Running head: DATA ANALYTICS SIMULATION 1

Data Analytics Simulation: Strategic Decision Making

Student’s Name

Institution’s Name
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Data Analytics Simulation: Strategic Decision Making

1. Did you put adequate effort into exploring the past data about Blue's performance?

Would it have paid off to do the additional analysis? What did you learn from your use

of analytics?

I had set in place sufficient effort and time to explore the past data concerning the

performance of Blue. The learning outcome that I anticipated from the simulation was a strategic

analysis of the pricing along with various elements of the business such as marketing, the

product type, advertising, the group of the individuals who use this product, number of the

individuals using it, and the areas where this product had been in use. Specifically, the findings

of the Blue have indicated that the Blue’s shares depend highly on the price per 100 products.

When the price remains low, the demand becomes higher, which in turn, increases the costs of

stock? For instance, I presumed the price at $7 in 2019, which included all the factors that gave

an increase of 100.9 percent. Conversely, I had increased production in 2020 to 52 million and

maintained a low price to $4.75, which increased the costs of the share to 12.2 percent.

I managed to learn so many things in using analytics, such as project management, as I

was the product manager for the Blue brand detergent. I also gained skills such as critical

thinking and problem-solving skills because I had to make strategic decisions like deciding on

how the run in the future to maximize the performance that involves sales, profit, and market

share growth. It also gave me firsthand experience since I could apply what I had learned in the

classroom to the real-life scenario. As the product manager, my goal was to turn around lagging

performance Blue, which is one of the detergent brands of Kelsey-White and faced various

competitors within the US marketplace. Thus, I interacted with the realistic version of the work

environment.
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2. What filters made you change your decisions about improving Blue’s situation in

the marketplace?

With the gradual evolution of the market, filters are a necessity since multiple choices

saturate consumer radar, which creates difficulty for the decision-makers to find the selection

and the brands that can stand out within the market. The primary filters in the market that led to

the decisions of improving the state of Blue in the marketplace were Turbo and Fresh’s brands

that imposed competition environment to the blue brand. The Turbo brand was a soaped-up and

advertised heavily, and it promised more power of cleaning. The consumers had shown a

positive response to its message, and this brand had gained almost half of the US detergent

market shares. In the situation that I want to include the whole income group, the entire

household, all regions, all age groups, and all ethnicity, the share price will decrease. On the

contrary, when I want to maintain everything out of focus except for including all households,

the share prices will increase to 18.9%. Thus, it is based on several individuals who use this

product since they have a significant impact on the product's pricing. The number of individuals

makes the demand ratio for the product. When the demand increases, it provides room for

maintaining a low price for the product for it to bring many consumers.

3. How did you forecast demand? Why is the forecast outcome a range? Would a

specific number be better? What’s the downside of producing too much? Too little?

In the case of the forecasting demand for the Blue detergent, I maintained a high product

level because it makes the cost of production appear cheap, which in turn, attracts more

consumers. For instance, with the creation of over 52 million, the price per 100 products is

$4.75, which appears cheaper as opposed to the competitors. Thus, the Blue should keep a
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relatively low cost so that it can compete within the market. Lowering the prices will increase the

demand and, eventually, increases the rates of the share for the product.

4. Would you describe this use of analytics as descriptive, predictive, or prescriptive?

The use of the analytics would be described as predictive analytics since it answered the

question of what may happen. The primary tool that was involved included the simulation

whereby the simulation game focused on the use of the data analytics in strategic decision

making. The K-W Vision tool was used to analyze the outcomes of the market data and

performance measurement. Thus, it described as predictive analytics since it offered insight into

the things that the future held for the operation of the Blue brand by Kelsey-White. The analytics

took the existing data and applied the statistical techniques using machine learning. The results

were coarse-grained (like expected growth of industry and the raw material pricing), company-

centric (revenue and profit growth), and operational (anticipated changes in the demand by the

product line).

5. What lessons can you draw about the use of these types of analytics? What factors

might make them more valuable within an organization? Can you see any

downsides to this type of management? What might invalidate the data-driven

lessons you learned?

These types of analytics involve the technology use that assists the business in making

better decisions through analysis of the raw data. Specifically, I learned that the prescriptive

analytics factors the information concerning the possible scenarios, the resources available, past

performance, and the present performance. It also suggests the course of action or strategy. It

may be applied in making the decisions at any time horizon from the immediate to the long-run.

The factors that can make the data-driven driven management valuable within the organization
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are that they prevent the errors and the biases, increased productivity, as well as promote

transparency and understanding. Conversely, the downsides to this type of management are that

it elicits the blind trust; it leads to possible misinterpretations, and low-quality data may be

involved.

Fig 1: Income Statement

Fig 2: Decision History