Preface - Business Decision Making - ثاني ثانوي

Preface Welcome to Business Decision Making. This book is divided into 15 chapters. See the illustrations on the right to learn more about the pedagogi- cal and design elements of a typical lesson. Chapters 1-9 present only the most important information about the featured skill. Absorbing and retaining a limited number of key ideas. makes it more likely that students will retain and apply the skill in a real-life situation. Chapters 10-15 build upon the students' prior experience with spreadsheets by focusing on how Microsoft Excel is used for data modeling, decision-making, and analysis. Students will build upon their existing skills and develop new ones, before working on four exciting projects that focus on how business decisions are mod- eled and analysed. Hands-on Activities Every lesson in Chapters 1-9 contains a You Try It exercise, where students demonstrate their understanding of the lesson skill by completing a task that relates to it. The steps in the You Try It exercises are often general, requiring that stu- dents use critical thinking to complete the task. Real-world Advice and Examples To help put lesson skills in context, many lessons contain yellow shaded boxes that present real- world stories pulled from today's workplace. Some lessons also contain Do's and Don'ts tables, featuring key guidelines on what to do and not do in certain workplace situations relating to the lesson skill. The Technology @ Work lesson at the end of every chapter covers the Internet and other technologies relating to the chapter. Each lesson focuses on a single learning objective. Lesson 2 Chapter 6 www.ien.edu.sa Short introduction reviews key lesson points and presents a real-world case study to engage students. Working with Problem Owners and Stakeholders in an Organization 2-1 Solving Problems in Organizations Managers, supervisors, colleagues, and clients will ask you to solve problems for them throughout your career. When you solve a problem for someone else, you assume the responsibility for developing a satisfactory solution for them, the problem owners. Stakeholders are people who are also affected or whose involvement you need to resolve the matter. Involve the problem owners and stakeholders as you begin to work. Table 6-1 lists the do's and don'ts for working with problem owners and stakeholders. You Try It activities let students perform tasks to demonstrate their understanding of the lesson objective. YOU TRY IT Practice preparing effective conversations. Complete the following steps. 1. Nawaf is preparing to meet his manager to discuss increasing his salary. Read the following tasks. Description 1. Gather evidence of all of the tasks and activi- ties you complete in the office 2. Find evidence of other jobs that you can apply for 3. Set a firm target that you will not go below 4. Tell everyone before the meeting what you are doing, why, and why you deserve the pay rise 5. Send an e-mail to your manager asking for a job review meeting 6. Approach your manager in the canteen while they are eating lunch 7. Practice your conversation and arguments before the discussion 8. Think of any objections your manager may have and prepare your potential answers Effective way to plan for a conversation? 2. In your notebook, make a list of 1-8. Decide whether they will or will not contribute to effective communication. Briefly explain your decision. Quick Tip boxes give students short pieces of practical advice on how to put skills successfully into practice. P12 PREFACE Ministry of Education 2024-1446 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 12 QUICK TIP Give the problem owner a final report to create a sense of closure. 4. Provide choices and promote your solution Selecting one choice from many increases a sense of ownership, so present problem owners with options and ask them to select one or two. Recommend the best solution along with one or two other alternatives. Explain the pros and cons for each and let the problem owner make a final decision. After solving a problem effectively, promote your efforts and results to the problem owners and stakeholders with a persuasive report or powerful presentation. The size and format will vary depending on the size and importance of the problem. 30/06/2023 14:27

