Management Development Institute

Part Time PGP

Management Information System
End-Term Exam

Max Marks : 30 08 July 2020

Duration : 2 hours including uploading time

Instructions
 All questions are compulsory.
 If you are making any assumptions, state them clearly.
 Copying from each other and online sources is not acceptable. If two or more
participants have exactly the same answer it will lead to a zero in that answer.
 If you are consulting any online sources in strengthening the argument, please give
the source and put the analysis in your own words. The answers will be checked for
plagiarism.
 Kindly attempt the answers on A4 size papers in handwritten mode (use dark pen).
 Your answer sheet should be between 5-6 pages (single sided) and not more than
that.
 Please number all pages.
 Please submit the answer scripts in "one single PDF file" latest by 09:10 PM.
 All students are mandatorily required to save their answer scripts in the following
format: <Complete Roll No.> (space) <Complete Name as per attendance>
 Late submission of answer scripts may attract negative marking.
 Answer scripts in PDF format are required to be sent to emp@mdi.ac.in.

1. a). Please go through the caselet below, refer to our class discussions/book and answer the
questions that follow

TJX is an off-price retailer operating eight businesses and over 2,400 stores worldwide including
T. J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, and A.J. Wright. Customer provided information during sales
transactions and personal information including credit card information was acquired in the
process. The company had a massive data breach in January 2007. The cause of the breach was
said to be mostly technological. Criminals connected to TJX’s networks and stole customer
payment information. TJX failed to implement reasonable information security procedures
including storing and transmitting sensitive information as clear text, failed to limit wireless
access to its networks, failed to detect or prevent unauthorized access to computer networks
or to follow up on security warnings and intrusion alerts. At least 46.2 million credit cards were
compromised over an 18 month period. TJX was found not to be in compliance with payment
card industry (PCI) security standards. TJX cost of data breach was estimated to be $156 million
including $40.9 million to Visa and $24 million to MasterCard to cover fraud losses. The victims
of the breach included consumers whose identity was used fraudulently, banks and credit card
companies who had to replace payment cards, businesses who experienced fraudulent
transactions using stolen identities etc.

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 Question: What are the people, process and technology failure points in TJX’s security that
require attention? How can the company’s security be improved and strengthened.
(10 marks)

1 b). In a ransomware attack, there is no choice but to pay the ransom. Do you agree or disagree
with the statement. Give reasons/ argument in support of your answer.
(5 marks)

2. Please go through the report below, refer to our class discussions/book and answer the
questions that follow

'Big data’ and ‘data analytics’ may be the latest buzz words, but for many business people, these
new frontiers remain overly technical and complicated. New research conducted by the
Management Analytics and Decision Making Research Group at Massey University investigated the
extent to which data analytics is influencing managerial decision-making in Jan 2019– and it seems
many top executives still prefer intuition.

Despite this, the survey showed exponential growth in the use of big data, with 87 percent of the
participants saying their use of data analytics for decision making had increased. But to put this in
context, the survey also revealed that only one in five managers said they use data analytics for
decision-making on a daily basis. Perhaps even more telling was the one-quarter of managers who
confessed they had only a modest knowledge of what big data is, or what it can do.

MANY SENIOR EXECUTIVES STILL DISTRUST DATA There were several reasons for the slow uptake
of data analytics among businesses, including concerns about its reliability. Nearly two-thirds of
managers said they had no confidence in big data, relying instead on their intuition and experience
to make decisions. They were concerned about issues such as data quality, reliability, relevance
and data access.

There was also a clear difference between the attitudes of senior and middle managers. Managers
who favoured using analytics were generally less senior managers who were not in a position to
use big data insights for strategic company decisions. These managers reported difficulty in getting
the support of top-level management to invest in, and use, data analytics tools. Overall, only one-
third of managers were moderately or actively involved in technical analysis, suggesting the
majority of managers are not yet effectively leveraging the benefits associated with big data use.
The study also found those involved in higher level decision-making, such as top executives, were
more likely to value their own intuition. These executives often relied on other managers within
the organisation to generate big data insights, and while they were happy to use data analytics to
confirm their own intuition, they also ignored insights if they conflicted with their intuition.

THE PERCEIVED VALUE GAP What senior managers and top executives considered of value was
also very different. For example, mid-level managers are more likely to evaluate insights in terms
of how they facilitated business processes, while top-level executives evaluated big data outputs
against the company’s bottom line. Top executives didn’t always understand the longer-term value

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of insights if they did not have immediate economic benefit. The key way to overcome this
impasse is to acknowledge these prejudices and engage in open communication. Investment in
analytics skills training for decision-makers is also important. We asked managers to reflect on
positive and negative experiences they may have had in applying analytics during decision-making
in the past. While 85 percent could recall positive experiences, just over one-third also reported
negative experiences using analytics. It was also true that managers who incorporated analytics to
a higher degree had more positive past experiences. Unsurprisingly, the more managers
experienced positive outcomes, the more trust they had in data quality and the more confident
they were to use analytics when making decisions.

HOW TO BECOME A DATADRIVEN ORGANISATION There are several steps that businesses can take
to develop a data-driven culture. Overall, the survey highlighted that strong leadership, a data-
driven culture and a stronger understanding of the value of analytics were needed at the highest
levels of management. In order to build managerial confidence in using data analytics, business
processes should initially be set up at an operational level, such as data entry. Every participant in
the process from data collection, analysis to top-level decision-making, needs to have a certain
level of analytical skill and field knowledge (contextual knowledge) to facilitate data analytics
practice. Equally important in building the confidence of top-level management is getting relevant
data in a timely manner. Top level executives will also need to have enough knowledge to be able
to judge the relevance and value of information given by analytics when making decisions. Our
research suggests that overcoming the knowledge deficit among executive management can only
be achieved by these managers receiving training that they can put into practice. Only then will
businesses fully realise the value that big data and analytics offer. Our findings also raise the
question of whether the managerial skillset should be extended to include analytics training and
knowledge. While business analytics have become a key component of many organisations, many
are not getting the most value from it. This is largely due to the lack of technical understanding of
analytics within top tiers of management, many of whom continue to rely largely on their
judgement or intuition when making important business decisions. On a positive note, it is clear
that affirming experiences help to build confidence and trust when applying analytics as a tool for
decision-making. It is therefore essential that top level executives equip themselves with the skills
to use analytics tools, interpret the outputs, and make real-time decisions in order to accomplish
business objectives and remain competitive.

Question: Do you agree with the findings of the report? Do the managers distrust data in making
decisions because they are not sure of the data quality/ reliability or is it because they do not have
the essential skills to use insights? What can be done to improve data quality/ reliability? What can
be done to make an organization data driven?

(15 marks)