Information You Need To Make Decisions

There is no disputing the fact that to make decisions, you need information. Without information, you are guessing in a vacuum. If you guess instead of decide, you are reducing your chances of success with your business.

Company Decision Making

A large company will probably have, or at least should have, quite sophisticated management information systems. The systems will be computerized, bringing information from all the key areas of the business. The management team will have a process for reviewing and monitoring that information, through the circulation of summary reports, meetings (regular and ad hoc), and other means of communication.

Those same sources of management information will be used as a basis for important decision making. Past sales reports; cost reports for different products, manufacturing processes, and cost centres; market intelligence; material cost reports; supplier reliability reports. Depending on what type of decision is being made, some or all of these, plus more, may be taken into account.

There is no doubt that such information should be crucial to making key decisions in that business. However, some companies fall into the trap of allowing the information system to become an internal industry in itself, with no checks and balances. If a company becomes complacent, if the whole process becomes routine and habitual, then the value of those systems dissipates. It turns the information systems themselves into a bottomless pit for management time, bringing no valuable return.

Let me illustrate. In the early 1990’s, there was an internationally known British company,

With deference to Dr. Covey and his very popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (all habits that will make us better consultants!), here are eight skills that all of us as consultants can work on to improve.

Are the endless lists of Top-7’s and Top-10’s taxing your brain and your memory? Do you ever feel like trying to keep all these ideas straight, let alone apply them properly at the correct moment in time an overwhelming chore? How often do you find yourself having to review these lists? Perhaps endlessly until the next list comes out and then it’s back to square one again.

Wouldn’t you rather live, work and be spontaneously effective, without having to pull out your “how to” lists? Just imagine for a moment beng able to live this way. Doesn’t this feel like a weight has just been taken off your shoulders? Don’t you already feel more competent, more confident. Now I know you “think” this is not possible, but I would like to suggest that you already, even if you doubt this, know deep inside you what is the right thing for you in every moment.

You see most of us have had this knowledge drummed out of us by the numerous years of education each of us has undertaken. This probably sounds odd to you but if you notice how confident recent graduates feel about entering the work world you’ll find that most are paralyzed by fear and self doubt. Shouldn’t all this education make them feel capable and confident? Well, it’s supposed to but the actual effect is the reverse.

So with all this self doubt many keep looking outside of themselves, perhaps to others to provide them with a list of instructions