How are these two team members working together effectively? REVIEW QUESTIONS TABLE 6-1: Working with problem owners do's and don'ts Guidelines Do Initial discussion Progress Solution •Discuss the problem with the stakeholder • Ask questions to define the problem Ask for suggested solutions •Make sure you include all the details See the problem from the stakeholder's perspective Separate opinions from facts Communicate the progress you make toward solving the problem Use e-mail and memos to document your progress Recommend an ideal solution and one or two alternatives Demonstrate why you suggest one solution over another Promote effective solutions •Present the solution in a report or presentation Don't Don't accept the stakeholder's solution as the only one Don't confuse the stakeholder's opinion with substantiated facts. • Don't overwhelm others with communication •Don't surprise the stakeholder by trying a solution without their participation or approval Don't present only one possible solution •Don't fail to do your homework. • Don't overpromote yourself, but don't let the credit for the solution go to someone else either 1. An organizational structure where every worker is equal is sometimes described as: a. equal b. long c. flat d. a pyramid 2. Which of the following is not a way for a company to measure your performance: a. KPIs b. job interview c. appraisal d. statistical data Blogging is writing More than other forms of electronic communication such as e-mail, blogs are crafted pieces of writing that people can access long after they are first published on a Web site. If you are writing a blog, at a minimum, make sure you are using clear sentences and a logical organization for your ideas. Build on these fundamentals with the following techniques to devise an appealing and useful blog: •Include descriptive titles and headings: Your titles and headings tell potential visitors what you are writing about. Make sure these elements use concrete details and active verbs. • Get to the point: People read content on the Web more quickly than they do printed material. Make your point quickly-in the first sentence, if possible. Write economically throughout the post so people keep reading. • Stick to one topic: A blog post can be long or short, but it should cover a single topic. An effective strategy is to present a single problem, discuss a solution, and then describe the results. Support your ideas with facts and references. Come to conclusions based on evidence rather than unsupported opinions. Make it worth your reader's time: Share knowledge and experiences to teach your readers or stimulate them to think. Write with energy and conviction, and show readers something in a new way to make your post worthwhile. •Edit and revise before publishing: You can write quickly to put your words on the page, but those ideas are likely to remain fuzzy unless you edit them. Professional writers spend more time editing and revising than writing first drafts. Make sure the words you post on a blog today will be valuable and clear in the future. → Do's & Don'ts tables present key tips for what to do and not do. Certain lessons fea- ture illustrations of examples discussed in the lesson, and act as prompts for discussion and fur- ther thought. Review Questions provide multiple- choice questions that test students' understanding of the lesson material. News to Use boxes provide real-world stories related to the lesson topic. Definition Boxes Each chapter includes key terms which are high- lighted in blue throughout the main text and are accompanied by definitions in boxes which explain the meaning of these terms. These are useful for revision and reference after reading a chapter, to reinforce the concepts discussed. All key terms and their definitions are collated in the Glossary at the back of the book. Lessons and Exercises Each chapter contains a series of lessons, or learning objectives. Chapters 1-5 use a fictional adventure travel company as the case study. The assignments in the Extra Practice section at the end of Chapters 1-11 increase in difficulty. The exercises and case studies provide a variety of interesting and relevant business applications. Assignments include: • Real Life Independent Challenges are practical exercises where students can apply the skills they learned in an activity that will help their own lives. For instance, they might create a resume, write a business letter to a company, or research a potential employer and pre- pare a report on their findings. • Team Challenges are practical projects that require working together in a team to solve a problem. • Be the Critic Exercises are activities that require students to evaluate a flawed example and provide ideas for improving it. • Critical Thinking Questions pose topics for discussion that require analysis and evaluation. Many also challenge stu- dents to consider and react to realistic critical thinking and application of the skills taught in the relevant chapter. وزارة التعليم Ministry of Education 2024-1446 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 13 PREFACE 13 30/06/2023 14:27

