Talal has completed his Master’s in Business from SEU. Talal’s hobby is body building. He bagged several awards in body building. His father has a small jewelry shop. His mother running a beauty salon, while brother has a car rental service.

Talal is thinking seriously about his future. He realized that this is not the end, but the beginning of another phase of life. It is time to plan his future career. He doesn’t want to do any job. He want to do business but how and what business?

Talal is confused about what kind of business should he start, traditional or e-commerce? Though his family is running a traditional business, Talal has heard and learnt lots about the e-Business and e-marketing. The question he need to deal with whether he should join his father’s or brother’s business or he should do his own. He is also considering the financial aspects. Should he take from father? Or bank or other sources such as partnership, etc.

Therefore, this is a question with no easy solution. Considering the above situation prepare a Decision Making and Problem Solving Worksheet answering the following question:

Step 1: Defining and Clarifying the Question 

Step 2: Develop mind mapping for the alternative 

Step 3: Generating Alternatives 

Step 4: Variables to consider 

Step 5: Weighing the considerations 

You may notice that the variables to consider are not of equal importance. Therefore, you need to weigh how important each variable is before you make your decision. In this activity, the following rating scale can be used:

5	Very important
4	Considerably important
3	Neither important nor unimportant
2	Not very important
1	Not important at all

Step 6: Weighing the alternatives (2 mark)

When weighing the various alternatives, how well each alternative fulfills the variables to consider can be expressed as scores. A different rating scale will be used to assess each alternative:

+2 very suitable

+1 quite suitable

0 neither suitable nor unsuitable

-1 not quite suitable

-2 not suitable at all

Note: Positive numbers (+2 or +1) indicate that the alternative is able to fulfill the variables, whereas negative numbers (-2 or -1) denote the opposite.

Step 7: Calculating a decision and Overall assessment (1 mark)