PLEASE SHOW ALL WORK-BASED
Bobby Mae Hasbrook Huffelpuffer is one top sales people at
“You Want It We Got It, Inc.” Ms. Hufflepufer intends to visit three prospects
today. She will visit Prospects 1, 2 and 3 in order, but does not know what
time of the day. Visiting during lunch-time can be problematic because she Ms.
Huffelpuffer knows that many people leave the office to get their food. She
would also prefer not to visit right after lunch because she knows some people
may be sleepy and unable to pay close attention to what she has to say.
Visiting at the end of the day can also be an issue because people are always
in a rush to leave and she has to pick up her twins from daycare at 5:30 PM
across town. Ms. Huffelpuffer estimates that the chance of making a sale on the
visit with Prospect 1 is about 30%. The visit with Prospect 2 has about a 40%
chance of resulting in a sale and she hopes the prospect is not eating lunch.
The visit with Prospect 3 has about 50% more of a chance of making a sale than
the chance with Prospect 1 because Ms. Hufflepuffer knows the receptionist very
well. The visits are independent and the company’s new MBA just told Ms.
Huffelpuffer that based on her records of prior prospect visits there is a
correlation between the length of the visit and likelihood of a sale.
Question 1. Construct a probability tree to produce the full
probability distribution for the random variable “number of sales”.
Question 2. Compute the expected number of sales and the
standard deviation of the sales distribution.
“We Get It Done Right” is the advertising slogan for Ace
Construction. Ace is currently involved in four independent construction
projects and estimates that each project has a 40% chance of being completed
late and a 60% likelihood of being on-time. Each day a project is late, Ace is
accessed a 10% late fee. The owner of Ace dislikes having to pay late fees and
other fees applied when a project is not done right.
Question 3. Identify a random variable that Ace managers
would be very interested in knowing and construct a probability tree to produce
the full probability distribution for the random variable.
Question 4. Compute the expected number of sales and the
standard deviation of the sales distribution.
Question 5. Describe in detail a industry that can be
characterized as a long tail industry, what does is mean and what potential
opportunities are there with the transition into a uniform distribution.