Hard Skills Chapter 9 explores the fundamentals of datal analysis to support the decision-making process. In the final lesson of this chapter, Q&A features provide additional step-by-step hints. Project-based Learning Chapters 12–15 focus on project-based learning which engages students in completing cases where they model and analyze data, and solve realistic problems for businesses in the fields of production, environment, and finance. Students are guided through the process of using spread- sheets to make data-driven decisions. Chapter 12 www.ien.edu.sa The Car Production Project Automobiles must improve their average fuel efficiency (the vehicles' kilometers per liter) in order to comply with new government regulations. The company you will work for in this project makes and sells different kinds of motorized vehi- cles, and each has different kilometers-per-liter ratings. In this case, you will use Excel Solver to determine the product mix needed to comply with the new reg- ulations in a profitable way. The Car Production Project will introduce you to the methods used to gather information for decision-making support. Information can come from many sources-it can be internal or external. Information can also be actual or pre- dicted, depending on what type of information is needed. This chapter will focus on identifying the types of information needed can be used in the project's decision-making exercises. Within your project you will begin to explore best- and worst-case scenarios, using the available data to pre- dict likely future outcomes. While there will be variables that you are able to calculate confidently, there will be areas in which the data are projections only. With these forecasts, you will be able to explore various future options. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Once you have completed this chapter, you should be able to: P14 CONTENTS Ministry of Education 2024-1446 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 14 1 Describe the data gathering process 2 Explain the types of data required for business decision support 3 Highlight patterns and trends in data to make optimal decisions. 4 5 Analyze the impact of effective data gathering on business decision making Determine the most likely outcome of the data analysis The Car Production Project 417 30/06/2023 14:27

وزارة التعليم Ministry of Education 2024-1446 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 15 Airline Deliverables You have built a series of worksheets to determine the best plane assignments with which to maximize profits and minimize costs. 1. As you have done with the other cases in this book, you now need to present your findings to Airline Company's executives in the form of a short report. Scan the QR code to access the report template (Report template.dotx). You should now be familiar with how to fill out the report, and the kind of information you need to include. 2. In the Results section, you will need to explain whether you think the current plane assignment method is still profitable, providing evidence to support your decision. 3. In the Analysis section, look again at your Airline Company Guess and your Airline Company Solver worksheets. Write a paragraph comparing the results in each, discussing how accurate your guess was at predicting the results found in Solver. Consider the following questions: What can you learn from this difference? How important is the use of DSS in the process of optimization? 4. When your report is complete, save it by selecting Save from the file menu, and use the file name format: YourName - Airline - Report.docx. 5. Summarize your report in an oral presentation to your class. Prepare a 5-minute presentation for your class explaining your findings. You might want to use PowerPoint slides, and perhaps even print out copies of your report to distribute to your class. Be prepared to take questions at the end. Your role as a presenter is to provide clear and accurate information, and explain your analysis and recommendations. Your role as an audience mem- ber is to imagine you are one of Airline Company's executives, and to ask the presenter about anything you think they need to explain further. 6. Congratulations! You have completed this semester's work on Business Decision Making. Deliverables Chapters 12-15 conclude with an opportunity for students to complete the process of model- ing and analyzing the data they have been gath- ering for each project. They will be guided to complete a report that could be presented to the company's CEO, managers, or board of directors that clearly explains and analyzes their options— backed up by the data-and helps them to reach an informed business decision. In Chapter 15, students are encouraged to take this process a step further, with the challenge to present their findings to their teacher and class, as if presenting to the company's board. Presenters will need to think about how they will communicate their ideas clearly and persua- sively, while the listening students must demon- strate their engagement by asking thoughtful questions informed by their own experience of the project and the critical thinking exercises completed at the end of Chapters 10 and 11. The Airline Project 507 CONTENTS 15 30/06/2023 14:27

What decisions have you made today? What decisions will you have to make about going to university or college? What decisions will you have to make about deciding on a career? وزارة الت16ليم Ministry of Education 2024-1446 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 16 30/06/2023 14:27

Think back to an important decision you made, either recently or in the past, and answer the following questions: 1. What decision did you make? 2. What were the main factors that affected your decision? 3. What was the outcome of your decision? Would you make the same decision again? Explain your answer. وزارة التعليم Ministry of Education 2024-1446 17 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 17 30/06/2023 14:27

4. Were there any solutions you overlooked? If so, what were they? 5. Were there any unforeseen outcomes? If so, what were they? 6. Did this decision have a positive or negative effect on you? P18 CONTENTS Ministry of Education 2024-1446 Business Decision Making S1 S2 S3.indb 18 30/06/2023 14:27