Reflections on decision making

IP — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:49:14 +0000

McKinsey Quarterly recently had a series on strategic decision making called “Seeing Through Biases in Strategic Decisions”, of which we highlight two articles and link to one by Harvard Business Review. Taken together, it’s great food for thought when you try to apply this line of thinking to strategic, investing and even marketing and advertising.

The first one is an interview with three executives with different backgrounds. The 3 points of view are worth reading, but especially the comment of Kleiner Perkin’s partner (smart investor and gives us one more tidbit about Intuit’s culture, which we find more interesting by the day).

This other one on “taking the bias out of meetings” is also helpful (cites the previous one, a bit shallow in comparison with its straightforward/ “do’s and don’ts” style, but still worth 3 minutes as stimulus).

Finally, this one called “My Eureka Moment With Strategy” can be read from both the strategy and the investment decision making standpoints. It reminds us of one of the key tenets of great advertising, which is “protect the big ideas”. People’s experiences/shortcuts and the limited attention span/ information overload sometimes makes them prone to kill an idea by relying on prejudices/prejudgements.

When in a flood, seek safe ground

IP — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:49:26 +0000

Our thoughts go out to the families affected by floods everywhere, but this picture had us thinking about the book “Too Big To Fail” by New York Times’ columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin. Unlike other books that seek to explain the reasons and possible implications of the financial crisis that shook the world from 2007 to 2009, Mr. Sorkin’s book deals with the real-time, day-to-day background discussions and decision-making in the eye of the storm. While that leads to some “soap opera” moments, it’s always an useful reminder that decisions made in times of turmoil can lead to less-than-ideal outcomes and a false sense of security.

(Photo REUTERS/Erik de Castro)

Another caption for this photo could be: “Risk management in a hurry”. Nothing substitutes for planning.

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Reflections on decision making

When in a flood, seek safe ground