Write a paper of 1,750 - 1,800 words of the strategic plan for Dollar General Corporation, including the following:  · Implementation plan  · Objectives · Functional tactics · Action items · Milestones and a deadline · Tasks and task ownership · Resource allocation  · Any required organizational change management strategies that would enhance successful implementation  · Key success factors, budget, and forecasted financials, including a break-even chart  · Risk management plan, including contingency plans for identified risks  Format the plan consistent with APA guidelines. 3 Grading Criteria Criteria 70%-100% 60-69% 50-59% 0 to 49% Fail Generic skills: communication and presentation. Comprehensive and correctly structured assessment. Style of writing is very fluent and develops a coherent and logical argument. Excellent referencing. Well structured report which follows appropriate format but some aspects of layout and referencing could be improved. Style of writing is fairly fluent. Good referencing. Good report in most aspects but suffers from variations in quality and the layout contains some inadequacies. Style of writing is satisfactory. Referencing needs improving. Very poor report which is incorrectly structured and contains major errors and omissions. Style of writing lacks coherence and fluency. Poor referencing. Knowledge & Understanding Demonstrates excellent knowledge of theory and provides critical theoretical underpinning. Very good interpretations and summarising of main themes. Wide range of knowledge demonstrated and evidence of good understanding of the topic. Ability to interpret and summarise succinctly. Good range of knowledge demonstrated but weaknesses in key areas. Some understanding displayed of the topic. Summary and interpretation are satisfactory. Very poor range of knowledge demonstrated and there are major weaknesses evident in interpretation and understanding. No clear interpretation of main themes. Analysis Excellent use of theoretical and conceptual models to guide analysis linked with a critical discussion of main themes. Deconstructs the major themes used in the argument. Very good use of the theoretical and conceptual models with good critical discussion and application. Good evidence of deconstruction. Use of theory and concepts limited but relevant. Application could be improved and there is a tendency towards description. Must provide more evidence of deconstruction. Very poor use of theory and very little application of concepts. Very little description with not much evidence of analysis. Synthesis/ Creativity/ Application Logical presentation of themes with appropriate examples being demonstrated. Very good demonstration of synthesis. Models have been clearly applied to the argument. Very good account of main themes with sound app.

1. Write a paper of 1,750 - 1,800 words of the strategic plan for
Dollar General Corporation, including the following:
· Implementation plan
· Objectives
· Functional tactics
· Action items
· Milestones and a deadline
· Tasks and task ownership
· Resource allocation
· Any required organizational change management strategies
that would enhance successful implementation
· Key success factors, budget, and forecasted financials,
including a break-even chart
· Risk management plan, including contingency plans for
identified risks
Format the plan consistent with APA guidelines.
3
Grading Criteria
Criteria 70%-100% 60-69% 50-59% 0 to 49% Fail
Generic skills:
communication and
presentation.

2. Comprehensive and
correctly structured
assessment. Style of
writing is very fluent
and develops a
coherent and logical
argument. Excellent
referencing.
Well structured report
which follows
appropriate format but
some aspects of layout
and referencing could
be improved. Style of
writing is fairly fluent.
Good referencing.
Good report in most aspects
but suffers from variations in
quality and the layout
contains some inadequacies.
Style of writing is
satisfactory. Referencing
needs improving.
Very poor report which is
incorrectly structured and
contains major errors and
omissions. Style of writing
lacks coherence and
fluency. Poor referencing.

3. Knowledge &
Understanding
Demonstrates excellent
knowledge of theory
and provides critical
theoretical
underpinning. Very
good interpretations
and summarising of
main themes.
Wide range of
knowledge
demonstrated and
evidence of good
understanding of the
topic.
Ability to interpret and
summarise succinctly.
Good range of knowledge
demonstrated but
weaknesses in key areas.
Some understanding
displayed of the topic.
Summary and interpretation
are satisfactory.
Very poor range of
knowledge demonstrated
and there are major

4. weaknesses evident in
interpretation and
understanding.
No clear interpretation of
main themes.
Analysis
Excellent use of
theoretical and
conceptual models to
guide analysis linked
with a critical discussion
of main themes.
Deconstructs the major
themes used in the
argument.
Very good use of the
theoretical and
conceptual models with
good critical discussion
and application.
Good evidence of
deconstruction.
Use of theory and concepts
limited but relevant.
Application could be
improved and there is a
tendency towards
description.
Must provide more evidence

5. of deconstruction.
Very poor use of theory
and very little application of
concepts.
Very little description with
not much evidence of
analysis.
Synthesis/
Creativity/
Application
Logical presentation of
themes with appropriate
examples being
demonstrated. Very
good demonstration of
synthesis. Models have
been clearly applied to
the argument.
Very good account of
main themes with
sound application.
Good attempt at
applying models to the
argument. .Fairly good
attempt at synthesising
the salient points.
Good account of main
themes with some attempt

6. at application. Limited
evidence of synthesis.
Very poor account of main
themes with little or no
application. No links
between models and
argument.
Evaluation
Shows clear evidence of
in-depth critical
reflection and
evaluation of the
argument by providing
a robust defence of the
opinions presented in
the assessment.
Shows evidence of
critical reflection and
evaluation and a fairly
cohesive defence of
the argument
Shows some evidence of
critical reflection but could
have been developed.
Shows little or no evidence
of critical reflection and
needs to be much more
developed. There is no
defence of the opinions
presented.

