Junon Business Development Centre - Research Project

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Table of Contents



Section 1


  1. Purpose of research
  2. Project Background
  3. Scope and limitation of research




Section 2







Executive Summary

This project is dived into four different sections.

  • LO1
  • LO2 – Measure of dispersion, quartiles, percentiles and coefficient correlation are used to show the results from the questionnaire. Also a conclusion will be done from answers of the questionnaire.
  • LO3
  • LO4


This qualitative research includes a project background, purpose, objectives, methodology and literature review. Qualitative research, also called field research, typically involves fieldwork in which the researcher observes and records behaviour and events in their natural setting

Direct observation is distinguished from participant observation in a number of ways. First, a direct observer doesn't typically try to become a participant in the context. However, the direct observer does strive to be as unobtrusive as possible so as not to bias the observations.

Direct observation tends to be more focused than participant observation. The researcher is observing certain sampled situations or people rather than trying to become immersed in the entire context. Finally, direct observation tends not to take as long as participant observation. For instance, the manager is watching the employees under specific circumstances in the bakery setting from behind a one-way mirror, looking especially for the nonverbal cues being used.

Unstructured interviewing involves direct interaction between the researcher and a respondent or group. It differs from traditional structured interviewing in several important ways. First, although the researcher may have some initial guiding questions or core concepts to ask about, there is no formal structured instrument or protocol. Second, the interviewer is free to move the conversation in any direction of interest that may come up. Consequently, unstructured interviewing is particularly useful for exploring a topic broadly. However, there is a price for this lack of structure. Because each interview tends to be unique with no predetermined set of questions asked of all respondents, it is usually more difficult to analyse unstructured interview data, especially when synthesizing across respondents.

Purpose of this research

The purpose of this research is to analyse the business and prepare a proposal for the clients.


I am a senior partner at Junon Business Development Centre (JBDC), a consulting firm that was founded 17 years ago. JBDC analyzes existing and start-up businesses, creates ideas and solutions to problems, and helps small businesses develop an effective plan for meeting their goals.

Our advisors and consultants have experienced in real life business management. The Junon Business Development Centre is there to give solutions and information on businesses and related topics relevant to entrepreneurs and small businesses.

JBDC was hired by a group of investors to acquire a small business for them. The company that will be acquired is Deliciosos Bakery.

Deliciosos Bakery is an existing business which is located in Kingston, Jamaica. The bakery specializes in the manufacturing of quality whole-wheat bread, bun, cakes and others. Their products are sold in the supermarkets and other retail outlets. Deliciosos Bakery has been around for a couple years. Four years ago it was purchased by Jordan Smith and his wife Rasheda Smith, they both represent financial and culinary expertise, respectively but they did a little research on the business before purchasing it. They are now encountering a number of challenges that seem insurmountable. They want to find solutions to the many challenges the business is undergoing.

After Deliciosos has been acquired the investors will seek to make the business become profitable and sustainable and be ready to meet global challenges by using operations management, which will allow them to be one of the best bakeries in town.

Scope and limitation of research

In this study, I have gathered some information on using measures of dispersion to show descriptive statistics. Different types of graphs such pie chart; line graph and bar graph were used to disseminate information, using a wide variety of sources for the collection of data. Understand the range of techniques to analyse data effectively for business purposes and Producing information in appropriate formats for decision making in an organisational context.

There were a few limitations in this research. Some of these are:

  • Finding the correct texts to be used
  • Information collected was out-dated.

Research Objectives

  • To use a variety of sources for the collection of data, both primary and secondary.
  • To understand a range of techniques to analyse data effectively for business purposes.
  • To produce information in appropriate formats for decision making in an organisational context.
  • To use software-generated information to make decisions in an organisation.


A methodology can be defined as the process used to collect data for the purpose of making business decision and collect information and data.

This research will partially base its finding through qualitative research methods because this permits the flexible and iterative approach. This method was also chosen because surveys and questionnaires were used to conduct the research and gather data. It is also about exploring issues and understanding phenomena and a technique that was used to go deep into the subjects of importance and scrutinize obstructions related to the delay, which the firm faced.

Research will be conducted by doing the following:

  • Gathering information about the business operations. This will be done by conducting a survey and doing a questionnaire.
  • After all information is collected then we can assess, evaluate and justify the different operations management and processes to use to achieve the aims and objectives of the business.

Secondary research was also used to gathered information. This is because it gives the reader a wider range of information to gather from the different sources which can be justify and analyzed in order to achieve the tasks. In addition, the use of secondary data will also give efficiency in term of saving time to conduct this research. Examples of some of the secondary research that were used are the internet, newspaper, books and journals.

To achieve the aims and objectives of Bacchanale Restaurant, Junon Business Development Centre will do a business report for the new investors who have limited business strategy knowledge.

