I.

Introduction

In this case, Steve figure as a manager of marketing and specific is working for Kinh Do. It
is the largest and leading foodstuff business group in Vietnam . Kinh Do group has developed
to a large conglomerate including more than ten subsidiary companies in real estate, food
stuff, finance , and retail business; Steve had some problem about the ideas of production for
new product of Kinh Do. The aim of this unit is to assess how the chosen organization
manages the factors of communications, knowledge and information. In the context of the
overall business processes and functionalities of the chosen organization an assessment of
communication knowledge and information will be completed. The tasks that will be done in
this paper are as follows: understanding how to assess the needs of knowledge and
information; creating strategies in order to increase personal networking in order to widen its
involvement in the decision making process; be able to develop communication processes; be
able to improve systems relating to knowledge and information.

Task 1.1 Discuss ranges of decisions Steve has to make?

There are 4 types of decision to make plan on business, they also are one of all decision to
make a choice when planning product and service in future, they are organizational, personal,
basic and routine decision.

Organizational decision: Organization decision-making is where leaders make

decisions without consulting their teams. This is an effective style, especially when
things are moving quickly and the team is looking for immediate guidance. These can
also be sudden or last minute decisions. When good results are produced, trust and
follower-ship is increased. In a business setting, leaders use this style the most

effective on large financial decisions and in crisis situations. (Gleeson, 2012)

Personal decision: Personal decision-making is just what it sounds like. Leaders
gather their teams and request feedback and insight. The leader still makes the final
call, but is armed with the proper data to make a more informed decision (Gleeson,
2012). This is when there is a high stakes decision to be made and the decision maker
seeks consultation from a person, group, or business to guide or validate his or her
decision. With this style, and really in all business decisions, avoid surrounding
yourself with people that always agree with you. The leader is seeking information,
not advice. The leader ultimately makes the decision. This can prove to be risky when

seeking consultation from someone you lead. If your decision does not support their
consultation they may be hesitant to support your decision 100% or be reluctant
contribute in the future. You need people who are able to strongly argue the other side.
Whether you use their advice or not, it will help clarify your decision. Be sure to

explain that you are simply gathering information (Darryl L.Rivers, 2014)
Basic decision: This is when a group is assembled to work on making a decision.
Consensus-based decision-making is done more like a democratic vote. Leaders
gather their teams and everyone votes. Majority rules. This process can work well
when the outcome of the decision affects the entire team, and generally won't
immediately affect the bottom line. In a quick-moving business environment, this is
not the most efficient way to make a decision, but there are still some decisions that

can be made this way. (Gleeson, 2012)

Routine decision: When surrounded by trusted peers, sometimes the best decision a
leader can make is to not be the one to make a certain decision. Complete delegation
(convenience decision-making) has many benefits including measuring the decisionmaking abilities of your managers, empowering your team, and maintaining your own
sanity! By handing over some decision-making responsibilities, leaders are also
building a better management team and giving them the confidence they need as their
responsibilities increase. And, convenience-based decision-making is a great way to
avoid the decision trap of weve always done it this way. New decision makers take
fresh approaches to solving problems. (Gleeson, 2012)

About Steve case, his boss assigned him to create idea about a new Kinh Do product type
which have fruity taste with purpose to bring more flavor to customers who use Kinh Do.
With purpose to create a new product, he can follow personal decisions, the manager need to
seek information from information from customers his employees, or other department
groups to make a final decision, because he is a marketing manager, Steve need to survey
customers about their demand, their needs and wants about new product and he can consult
from its own staff, the decisions and ideas from employees can be helpful for the manager;
Furthermore, organization decision is most important that Steve need to, because in the
company, with the board, stakeholders and associated departments to work together, these
factors may influence the decision of Steve. Right from the start, when making new idea
Steve had to convince the bosses and shareholders of the company approved the idea of new
products as well as review the company's financial problems for the development of this new
product. If the budget spent for this project exceed the allowed but do not provide the

satisfaction of customers about new products, it can affect the profitability as well as the
reputation of the company. So Steve needs to be sure of his decisions because it can affect the
organization.

