Decision-Making in the News

October 27, 2019

This Common Mistake Makes Leaders Look Like Bad Decision-Makers

Being viewed as a smart decision-maker is a highly desirable trait for leaders. But no matter how smart leaders' decisions turn out to be, there's one mistake that drastically undermines their credibility and makes them look like bad decision-makers. And ironically, it's not their decision-making process per se, but rather how they communicate their decisions.
February 15, 2019

4 Ways Lying Becomes the Norm at a Company

Some researchers point to group decision-making processes or psychological traps that snare leaders into justification of unethical choices. Certainly those factors are at play, but they largely explain dishonest behavior at an individual level and I wondered about systemic factors that might influence whether or not people in organizations distort or withhold the truth from one another.
November 27, 2018

Informs ORMS Today: 2018 Decision Analytics Software Survey

The biennial survey demonstrates continuous advancement of vital tools for decision-makers, managers and analysts. This year’s survey includes 28 software packages from 18 different vendors, domestic and international. Pricing for licenses varied, ranging from free products to a max of $100,000, depending on the user/license type and elements of the software package. Specific industries and markets for these software applications are widespread, including defense (military, aerospace and shipbuilding) healthcare (pharma, hospitals and clinics), energy-related domains (petroleum and nuclear energy), as well as many others. Definitive Pro™ is highlighted on pages 42 and 43.
November 26, 2018

Informs ORMS Today: Thomas L Saaty, Immortal Intellectual Giant

Thomas L. Saaty, a world-renowned scholar, distinguished professor at the University of Pittsburgh, creator of the decision-making analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and analytic network process (ANP) and our advisory editor, passed away on Aug. 14, 2017 at the age of 91. Along with recognizing the one-year anniversary of his death, this tribute focuses on the last years of his life and his final work, with which many readers might not be familiar with.
November 5, 2018

Amazon in Advanced Talks about Putting HQ2 in Northern Virginia

Amazon.com has held advanced discussions about the possibility of opening its highly sought-after second headquarters in Crystal City, including how quickly it would move employees there, which buildings it would occupy and how an announcement about the move would be made to the public, according to people close to the process.
September 30, 2018

Why You Should Blow Up Your Best Practices

Many common corporate activities and thought processes actually promote mediocrity and inhibit needed business-model transformations, a new book contends. What if it turned out that best practices were not “best” after all? What if adhering to best practices actually signaled a company’s mediocrity? Those aren’t frivolous or absurd musings. They’re central tenets of a quite serious new book, “Detonate” (Wiley, May 2018). It aims to help organizations “spot traditional business activities that need to be questioned” during an era when business is increasingly defined by disruption.
September 20, 2018

Big Data Baffles Most Board-Level Decision-Makers

When board members in big firms make critical decisions about their organisations, it is almost always behind closed doors. So exactly how and if senior leaders draw on big data factors in their decision-making is largely unexplained. Researchers studied top-level decisions by board managers at 19 organisations in manufacturing, finance, consultancy, IT and air travel. “Our study identified a shortfall in capabilities for dealing with the challenges of big data,” said Dr Ana Canhoto at Brunel Business School. “There is a gap in the knowledge and understanding organisations need, in order to avoid the cognitive biases and overloads big data can bring.”
August 29, 2018

The Dept of Education Wildly Overestimates School Shootings

No one doubts the convulsive horror of a school shooting. Massacres in American classrooms are uniquely terrifying, and parents, politicians, and educators are right to mobilize to stop them. At the same time, each mass shooting raises a question: How violent are our schools, really? The worst shootings make the headlines, but do they reflect a widespread problem?
August 14, 2018

What Does It Mean To Make Values-Based Decisions?

Many businesses have core values that are intended to serve as a guide for all their internal and external operations. Unfortunately, some companies give little more than lip service to their values and treat them as a branding tool rather than a moral and ethical compass.
June 11, 2018

Business Analytics: The Essentials of Data-Driven Decision-Making

When it comes to using data to drive business, Google and Facebook are iconic. Although a lot can be said about their practices with regards to topics such as privacy, ownership, and governance, there's no denying that they have been pioneering the field.