1. Please answer any one of the following three questions: Why is statistics an important course for business or social science majors to take? OR How has the use of statistics changed your life? OR How has Statistics affected you in the workplace?
Classmates responses.
Adriana Gallegos
1. When considering the benefit of statistics to a business major one area to consider is the area of marketing. Whether a person is in business selling products, purchasing goods or even providing a service they will need to understand statistics and how it can affect them as well as their company. Lets use the example of purchasing goods. Every company needs to purchase goods at some time or another, however deciding which goods are best to purchase they would rely on statistics to help with their decision. They would then use statistics to figure out which are the best products to buy. The person selling the products may give them all kinds of statistics as to why their product is better than others. We see this a lot in commercials as well; “9 out of 10 Dentists recommend __ toothpaste over the leading brand”. Without knowing the principles of statistics one would not understand the concept of bias surveys or lurking variables. They would not understand outliers and just how important they can be in the decision making process. Statistics is a subject that not just business or science majors should have knowledge of, but rather it is a subject in which every major should have as it affects everyone, everyday, in just about every aspect of their lives.
2. Statistics is used every day in the Business world whether we realize it or not. For example, to market a product, research and data collection must be obtained in order to make decisions on customer’s likes and dislikes. Whether it will be profitable to create and if so, how and where will it be retailed and advertised. These all require gathering and comparing the required information in order to make informed business decisions. Also, when preparing a budget for a company, every aspect of statistics is involved in order to arrive at a reasonable financial plan. It is important to be proficient in gathering, comparing, charting, finding percentages, and averages since statistics is part of all business related fields.