Task 1.2 Types of information and knowledge

1. Quantitative and Qualitative

Quantitative information is capable of being expressed in numbers, it is non-numeric

information based on the quality of an item or object. Quantitative information consist
of measurable information hard facts, numbers, weights, and measures, percentages,
statistics,

Qualitative information can only expressed in numerical terms with difficulty, it is

information than can be directly measured and can be seen as factual information
rather than opinion.

Source: (BPP learning media, 2013, p. 167)

2. Tacit and Explicit
Tacit knowledge is a type of knowledge was originally defined by Polanyi in 1966. It
is sometimes referred to as know-how (Brown and Duguid, 1998) and refers to
intuitive, hard to define knowledge that is largely experience based. Because of this,
tacit knowledge is often context dependent and personal in nature. It is hard to
communicate and deeply rooted in action, commitment, and involvement (Nonaka

1994).
Explicit knowledge is a type of knowledge is formalized and codified, and is
sometimes referred to as know-what (Brown and Duguid, 1998). It is therefore fairly
easy to identify, store, and retrieve (Wellman 2009). This is the type of knowledge
most easily handled by KMS, which are very effective at facilitating the storage,

retrieval, and modification of documents and texts.

3. Official and Unofficial
Official second data comprise all information collected, processed and made available
by legally constituted organisations, primarily by government departments and
statutory authorities. Official statistics abound in all developed societies.
Governments collect data about their operations, usually for valid reasons, such as for

efficient long- and short-term planning (BPP learning media, 2013, p. 253).
Unofficial second data comprises all other forms of secondary information sources

(BPP learning media, 2013, p. 253).

4. Policy and Opinion

Policies are the paradigms of government and all bureaucracies. Policies provide a
context of rules and methods to guide how large organizations meet their
responsibilities. Organizational knowledge policies describe the institutional aspects
of knowledge creation, management, and use within the context of an organization's
mandate or business model. Social knowledge policies balance between progress in
the knowledge economy to promote global competitiveness with social values, such

as equity, unity, and the well-being of citizens (Edward elgar, 2008).

Opinion is not the knowledge, but it can help us make the decision (BPP learning
media, 2013, p. 46).

8 types of knowledge were mentioned above were pretty important with Steve to create a
plan for a new product, to do that work effectively, the first thing Steve has to do is
understand customers and market, he should make a survey for customer or he could make a
small interview for group customer to understand the customer more. After collected all
feedback from survey and information in experience of customer, Steve's employees will
connect and analyses all of information that collect from customer. After that, Steve need to
connect all of opinions and ideas from his employees to give a final idea for the product,
because each staffs will have difference opinions and knowledges for them self in analyses
and understand the customers, so that knowledge will be tacit knowledge. Steve can share
information from survey that to his employees in his department and other department or talk
to the experts in this field, it will helpful in create a new product; so that knowledge will be
explicit knowledge. For example Steve only survey 200 customers are including 100 male
and 100 female, the survey results of male have 40 percent of customers like new product
with low calories and sugar fit to dieters , but also have 60 customer want have fruity taste in
the new product fit with anybody. Therefore, that information will be quantitative
information. About collect answers from interview help Steve to make decision about the
idea of create new product, which is the percentage higher, Steve should find out and make
decision based on that. More specific, Steve should also survey with the competitor of
company and Steve can seek more specific information from annual reports of Kinh Do in
each years to take more information about the profits of each product that company has made,
so that information would be qualitative information.

Task 1.3 Source of information and knowledge

Sources of information have been collected from book, experience or survey results
where we can make reference and in the business case, every business needs
information to help it succeed. A combination of internal and external business
information resources can provide the background necessary to evaluate current
performance and plan future progress. Knowing the types of information resources
that are most critical to business can help companies plan for capturing, analyzing and

using that information most effectively (Daniel, 1993).

Internal information is necessary for all management levels, in every function in the
organisation. It will relate to activities or transactions performed within the
organisation, such as administrative tasks, the production of production of products
and services, or the sale of those products. Often these activities generate cost and
revenues and so a lot of the internal data collected will be quantitative (BPP learning
media, 2013, p. 250).

