MAKING LIFE DECISIONS

“Analysis of Business Problems”, I guess there had to be a course like that, given the fact that we are in business school. What could be more critical to a CEO or Business manager than making the right decisions (sometime life changing I may add) that take this/her company to the next level. It can literally be decisions that make or break the organisation. So, it makes sense that there would be a definite way or some sort of pattern that can be followed to take such critical decisions. Analysing business decisions or problems is critical to identifying issues and taking efficient and effective actions. The steps below are crucial to analysing business problems and decisions.

• Define the Problem- It is important to clearly determine what exactly the issues are and its impact on the business.
• Collect Data and relevant information to understand the cause of the problems.
• Analyse the data collected to understand the relevance, patterns, and trends to better understand the underlying problem.
• Brainstorm on possible solutions, including the costs, feasibility, potential impact on the business etc.
• Consider other alternatives and evaluate them for cost, risk, impact, weight all the pros and cons of the solutions and alternatives to the solutions.
• Choose the most appropriate solution that fits the business goals, culture, and style, while considering the required resources and cost of same and make a plan for implementation.
• Monitor the progress and impact of your choices in line with set milestones and adjust if necessary to ensure that the solution achieves the desired results. Be sure to be flexible and open minded.

Following these steps to analyse business decisions or problems is important for businesses to identify root causes of problems, choose the best course of action, make informed decisions, optimise their resources, increase profitability, and stay competitive.

In business school, developing this skill involves analysis of several case studies and the cases can be long, complicated, and interesting (sometimes really boring), but one thing is sure they make you think, wonder and consider things that otherwise you may probably not care about and do a lot to develop how you see the world around you especially businesses. Learning these steps to analysing business decisions and problems, it occurred to me that these steps will make a huge difference if implemented when making everyday life decisions and the likelihood that mistakes will be made will be reduced to a good minimum. Imagine having to stop and take your decisions through these steps (or at least a form of it). The tendency for rash decision making filled with avoidable errors and regrets may be reduced. On further consideration I believe a lot of  us go through a form of this decision making process everyday howbeit unknowingly but the difference may be the patience to analyse the outcome and the cost(non-financial or financial) on a broader level or the lack of adjustment when the initial plan does not seem to be working, perhaps because we may be stuck in our ways?