my products not sell well?
• Do I stock products that do not sell well
•Types of Products
•There are four major types of goods that include services; namely:
1. Consumer Goods: These are goods that are consumed by people;

those goods that do not last longer such as food stuff, cleaning
materials referred to as fast-moving-consumer goods(FMCGs) or those
that last longer (e.g. furniture, garments) also known as Consumer
Durables
2. Consumer Services: These are services produced by people such as car

repairing, education, health services, catering services etc.

3. Producer Goods: These are goods for other businesses that includes

manufacturing equipment, overall coats, components or raw materials

etc. to be used in other businesses
4. Producer Services: Those services that are produced to help other

businesses, for instance, accountancy, auditing, insurance, advertising

etc. are considered part of this category.
Standard Product Life Cycle
•Product lifecycle is the analysis of the sales
performance in terms of profits, customers and
marketing emphasis of a particular product in
different stages of its life.
•It describes the stages a product will pass from its
introduction through its growth until it is mature and
then finally its decline.

•There are four types of product lifecycles: standard,

continuous, recycled and staircase product lifecycle.
Discussed below is standard product life cycle:
1.Standard product lifecycle
• Standard product lifecycle is originally bell shaped and is divided
into six stages; namely: development, introduction, growth,
maturity, saturation and decline stages

Sales and Profits

Sales Revenue

Profit

1 2 3 4 5 6 Time
Development:
• First the product must be developed where the prototype would be tested and market research
carried out before it is launched on to the market. Huge costs of production are expected if the
prototype is approved for full launching at introduction stage
Introduction:
• The product is just being launched on the market; sales grow slowly at first because most consumers
are not aware of its existence.
Growth:
Here sales start to grow rapidly – advertising is changed to persuasive in order to encourage Brand
Loyalty. Prices are reduced a little as new competitors might enter the market to take some customers.
Profits start to generate as the development costs and costs of production might have been recovered
at this stage.
Maturity:
Sales now increase slowly as competition becomes intense; there is need for more advertising to
maintain the market share. At this stage profits are the highest
Saturation:
Here sales have reached the stabilized point and competitive price is used as profits starts to fall
because of the reduced price for competition.
Decline:
Sales decline as new products come along or because the product has lost appeal in the minds of
customers. Advertising is reduced as well as price therefore unprofitable and finally the product is
withdrawn from the market.
 Price
• The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that
consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service.
• The price must be attractive to buyers at the same time it must be enough to generate a profit
and cover the costs and expenses that the business has incurred in producing, distributing,
and selling the product.
• pricing should answer the following questions
A. What is the most appropriate price?-
B. What pricing strategies will be used for the target customers?
• Setting price involves:
1. Selecting the pricing objective
2. Determining the demand
3. Estimating costs
4. Analyzing competitors‘ costs, prices and offers.
5. Selecting a pricing method
6. Selecting the final price
 Pricing methods
Full cost-plus pricing
• This is a method of determining the sales price for a product or service by calculating the
full cost of the product or service adding a percentage mark-up for a profit
Market Skimming Pricing
• pricing involves charging high prices when a product is first launched in order to maximise
short term profitability.
• The idea behind is that initially heavy spending on promotion such as advertising is
expected in order to obtain quick sales at the introduction stage of the product‘s life.
• As the product moves into the later stages of its life cycle progressively the price is lowered
down.
Market Penetration Pricing
• Penetration pricing is a pricing policy of lowering prices when a product is first launched in
order to gain market entry. If a business wants to obtain market share for its product
immediately it enters the market, it must begin by charging slightly lower than its
competitor can be a good strategy for products that are price sensitive
Psychological Pricing
• Psychological pricing is set in such a way that it captures the perceptions of consumers
towards the product. This strategy is used when particular attention is paid to the effect
that the price of a product will have upon consumers‘ perceptions of the product
Dumping Pricing
• Dumping pricing is generally applied when a business wants to get rid of
excess inventory of goods of which if not sold soon or later may expire, get
damaged or go out of fashion etc.
Tendering
• Tendering is a pricing strategy that is imposed on businesses by the market
conditions under sale by tender contract. Government and local authorities will
require businesses to submit a price of a particular job and give detailed
breakdown of costs;
• example : builders can be asked for estimates of the work to be undertaken. In
each of this case, normally the supplier would be working without detailed
knowledge of his competitors‘ prices.
Terms Pricing
• Terms pricing strategy aims at attaching terms and conditions to the market
price usually by the producer basically of types: discount and credit terms so
that who for instance buy in bulk get quantity (trade or bulk) discounts and
those buyers making prompt payment are offered cash discount.
Value-Based Pricing
• An increasing number of companies are basing their prices
on the product‘s perceived value. Value-based pricing uses
buyers‘ perceptions of value, not the seller‘s cost, as the key
to pricing. Value-based pricing means that the marketer