Internal sources include:

-

The accounting ledgers, which are used for predicting future events, budgeting, and

analysing the stock control system, speed of delivery, and quality of supplies.
Personnel and payroll system are used for costing a project and ascertaining the
availability and rate of pay of levels of staff and also for keeping detailed record of

time spent on various activities.

Production departments are a source of information on machine capacity, fuel
consumption, and work in process, maintenance requirements and the movement of
people.
Marketing department provide information on opinions and buying habits of

customers and potential customers

External is information which comes from outside the business. This is gathered via
mainly secondary information methods such as newspapers and magazines, the
internet. Information emanates from official and unofficial sources, the latter having
to be assessed for reliability. It concerns such matters as official areas, the economy,
suppliers and customers (BBC, business enterprise, 2014).

Steve absolutely should find out and based on the internal information because simply it is
reliable, he can use the information from his employees of marketing after they finish the
survey of customers, the information and feedback of customers always be saved when he

finish of finding out about customers such as e-CRM (electronic customer relationship
management), e-CRM system with purpose manage all of feedbacks, answers, reports about
the product, and information about customers. This is the software can make interaction with
customer, marketing department of Steve can use it after finishing survey and of course the
information which is collected directly by Steve will reliable. Financial department will give
information about budget of the company then Steve can consider that to create and develop
the product.
About external information, nowadays, there are many external information of website,
media, newspaper or journal have been used. External information may not trustful as
internal information, but Steve can check it and refer about review article. Steve should
maintain about collecting the external information, and then use the internal information to
make a survey to find out.

Task 1.4 Propose 5 step process to improve the new

product development process
Making

Perform

decision steps
Need recognition

Steve should most care about the demand of

customer in product flavor; it is most important
influence to success or failure of the new product.
Steve should care about the competitors of the
company. Some big competitive company, Steve
should refer the competitive product in quality, price.
Based on that Steve can create new product that fit
to demand of customer and can compete with other
competitive company.

Information

At the upper part has mentioned about customers

gathering

survey, the information gathering will be used by

quantitative method, Steve will follow the higher
percentage and then make interview to receive
information in detail.
As to mention above, Steve can use internal
information of company to make decision. Or
external information comment of customer, about
the product of company in social page and the paper

Alternative

write about company

About evaluate the alternative, after collect and

evaluation

analyze customers, Steve can recognize that the

customer almost like the product has fruity taste with
low calorie and sugar, but many customer would like
to have good quality and diversity taste in the new
product. However, from the information collect from
competition survey, Steve would see that the
competitors of Kinh Do, they attract more customers
because they has many products with diversity taste
with high quality. Therefore, the alternative is product
taste and quality, Steve should make a choice about
which the best flavor customer want to decide to

Post evaluation

make a new product.

- Material: In Kinh Do plants, they use the most
advanced technology, ensuring that the
product safely and hygiene. For satisfy
customer demand, Steve should care and
import material which make special taste for
-

the product
Packaging (designing): almost Pepsi product
used nylon and box. As the survey result, most
customers satisfied that the company
packaging. Therefore, Steve could continue to
use box and nylon packaging for the new

product with purpose bring favorable and easy

-

to use for customers.

Supplier: is the largest and leading foodstuff
business group in Vietnam so they need to
keep in touch with many suppliers from
domestic and imported. The main supplier
companies Kinh Do from domestic and
imported. For raw products Kinh Do Steve can
send staff to each farm to find the best

materials to give companies.

Budget: Steve need to communicate with
financial department, they has a most
important role in this project they have to make
clearly statistics about budget pay for material,
work with supplier, designer and
advertisement, because Steve also follow the
organizational decision, so he should calculate
carefully to make sure about material import,
advertisement and design will not in over

budget case.
Marketing and advertising for the product To
release the new product to the market, Steve
need to prepare a marketing strategy. Steve
needs some advice for marketing strategy, and
because Steve give a new one product, so to
attract customer and customers have
feedback, he should use advertisement on
social network like Facebook and SEO on
Google, the marketing department of Steve will
take responsibility of this advertisement

Making decision

strategy,
Steve will review and take the feedbacks from
customers after release the product. If customer feel
satisfy with the product and the feedbacks collect

from customers is good, the company will start to

produce more the new product.