  1. Create plan for the collection of primary and secondary data for a given business problem

The plan is to find out why Deliciosos Bakery is not making sales, why employees aren’t comfortable and why customers are not purchasing from them anymore. Deliciosos bakery has been around for a number of years. They use to perform well but as of late things are just not going the right way. The researcher will be conduct a survey and using a questionnaire to get results. Primary and secondary data will be used to collect information as well.

Secondary data that has been collect elsewhere for other reasons but can be used for this survey that is being conducted. The secondary data being used is geographical data. Primary data that is use is data that is collected from the research himself and analyse them.

  1. Present the survey methodology and sampling frame used.

Sample frame is the population of persons who purchase Deliciosos bakery baked products and pastries. From the sample frame there will be a target audience of age ranging from 10 – 19 from the area of Kingston, Jamaica.

  1. Design a questionnaire for a given business problem.

Customer Questionnaire

1. What is your gender?



2. Which category below includes your age?

17 or younger






https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gif60 or older

3. Do you like Deliciosos Bakery, neither like nor dislike it, or dislike it?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifLike a great deal

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifLike a moderate amount

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifLike a little

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifNeither like nor dislike

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifDislike a little

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifDislike a moderate amount

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifDislike a great deal

4. Overall, are you satisfied with the employees at our company, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with them, or dissatisfied with them?

Extremely satisfied

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifModerately satisfied

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifSlightly satisfied

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifNeither satisfied nor dissatisfied

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifSlightly dissatisfied

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifModerately dissatisfied

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifExtremely dissatisfied

5. How friendly are the staffs at our organization?


https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifQuite friendly

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifModerately friendly

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifSlightly friendly

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifNot at all friendly

6. Compared to our competitors, are our service's prices higher, lower, or about the same?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifCompared to our competitors, are our service's prices higher, lower, or about the same? Agreatdealhigher

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifQuite a bit higher


https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifAbout the same


https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifQuite a bit lower

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifA great deal lower


7. Compared to our competitors, is our service quality better, worse, or about the same?



https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifSomewhat better

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifAbout the same

https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifSomewhat worse


https://www.surveymonkey.com/i/t.gifAgreatdeal worse


8. What changes would most improve our products?

Employee Questionnaire

  1. Are you comfortable with the benefits you receive?

__ Yes

__ No

  1. Are you comfortable working at the bakery?

__ Yes

__ No

  1. What changes you would like to see at the bakery?


2.1 Create information for decision making by summarizing data using representative value.

After the answer from the questionnaire was analyzed it can be shown why Deliciosos Bakery is not getting any sales, why they are not getting sales, why they are no customers and why there is no profit based on the information that has been collected the investors can make changes to the area that needs improvement.

The customer survey showed that the prices of the bakery are nowhere near the prices of their competitors. It also showed that the products sold are not the same as how they used to, they taste different. Sales have declined tremendously. Majority of persons that took part in the survey were female. The business need to do more promotion to let the bakery be known to the public.

Based on the questionnaire given to the employees they are not comfortable and the want to receive more benefits. They had alit of suggestion on ways the bakery can be improved.

2.2 Analyse the result to draw valid conclusion in a business context.

It can be shown where Deliciosos bakery have went wrong and how or what they need to do to increase profit and be on top of their competitors.

In order for Deliciosos bakery to get back to where they use to be they can venture into opening a new bakery and offering a wider selection of baked goods and pastries. Hiring a pastry chef to do special cakes will also get more customers to purchase from them.

Seeing that the sales of the company has decreased they could do some promotion via social media (Facebook, Twitter) and also create a website. Using social media will get the public attention more because people are on their phone and computer and it’s easier to access the information and get the information they want. Another way they can promote the business id doing advertisement via radio and television.

Deliciosos bakery can attract customers by giving away free pastries to them if they answered a trivia correctly or give them a gift voucher.

As it relate to the employees, the company can award them with appraisal for example employee of the month/week and bonus on their pay if they have perform well. The owners also need to train their employees before putting them out to the customers. Employees are usually the face of the company therefore it is important that they are trained to deal the customers the right way. If these customers are treated properly they will return to make more purchase.

If the business follows all these steps the business will get back on the right track and there will be an increase in profit and sales.

2.3 Analyse data using measures of dispersion to inform a given business context.

Question #3 from the questionnaire will be used to calculate measure of dispersion.

Question: “Do you like the products Deliciosos sells?”


Number of persons answered

  1. Like a little


  1. Like a moderate amount


  1. Like a great deal


  1. Dislike a little


  1. Dislike a moderate amount


  1. Dislike a great amount


Mean = 10+7+3+2+2+4 = 24 = 4

6 6

Mode = 2

Median = 0

Variance = x² = ∑ (x - x) ²

N - 1

10 – 4 = 6 = 36

7- 4 = 3 = 9

3 – 4 = -1 = 1

2 – 1 = -2 = 4

4 – 4 = 0 = 0

2 – 4 = -2 = 4

Total = 54 = 10.8


SD = √10.8 = 3.286

2.4 Explain how quartile, percentile and the correlation coefficient are used to draw useful conclusion in a business context.

