Why might it be important to do research before defining a problem?

"in my opinion, we ought to stop making our own drums and accept that outside supplier's offer," said wim niewindt, managing director of antilles refining, n.v., of aruba. "at a price of $21 per drum, we would be paying $4.70 less than it costs us to manufacture the drums in our own plant. since we use 70,000 drums a year, that would be an annual cost savings of $329,000." antilles refining's current cost to manufacture one drum is given below (based on 70,000 drums per year):

As sales exceed the break‑even point, a high contribution‑margin percentage (a) increases profits faster than does a low contribution-margin percentage (b) increases profits at the same rate as a low contribution-margin percentage (c) decreases profits at the same rate as a low contribution-margin percentage (d) increases profits slower than does a low contribution-margin percentage

You own a nonunion company with 93 nonexempt employees. all of these employ- ees pack books into boxes for shipment to customers throughout the united states. because of wide differences in performance, you have decided to try performance appraisal, something never done before. until now, you have given every worker the same size increase. now you want to measure performance and reward the best performers with bigger increases. without any further information, which of the five types of appraisal formats do you think would be most appropriate? justify your answer. do you anticipate any complaints, or other comments, from employees after you implement your new system?