Understanding Business Drivers and Improving Business Forecasts

Part 1

Deliverable Length: 600–800 words

Respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Big D Incorporated is nearing completion of its portfolio of recommendations for the outdoor sporting goods company. Clearly state your variables that you would utilize in your particular path that you recommend. Utilizing a Regression Model, forecast monthly sales on either the expansion into the new market or if the recommendation is to retrench and not expand. Ensure that you provide adequate justification for your recommendations. The Board of Directors requires your input based upon your previous exercises from the three attachments.

Part 2

Deliverable Length: 2,000–2,500 words

Using the information from the three attachments, Big D Incorporated will be examining how multivariate techniques can serve the organization best and how they can be applied to their new client, the outdoor sporting goods customer. The Board of Directors has asked you to research and explain 3 major ways in which multivariate statistics are utilized in this scenario. In this case, be sure to justify your decision.

Research using the library and the Internet to find at least 1 example of how a real company has used each of the following multivariate techniques: factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. This can be considered a benchmark if you can justify how it could benefit Big D Incorporated.

Write a summary to upper management explaining the following:

• How can each multivariate technique be utilized in Big D Incorporated, and what purpose would each serve?
• Which technique is your preferred method, and how is your chosen multivariate technique different from the other two techniques?
• What will the Board of Directors learn from your selected technique and more importantly, how will it contribute to the overall decision-making process? Ensure that your explanation is clear and concise in its explanation.