Task 2.1 Identify stakeholders groups for a decisionmaking process

Stakeholders Definition

Steve decision

group
Board of

A group of individuals that

influence
This stakeholder is most

director

are elected as, or elected

influence to Steve decision

to act as, representatives

any ideas and decision of

of the stockholders to

Steve must be passed and

establish corporate

considered by the director,

management related

they have to evaluate that

policies and to make

is possible, the budget and

decisions on major

resource must be enough

company issues.

and suitable then they will

Related

(investopedia, 2016)
Specialized functional area

make the last decision.

This stakeholder also

department

of an organization or a

have the important role in

division such as

process of making plan of

accounting, marketing,

Steve includes financial,

planning, etc. Every

marketing, designing and

department in the

producing.

organization has its own

manager and difference
roles.
(businessdictionary.com,
Employees

2016)
A person who is hired to

Employees and Steve

provide services to a

share the ideas together,

company on a regular

they would contribute to

basis in exchange for

Steve in create and

compensation and who

develop plan for the new

does not provide these

product. Therefore, this

Supplier

services as part of an

stakeholder is important

independent business.

for Steve

(investorwords, 2016)
A party that supplies

Choose the best suppliers

goods or services. A

for develop the new

supplier may be

product is the most

distinguished from a

important work that Steve

contractor or

need to do. Because the

subcontractor, who

best material and good

commonly adds

quality provide from good

specialized input to

suppler will decide to lead

deliverables. Also called

the good quality of this

vendor.

product.

(businessdictionary.com,
Customers

2016)
An individual or business

They are the final

that purchases the goods

stakeholder that Steve

or services produced by a

must consider; they will

business. The customer is

decide the success of this

the end goal of

product. Steve usually

businesses, since it is the

finds out and makes

customer who pays for

survey on customer to

supply and creates

decide for a new product

demand. Businesses will

every year.

often compete through

advertisements or sales in
order to attract a larger
customer base.

Task 2.2 How can Steve make contact with those

identified and develop business relationships
Methods
Conversation

Advantages
- Usually unstructured
so can discuss a

Disadvantages
- Temptation to lose
focus.

Meeting

wide range of topics.

Requires little or no

planning.
Gives a real

impression of feeling
Allows multiple

May be easily
forgotten.

It can highlight

opinions to be

differences and

expressed.
Can discuss and

conflict if not
managed efficiently

resolves a wide

have been known to

range of issues.

turn into time

wasting

Memorandum

Provides a

permanent record of

the message is too

an internal

general, people may

message.
Adds formality to

internal
Letter

Report

Presentation

confrontations.
If used too often or

communication.
Provides a

ignore it.
Can come across as
impersonal.

If inaccurate or poorly

permanent record of

presented provides a

an external

permanent record of

message.
Adds formality to

incompetence.
May be slow to arrive

external

depending on

communication.

distance and the

Provides a

postal service.
Complex messages

permanent, often

may be

comprehensive

misunderstood in the

written record. Use a

absence of immediate

clear, simple

feedback.

structure.
Complex ideas can
be communicated.

Requires planning and

skill.

Visual aids such as

Poorly researched or

slides can help the

presented material

communication

can lead to an

process.
The best

audience.

presentation will
leave a lasting
Telephone

impression.
Good for

Receiver may not be

available.
Can be disruptive to

communications
that do not require a

receive if in the

permanent written
-

middle of another

record.
Can provide some of
the personal touch

gives greater

to people in

opportunity for

geographically
-

task.
No written record

misunderstandings.

remote locations.
Conference calls
allow multiple

Facsimile

participants.
Enables reports and
messages to reach

be checked for

remote locations
quickly.
Electronic

Provides a written

record.
Attachments can be

included.
Quick-regardless of

mail

location.
Source: (BPP learning media, 2013, p. 275)

Easily seen by others.

Fax machine may not

messages.
Complex images do

not transmit well.

Requires some
computer literacy to

use effectively.
People may not check
their e-mail regularly.

Task 2.3 Identify key stakeholders groups which should

be involved in the decision making