Correlation coefficientsare used in statistics to measure how strong a relationship is between two variables. There are several types of correlation coefficient: Pearson’s correlation orPearson correlationis acorrelation coefficient commonly used in linear regression.

Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient returns a value of between -1 and +1. A -1 means there is a strong negative correlation and +1 means that there is a strong positive correlation.


Number Of Pastries Sold






24 cupcakes






10 cinnamon roll






2 chocolate cake






4 cookies











pearsons correlation coefficient

3.1 Produce graphs using spread sheets and draw valid conclusion based on the information derived.

Based on the pie chart above it can be shown that more females participated in the survey than male.

As shown in the diagram above people from ages 10 to 59 purchases at Deliciosos bakery with majority of the purchases coming from ages 10 – 19 years.

It is clear that most of the employees working at Deliciosos bakery are not comfortable working there. 16 persons said no and 8 said yes.

3.2 Create trend lines in spread sheet graphs to assist in forecasting for specific business information.

3.3 Prepare a business presentation using suitable software and technique to disseminate information effectively.

3.4 Produce a formal business report.

Terms of Reference

Jordan Smith and Rasheda Smith, Managers at Deliciosos Bakery have requested a report on employee’s satisfaction. The report was to be submitted to them by 8 June.


All employees were given a questionnaire and about 10% was interviewed face-to-face in the period of May 10th concerning:

  • Overall satisfaction that they are given.
  • Problem that they are having with management.
  • Problems they are having with other employees.
  • Suggestions of how they want to be treated and what needs to be improve as it relates to the employees being satisfy.
  • They all wanted to be treated with respect and receive appraisals.


  • Employees are not satisfied with the way they are treated.
  • Some problems they had with management are they are not being paid for overtime and when they apply for vacation it either take long to approve or it’s not given to them.
  • Older employees were not satisfied with how the manager paid them.
  • They had no problems with their employees.
  • They don’t receive any insurance so if they are hurt at work they have to spend from their own pockets.


  • Management need to improve on how they deal with their staff.
  • Benefits should be revised seeing that majority of the complaints are on what they receive.
  • Mangers need to make it their responsibility to see that the workers are being paid when they work overtime.
  • Older employees should be paid more than the lower level employees because they are there for a long time.


  • The managers should discuss among themselves the serious complaints they have received pertaining to how they treat the employees.
  • Answer to the employees request quicker and stop rejecting them from getting leave.
  • Give the older employees the satisfaction and benefits they deserve.

4.1 Use appropriate information processing tools

The management information system is an information processing tool that provides information on the business operations and gives operational data for planning, scheduling and controlling, The type of data Deliciosos Bakery use are:

  • Decision Support System - This is mostly used by managers and it gives them the necessary information needed to make intelligent decision.
  • Transaction Processing system – Used by the finance manage, it is used to create invoices when the bakery has purchased materials from other companies. It is done on a daily basis and is used to prepare the payroll for the employees.

4.2 Prepare a project plan for an activity and determine the critical path.





Weigh Ingredients

Complete first

1 mins


Mix Ingredients

After A

3 mins


Cookies Rising time

After B

60 mins


Prepare tins

1 min


Pre-heat oven


Roll dough in small flat circles

After C and D

2 mins


2nd set of cookies rising time

After F

15 mins


Cooking time

After E and G

45 mins

Critical Path = A B C D E F G H

4.3 Use financial tools for decision making.

Net Present Value (NPV) is a formula used to determine the present value of an investment by the discounted sum of all cash flows received from the project. The formula for the discounted sum of all cash flows can be rewritten as:

Net Present Value Alternative Formula

To provide an example of Net Present Value, Deliciosos Bakery is determining whether they should invest in a new project. Deliciosos Bakery will expect to invest $800,000 for the development of their new business. The company estimates that the first year cash flow will be $300,000. The second year cash flow will be $400,000, and the third year cash flow to be $300,000. The expected return of 10% is used as the discount rate.

The following table provides each year's cash flow and the present value of each cash flow.

Year Cash Flow Present Value

0 -$800,000 -$800,000 1 $200,000 $181,818.18 2 $300,000 $247,933.88 3 $200,000 $150,262.96

Net Presented Value = 219,984.18

Internal rate of return is the interest rate at which the netpresent valueof all thecashflows (both positive and negative) from a project orinvestmentequal zero.



Deliciosos Bakery wants to purchase a piece of factory equipment for $300,000. The equipment would only last three years, but it is expected to generate $150,000 of additional annualprofitduring those years. Deliciosos Bakery also thinks it can sell the equipment for scrap afterward for about $10,000. Using IRR, Deliciosos Bakery can determine whether the equipment purchase is a better use of itscashthan its otherinvestmentoptions, which should return about 10%.


Theinvestment's IRR is 24.31%