Higher Business Management Course Specimen Question ... - SQA

5. Gathering information is important prior to making decisions.
(a) Discuss the value of secondary information in decision making.
Marks
4
Cheaper source than primary information.
May not be suited to the purpose required by the business.
May contain bias.
Not always possible to trace the source to check reliability available to
competitors.
A lot of secondary information is relatively easy to obtain quicker to collect
than primary information.
(b) Describe the costs and benefits of using a structured decision making model.
6
No rash decisions taken as time is taken to gather information and analyse
it.
Decisions are made using gathered facts.
Time has been taken to develop alternative solutions.
Ideas are enhanced by following a logical process as different solutions will
have been looked at.
Can be time consuming to gather information and analyse it.
Choosing from a range of possible solutions can be difficult to do in
practice.
Creativity and gut reaction stifled.
[C010/SQP283] 30
Page sixteen