cannot design a product and marketing program and then set
the price. Price is considered along with the other marketing
mix variables before the marketing program is set.
Competition-Based Pricing
• Consumers will base their judgments of a product‘s value on
the prices that competitors charge for similar products.
 Promotion
• publicizing of a product, organization, or venture so as to increase sales or public
awareness
• This means all of those activities that go into telling consumers about the product and
trying to persuade consumers to buy it.
• Examples of promotions
Sales promotions : special offers designed to entice customers
Advertising : paid messages that are intended to get people to notice a product
Public relations- nonpaid communication designed to plant positive image of a
company
Aims of promotion
❑To inform people about particular issues, often used by the government agencies and
public corporations
❑To introduce new products on the market
❑To compete with competitors products
❑To increase sales by pursuing prospective and existing customers to buy
❑To create brand image by positioning the attributes within or well above competitors‘
brands
❑To improve company image by promoting its ethical practices and CSR
 PLACE or DISTRIBUTION
• Refers to a location or the medium of the transaction.
• Place also covers the product distribution and the whole business
logistics.
• The following factors should be considered when deciding on the
distribution channels.
• Closeness to customers‘ homes, places of work.
• Proximity to other customers and facilities e.g. banks.
• Transport facilities.
• Proximity to competitors.
• Cheap and efficient access to suppliers of materials.
• Proximity to labour force.
Methods of distribution
a. Retail
• Retailing is all activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final
consumers for their personal, non-business use.
b. Mail order
• Involves direct selling to consumers via such media as radios, and press, catalogues
advertising. Sales are done by post through an order form.
c. Door-to-door
• Where the manufacturer or agent moves with the product from door-to-door.
Commonly used in Malawi now by ladies and youths.
d. Wholesale
• These perform the function of holding a large volume of stock mainly for smaller
retailers.
e. Party plan selling
• This is another low cost distribution channel where the company engages agents
who will organize ―parties‖ in their own homes demonstrating and selling the
company‘s product to their friends and relatives. The agent is usually paid on
commission basis and encourages customers to become agents themselves.
f. Online selling
• The use of internet to transact business e.g. through Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp,
business websites.
Process
• Process refers to the processes involved in
delivering your products and services to the
customer. It is also about being 'easy to do
business with'.
• Having good process in place ensures that you:
• repeatedly deliver the same standard of service to
your customers
• save time and money by increasing efficiency
Physical evidence
• Physical evidence refers to everything your customers see when
interacting with your business. This includes:
• the physical environment where you provide the product or service
Example
• the layout or interior design
• your packaging
• your branding.
• Physical evidence can also refer to your staff and how they dress
and act.
People
• People, in the marketing mix, refers to anyone directly or
indirectly involved in the business side of the
enterprise. That means anyone involved in selling a
product or service, designing it, marketing, managing
teams, representing customers, recruiting and training
• When you provide excellent customer service, you create a
positive experience for your customers, and in doing
so market your brand to them. In turn, existing customers
may spread the word about your excellent service and you
can win referrals.
 Definition of an Organization
• An organization can be defined as an entity or a social unit that comprises
several people who work together to achieve a common goal.

Other definitions
• A system or pattern of any set of relationships in any kind of undertaking.
• An enterprise, corporation of two or more persons.
• The intentional structure of roles or positions in a formalized manner to
achieve certain goals.
 Importance of Organisations
Brainstorm the importance of organization over individual operation
▪ An organization overcomes people‘s individual limitations whether
physical or intellectual;
▪ Enable people to specialize in what they do best;
▪ They save time because people can work together or do two
aspects of different task at the same time;
▪ They accumulate and share knowledge;
▪ They enable synergy which when expressed in arithmetic terms is
2+2=5 (i.e. bringing together two groups of individuals their
combined output will exceed their output if they continued
working separately);
❑To sum all, organisations enable people to be more productive.
Types of organizations
• Mainly there are two types of organizations namely
A. Formal
A formal organization is a type of group that is deliberately
constructed and whose members are organized to achieve a
specific goal.
B. Informal
An informal organization is a group of people who share a
common identity and are committed to achieving a common
purpose. Informal organizations are created by the will and
shared identity of their members
 CHARACTERISTICS
Type of organisation Characteristics Examples
Formal ▪ Are well defined structures (imply the framework or mechanism) ▪ Church
▪ Precise identified beginning – normally written documents, copies of which are kept by ▪ Hospital
the organisation ▪ Company
▪ Long life span ▪ Football club
▪ Membership by choice except where the law ▪ School
states that one must join – usually contract exist between the members and organization ▪ Partnership
▪ Definite goals or aims i.e. they try to make things happen or have a mission to achieve ▪ Political party
▪ Division of work i.e. grouping members to a particular job function as a unit each his own ▪ Government
part without getting in the way of others

