All entries for Saturday 03 March 2012

Decision–making process

Given our presentation for this module, we are given the opportunity to explore the tools for robust decision-making. So, working with the rest members of my team we came up with many ideas of what is the most appropriate tools for making a particular decision. And I have to admit that our initial ideas were pretty good!

However, the 'problem' arised when we needed to actually implement them! It is really hard to put in practice the theory. And to my mind, this is because of three main reasons:

1. We have so little experience on these methods. Since the decisions tools are not so easy to understand-at least some of them-I found it hard to use them for our problems.

2. We have little information about the situation. It is supposed that we can make any logical assumption that we want. But, in order to justufy some things you need not only one, but a series of assumptions which will represent the reality. Thus, you have to create a whole new reality based on hypotheses that you don't even know...

3. We either think too much or too little. And here the problem is that in some cases, some people may have previous knowledge on the subjects concerning the decisions, so they are used to perceive things in a broader perspective with many variables and data. Thus, it is natural that they have so many questions in their minds that need to be answered in order to make the decision. On the other hand, sometimes we have so little knowledge about something that we tend to simplify what we don't understand. And of course in this case, we know that our decision will be biased, but there's nothing we can do.

Concequently, I tend to think that in order to make this presentation happen, but thinking also how we can apply this later on our lives, it is better if we can balance all the above mentioned problems, so that the decision making process seems less than a burden as it looks like now!

Ilektra-maria Kaldi : 03 Mar 2012 19:29 |  Tags: Rdm |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Strategic leadership

Strategic leadership seems important for all companies as it is about the strategy and vision and how the leader translates thems into every-day activities, so that people are connected with the organisation. The strategic leader needs to foresee and create the future for the company and prepare it as well for future challenges.

One important aspect of the strategic leadership is when it comes to take advantage of current opportinities which will make your company stand out the competition. And here comes the problem. Most companies will go for the same opportunities more or less, because it is what they know. For example, they may produce a by-product under their current portfolio.

Nevertheless, the challenge is to exploit or create an opportunity outside the comfort zone of the company. As strategic leadership includes the element of shaping the future, it seems very tempting to identify a new opportinity in the market that no other company has thought before. In fact, though, there are so little companies that try something completely new.

And the reason for this lies in the limitations and the resistance in change that most leaders face within the company. It is due to stakeholders that many innovative ideas fall apart, either because they don't understand or because they are afraid of change.

Ilektra-maria Kaldi : 03 Mar 2012 19:03 |  Tags: Le |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem