We
all know that being business owners means making tough decisions. Their life is
not only confined to board-room meetings but getting into fast trend of the
technology, business and competitors. Business decision makers have to deal
with all the odds that start with incomplete information, volatile environment
and high stakes, which makes decision making process difficult.
The Thumb rules:
Business owners around the world would kill for the
understanding of the tricks that would help them make better decisions.
Wouldn’t be nice if there were simple tricks to take these insomniac inducing
decisions and boil down to something more manageable?
And what best place to look for them than the
industry experts across the world and one among them being former Bain &
Company consultant Daniel Shapiro. Drawing on his experience at Bain, Shapiro
shares a handy trick that can help owners break down and tackle even the most
complex issues. He writes about:
Parameters before taking the decision:
If you’re faced with a choice of whether or not to do
something, just ask yourself, “What would I need to believe for this to be the
right decision?” This simple question is incredibly clarifying.
Here’s an example: I’m trying to decide whether or not
to prioritize the development of a new product. In order for that to be a great
idea, I would need to believe the following assertions:
- We have the team capable of
building the product
- Customers will buy the product at
an attractive price if we build it
- We have the distribution to reach
potential customers at a reasonable cost
- None of our competitors can
replicate this offering in the next 12 months
- There are no higher priority
development opportunities for the R&D team
Break the complex problem into simple parts, evaluate
them and develop an integrated plan, the basic thumb rule to deal with problems
across fields. However certain trepidation always persists the subconscious
before taking any major step:
Fear of failure –
As reiterated no one achieves success without failure, just have to be
confident and headstrong while the downfall and prepare for the next step.
Choose the harder path –
If you have been offered two choices, choose the harder. You know that would be
the right thing to do and choosing otherwise would be sheer laziness, leading
not particular to any result.
So what are other rules of thumbs you have followed
and been successful? Share with us we are eager to hear from you, till then
happy blogging.
Small business owners and managers create decisions on a daily base, addressing the whole thing from day-to-day prepared issues to long-range planned arrangement.
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