Informal ▪ Mostly are social groupings of people ▪ Emergency

▪ Loosely defined structure e.g. if rules of conduct exist they are not written down ▪ Funeral function
▪ Beginnings not clearly identified – records are unlikely to be kept either of the beginning ▪ Wedding function
or ending of group ▪ Football spectators
▪ shorter life span ▪ Party
▪ Less conscious membership, for example, on an emergency ▪ Grape vines
▪ Less well defined goals, for instance, a lunch group may meet and discuss work problems ▪ Mass rally
on
Monday, football on Tuesday and politics on Friday
▪ Flexible i.e. can adopt new ideas and react very quickly to new situations
 Designing organisational structure
Organisation structure
• is the system used to define the hierarchy within an organisation or
it is defined as how activities such as task allocation, coordination
and supervision are directed towards the achievement of
organisational aims.
• An organizational structure is a visual diagram of a company that
describes what employees do, whom they report to, and how
decisions are made across the business.
• Organizational structures can use functions, markets, products,
geographies, or processes as their guide, and cater to businesses
of specific sizes and industries.
 Common Business Organizational
Structures
1. A matrix organizational structure
The matrix organization doesn't follow the traditional, hierarchical
model. In the matrix structure, you share resources and staff across
teams and projects, as well as within departments or functions.
• matrix structure is a combination of two or more types of
organizational structures. It is a way of arranging your business so
that you set up reporting relationships as a grid, or a matrix, rather
than in the traditional hierarchy.
• In this structure, employees usually have dual reporting
relationships - generally to their functional manager as well as the
project manager. Typically, one reporting line will take priority over
the other (eg staff may have to report to their functional manager
before reporting to the project manager).
2. Functional Organizational Structure
•Functional organizational structures are the most common. A structure of this type groups
individuals by specific functions performed. Common departments such as human resources,
accounting and purchasing are organized by separating each of these areas and managing
them independently of the others.

•For example, managers of different functional areas all report up to one director or vice
president who has responsibility for all of the operational areas.
3. Product Organizational Structure
•Product organisational structure is a framework in which a business is organised in
separate divisions, each focusing on a different product or service and functioning as an
individual unit within the company.

•For example an executive over Kraft products would be responsible for every product
under that label – dressings, meats, sauces, etc.
4. Customer Organizational Structure
•A customer service organizational structure is the hierarchy and roles that a company establishes
within its customer service department. Customer service organizational structures help professionals
understand the expectations for their roles and which managers and team leads they should contact
with concerns.

•An example of this would be in healthcare. A patient seen as an outpatient has very different needs
than those of patients who spend time in the hospital as inpatients. A customer centered structure
creates customized care for those patients.
5 Geographic Organizational Structure
•For organizations that cover a span of geographic regions, it sometimes makes sense to organize by
region. This is done to better support logistical demands and differences in geographic customer
needs.

•Typically a structure that is organized by geographical regions reports up to a central oversight

person. You see this type of structure in companies that go beyond a city or state limit and may have
customers all across the country or in multiple states.
 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
• Human resource management is the strategic approach to the
effective and efficient management of people in a company or
organization such that they help their business gain a competitive
advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in
service of an employer's strategic objectives.
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
❑ Personnel management can be defined as obtaining, using and
maintaining a satisfied workforce. It is a significant part of management
concerned with employees at work and with their relationship within the
organization.
❑ Personnel Management is part of HRM concerned with staffing the organization,
meeting the needs of people at work and the practical rules and procedures
governing relationships between employees and the organizations.
Staffing or (recruitment and selection)
• is the filling and keeping filled, positions in the organization structure through
identifying workforce requirements.
Skills
•Skills are the expertise or talent needed in order to do a job or task.
•Job skills allow you to do a particular job and life skills help you through everyday
tasks.
•People are very important in business because of the skill they have and when these
skills are demonstrated in their jobs they contribute to the success of the business. The
success of a business is achieved by the quality of its products, which is the result of
good skills. Therefore, proper selection of personnel and job allocation is very
important.
Job Description Definition