7. 4
Your Task
QUESTION 1
The managing partner for Westwood One Investment Managers
Inc. gave a public seminar in
which she discussed a number of issues, including investment
risk analysis. In that seminar, she
reminded people that the coefficient of variation can often be
used as a measure of risk of an
investment. To demonstrate her point of view, she used two
hypothetical stocks as examples. She
let x equal the change in assets for a $1,000.00 investment in
stock1 and y reflect the change in
assets for a $1,000.00 investment in stock2. She showed the
seminar participants the following
probability distributions:
x P(x) y P(y)
-$1,000 0.1 -$1,000 0.2

8. $0 0.1 $0 0.4
$500 0.3 $500 0.3
$1,000 0.3 $1,000 0.05
$2,000 0.2 $2,000 0.05
a. Compute the expected values for the random variables x and
y. (2 marks)
b. Compute the standard deviations for the random variables x
and y.(3 marks)
c. Compute the coefficient of variation for each random
variable. (2 marks)
d. Referring to part c, suppose the seminar director said that the
first stock was riskier since
its standard deviation was greater than the standard deviation of
the second stock. How
would you respond to her assertion? (3 marks)
QUESTION 2
MainStay Investments is one of the investment vehicles used by
New York Life Investment
Management (NYLIM). The respondents to a survey conducted
by NYLIM and who are aged
between 26 and 82 indicated that 66% of seniors, 61 % of baby
boomers, and 58% of Generation

9. X expect Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) to be their
primary source of income in
retirement. The margin of error was given as ±5 percentage
points.
a. Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the proportion of
seniors who expect IRAs to be
their primary source of income in retirement. (5 marks)
b. Although the sample size for the entire survey was listed, the
sample size for each of the
three generations was not given. Assuming the confidence level
was 95%, determine the
sample size for each of the three generations. (5 Marks)
5
QUESTION 3
About 74% of Freddie Mac-owned loans were refinanced in the
second quarter of 2005 (USA
Today, Lifeline, August 3, 2005), resulting in new mortgages
carrying loan amounts at least 5%
above the original mortgage balance. The median loan
refinanced in the second quarter was 2.6

10. years old. If a sample size of 2,500 was used to obtain this
information,
a. Determine if the sample size for the test is large enough to
warrant approximating the
sample proportion’s distribution with a normal distribution. (5
marks)
b. Use this information to determine if less than 75% of new
mortgages had a loan amount at
least 5% above the original mortgage balance. Use a test
statistic approach with a = 0.025.
(5 marks)
QUESTION 4
Before the unprecedented decline in home sales that started in
late 2008, the National Association
of Realtors profile of home buyers and sellers indicated that the
percentage of home buyers who
are single women has more than doubled since 1981, whereas
the percentages of home buyers
who are single men has declined. This occurred despite
evidence indicating that women’s salaries
still lag behind those of men. The Association’s profile states
that the median income for men
and women home buyers was $58.939 and $47,315,
respectively. Assume the respective standard

11. deviations and sample sizes were $10,000 and $9,000, and 200
and 302.
a. Conduct a hypothesis test to determine if the median income
for men buying homes is
more than $10,000 larger than that of women. Use a
significance level of 0.05. (5 marks)
b. Describe any additional assumptions required to validate the
results of the hypothesis test
in part a. (5 marks)
QUESTION 5
In conjunction with the housing foreclosure crisis of 2009,
many economists expressed
increasing concern about the level of credit card debt and
efforts of banks to raise interest rates on
these cards. The banks claimed the increases were justified. A
Senate sub-committee decided to
determine if the average credit card balance depends on the type
of credit card used. The cards
under consideration are Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and
American Express. The sample sizes to
be used for each level are 25, 25, 26, and 24, respectively.
a. Describe the parameter of interest for this analysis. (1 mark)

12. b. Determine the factor associated with this experiment. (2
marks)
c. Describe the levels of the factor associated with this analysis.
(1 mark)
d. State the number of degrees of freedom available for
determining the between-samples
variation. (2 marks)
6
e. State the number of degrees of freedom available for
determining the within-samples
variation. (2 marks)
f. State the number of degrees of freedom available for
determining the total variation. (2
marks)
QUESTION 6
A senior analyst working for Ameritrade has reviewed
purchases his customers have made over
the last six months. He has categorized the mutual funds
purchased into eight categories:
Aggressive Growth (AG) - Growth (G) - Growth-Income (G-I) -
Income Funds (IF) -