• A job description is a statement that outlines the specifics of a

particular job or position with a company. It goes into detail
about the responsibilities and conditions of the job.
•it also provides limits to one‘s responsibility within the firm.
Preparing a job description should be done from the job‘s
point of view through talking with the workers and
observing what they actually do.
 Basic Components of a Job Description
Common components of a job description include:
• General overview
• Job duties
• Purpose of the job
• Goals and objectives
• Scope of the work
• Working conditions
• Qualifications or requirements
• Immediate supervisor
• Supervisory responsibilities
• Special circumstances, such as travel
 Wages and welfare
•If you have selected your key employees that you are pleased with, you should try to structure a
compensation plan that will enable you to keep them. There are many ways and forms of
compensation that you can consider:

•Salary
•A good salary is probably the most important consideration for most key employees. You can award
salary increments to your employees on merit; especially those whom you think deserve it on looking at
their performance and contribution to the success of your business.
•
•Introduce official pay rates to all the new employees whose performance you do not yet know. You
can obtain these rates from your local labour office.
•
•Insurance
•There are various types of insurance policies that may be included in the fridge benefit package for
your employers e.g. Life insurance.
•
•Pension/gratuity
•A pension scheme is important to many people, particularly those who are older. So you must think
about it for employees believe in the employer who takes care of their welfare and solves their
problems. Medical Schemes may be one of the welfare benefits for your staff.
 Conditions of service
•These are the regulations set by an Employer for his/her employees, which govern the Dos and
Don‘ts in the firm, e.g. punctuality at work and fighting or drunkenness.
❑
Motivation
Motivation is a process of inducing, inspiring and energizing people
to work willingly with zeal, initiative, confidence, satisfaction and an
integrated manner to achieve desired goals
Another important task for an Entrepreneur is to motivate his/ her staff.
We motivate our employees in order to make them happy and do what
we want them to do for us willingly. There are so many different ways of
motivation.
• Bonus
• Tokens
• Delegation
• Free meals at work (Mmemo)
• Free transport to and from work
• Accommodation
• Good salary
• Time off.
 Staff Development
•Employee development is a process of improving employees' existing
competencies and skills and developing newer ones to support the
organization’s goals.
• This helps to avoid unnecessary accidents or wastage of materials.
•The first thing in determining your personnel needs is to break down the
business operation into functional areas. The types and number of functional
areas will vary depending upon the size and nature of business.
• WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF STAFF DEVELOPMENT

1. Performance Improvement
2. Better handle unexpected situations
3. Learning culture inside an organization help attract new employees and improve loyalty
4. Save money via retaining employees
5. Help grow potentially good employees into great leaders
6. Improve employee engagement and motivation with good training
 recruiting and selecting employees
• People are the most important part in any business and management should
make every effort to get the right people in the right jobs at the right time.
• For a company to stay competitive it must recruit and retain an efficient and
effective team of employees.

The difference between recruitment & selection

• Recruitment involves the attraction of suitable candidates to vacant positions from both inside
and outside the organization.
• Selection involves the choosing of suitable candidates by means of the recruitment process.
• Recruitment and selection is no longer a straightforward process. Many variables have to be
taken into consideration, including employment status (full-time, permanent part-time,
temporary part-time, subcontractor, self-employed, etc.), the external labour market, and
even whether external recruitment is necessary.
 Stages in the Recruitment Process
Recruitment in organisations can be viewed as a systematic
process. It has a number of stages, each of which needs to be
completed for the process to be a success. This process is outlined
below:
1.Determine the vacancy
2.Complete the job analysis
3.Write the job description
4.Draft the personnel specification
5.Advertise in suitable sources of recruitment
6.Receive applications and pre-select candidates
7.Hold interviews (and/or other selection method) – what are these other
methods that can be used
8. Make a job offer
When to recruit
• Recruitment is necessary when either an existing employee leaves
or a new position is created.
• There should be an assessment of whether there really is a vacancy
or whether the work could be done in some other way.
• Reorganization of work or training could solve the problem, and
there is also the possibility of overtime or internal secondment to
cover the work.
• When a vacancy does exist, there are a number of alternatives to
undertaking the full recruitment and selection procedure, which can
be expensive and time-consuming.
OTHER RECRUITMENT POSIBILITIES
Subcontracting
•A growing number of companies are subcontracting certain jobs to
avoid on-costs such as national insurance contributions, sickness pay,
etc.

Agencies
•The use of temporary agencies is yet another option. Temporary cover
can be provided for occurrences like long-term sickness or maternity
leave. The company does not directly employ agency workers.

•Internal recruitment is also a possibility. This is cheaper than external

recruitment and has the advantage of ensuring the appointment of
someone already accustomed to the organization's culture and values.