13. International (I) - Asset Allocation (AA) - Precious Metal (PM)
- Bond (B).
The percentage gains (%) accrued by 3 randomly selected
customers (C1, C2 and C3) in each
group are as follows:
Mutual Fund AG G G-I IF I AA PM B
C1 6 7 5 1 14 -3 5 -1
C2 7 -2 6 0 13 7 7 3
C3 12 0 2 6 10 7 5 2
a. Develop the appropriate ANOVA table to determine if there
is a difference in the average
percentage gains accrued by his customers among the mutual
fund types. Use a
significance level of 0.05. (5 marks)
b. Use the Tukey-Kramer procedure to determine which mutual
fund type has the highest
average percentage gain. Use an experiment-wide error rate of
0.05. (5 marks)
QUESTION 7
A study was conducted to determine if there is a difference
between the investing preferences of

14. mid-level managers working in the public and private sectors in
New York City. A random
sample of 320 public sector employees and 380 private sector
employees was taken. The sampled
participants were then asked about their retirement investment
decisions and classified as being
either “aggressive,” if they invested only in stocks or stock
mutual funds, or “balanced,” if they
invested in some combination of stocks, bonds, cash, and other.
The following results were
found:
Agressive Balanced
Public 164 156
Private 236 144
a. State the hypothesis of interest and conduct the appropriate
hypothesis test to determine
whether there is a relationship between employment sector and
investing preference. Use
a level of significance of 0.01. (3 marks)
b. State the conclusion of the test conducted in part a. (3 marks)
c. Calculate the p-value for the hypothesis test conducted in part
a. (4 marks)

15. 7
QUESTION 8
During the recession that began in 2008, not only did some
people stop making house payments,
but they also stopped making payments for local government
services such as trash collection and
water and sewer services. The following data have been
collected by an accountant who is
performing an audit of account balances for a major city billing
department. The population from
which the data were collected represents those accounts for
which the customer had indicated the
balance was incorrect. The dependent variable, y, is the actual
account balance as verified by the
accountant. The independent variable, x, is the computer-
generated account balance.
x 233 10 24 56 78 102 90 200 344 120 18
y 245 12 22 56 90 103 85 190 320 120 23
a. Compute the least squares regression equation. (2 marks)
b. If the computer-generated account balance was 100, what
would you expect to be the

16. actual account balance as verified by the accountant? (2 marks)
c. The computer-generated balance for Timothy Jones is listed
as 100 in the computer-
generated account record. Calculate a 90% interval estimate for
Mr. Jones’s actual
account balance. (3 marks)
d. Calculate also a 90% interval estimate for the average of all
customers’ actual account
balances in which a computer-generated account balance is the
same as that of Mr. Jones
(part c). Interpret your results. (3 marks)
QUESTION 9
A real estate agent wishes to determine the selling price of
residences using the size (square feet),
and whether the residence is a condominium or a single-family
home. A sample of 20 residences
was obtained with the following results:
8
Price ($) Type Square Feet

17. 199,700 F 1,500
211,800 C 2,085
197,100 F 1,450
228,400 F 1,836
215,800 F 1,730
190,900 C 1,726
312,200 F 2,300
313,600 C 1,650
239,000 F 1,950
184,400 C 1,545
200,600 C 1,375
208,000 C 1,825
210,500 F 1,650
233,300 F 1,960
187,200 C 1,360
185,200 C 1,200
284,100 F 2,000
207,200 F 1,755

18. 258,200 F 1,850
203,100 F 1,630
F: Single-Family Home
C: Condomnium Residence
a. Produce a regression equation to predict the selling price for
residences using a model of
the following form: (2 marks)
0 1 1 2 2
i
y β β x β x ε
Where,
Square Footage
1, if a condomnium
0, if a single-family home
x
x

19. 1
2
b. Interpret the parameters β1, and β2 in the model given in part
a. (2 marks)
c. Produce an equation that describes the relationship between
the selling price and the
square footage of (1) condominiums and (2) single-family
homes. (3 marks)
d. Conduct a test of hypothesis to determine if the relationship
between the selling price and
the square footage is different between condominiums and
single-family homes. (3
marks)
9
QUESTION 10
A major brokerage company has an office in Miami, Florida.
The manager of the office is

20. evaluated based on the number of new clients generated each
quarter. The following data reflect
the number of new customers added during each quarter
between 2006 and 2009.
2006 2007 2008 2009
1st Quarter 218 250 244 229
2nd Quarter 190 220 228 221
3rd Quarter 236 265 263 248
4th Quarter 218 241 240 231
a. Plot the time series and discuss the components that are
present in the data. (1 mark)
b. Referring to part a, fit a linear trend model to the data for the
years 2006- 2008. Then use
the resulting model to forecast the number of new brokerage
customers for each quarter in
the year 2009. Compute the MAD and MSE for these forecasts
and discuss the results. (2
marks)
c. Using the data for the years 2006-2008, determine the
seasonal indexes for each quarter.
(2 marks)

21. d. Develop a seasonally unadjusted forecast for the four
quarters of year 2009. (2 marks)
e. Using the seasonal indexes computed in part d; determine the
seasonally adjusted forecast
for each quarter for the year 2009. Compute the MAD and MSE
for these forecasts. (2
marks)
f. Examine the values for the MAD and MSE in parts b and e.
Which of the two forecasting
techniques would you recommend the manager to use in order to
forecast the number of
new clients generated each quarter? Support your choice by
explaining your rationale. (1
mark)
Total 100 marks
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