Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Decisions are assumed to be crucial in the world of business. Often times you are thrown into a position where you have to make up your mind, reach a resolution, pass a judgment and show firmness of character. Decisions you make in the game of business are definitely your final score card. Just like everything else has evolved so has the art of decision making. The decision making process has techniques that can make your decision making process a more pleasant and easy task than before. With the information that is available to you, you can arrive at the best possible decision. Today you can work out the importance of certain factors that influence your decision making, choose the best course of action and map out the most likely consequences of the decisions you make by using the tools the market offers today. Get to the crux of the matter of concern and you are half way through your decision is no longer the full truth. Once you have focused on the spotlight of the area that needs your decision, drawing in all the related information that led this to your attention and letting your jigsaw puzzle fall into place in minutes won't be a time, effort and peace of mind squeezer alright but the pace is no longer the same. Keeping up with it is the new facet that decision making has revealed. Organizational hierarchy can provide different kinds of decision scenarios like structured, unstructured and semi-structured decisions.

Decision paralysis - The flipside of decisive advancement

This condition could be virtual, mental or even organizational. Decision-making has lost its ability to allow us to stroll and wander in the woods and sit by the lake and think about what we should do. We can't make decisions based upon our convenience and comfort anymore. Its time to join the bandwagon if we are not already in it and learn to use decision support systems and techniques to spur our indigenous common sense and intelligence. Leadership so to say is on its own revolution, spinning off into new realms and changing its entire demeanor. As leaders of organizations we can no longer think alone. We can either join the technologically-advancing-decision-making bandwagon or give up entirely in a state of utter operational paralysis. If survival is what you choose then learning to drive fast and effective decisions is the challenge you are faced with. "The Survival of the Fitness" theory never disappears from the scene.

DSS (Decision Support Systems)

A very broad concept that takes on many different forms is the simplest definition of DSS. This is a computerized system that assists the skill of decision-making. Supporting a decision can often be as challenging as making the decision itself. DSS supports decision making and helps the decision maker(s)make choices, gather information and intelligence and generate back ups or alternatives.

Supporting the decision is also supporting the evaluation, estimation and even the comparison of alternatives.

Some of the characteristics Decision Support Systems possess:

• Support managers at all levels
• Support for sequential or interdependent decisions
• Support an array of decisions styles and processes
• Support for decision makers in unstructured and semi structured problems
• Support groups and individuals
• Support implementation, design, choice and intelligence
• DSS should be user friendly and interactive
• Decision Support Systems should be flexible and adaptable
• Support modeling and analysis
• Data access
• Full and complete control by decision-makers
• Standalone, integration and is web-based
• Strikes a balance between effectiveness and efficiency
• Easily developed by end users, tailor made

Dashboards

Dashboards are not just something that was created because the software industry ran out of jargon and wanted to invent one. The meaning the dictionary lends to dashboard is "a panel under the windshield of a vehicle, containing indicator dials, compartments and sometimes control instruments." In today's scenario, this meaning of dashboard is more relevant and less literal. To be less obscure and from a more business specific point of view a dashboard, at a glance, is a snapshot of critical information. It delivers the critical information you need to run your daily business operations. Dashboards give you the much wanted details such as your head count growth, expenses, cash flow, upward trend in revenue, etc. In most businesses in today's world most employees are in the driving seat but not everybody has or gets a dashboard. Usually, it's the higher level executives who have dashboard privileges. This gives your manager the chance to tell you when you need refueling.

The Decision Making Value Chain - Decision Makers and Systems

The value added by any supporting information system can be derived from the effect on management decisions. It is comparatively difficult to evaluate the return on investment on a Decision Support Systems (DSS) and leads to ambiguity on the contribution to the corporate value. From an organizational perspective, a professional who can view the business holistically and aligns decisions to their leader's goals is the most strategic investment today. Decisions fundamentally reflect the personality of the decision maker, though DSS has brought in a new dimension to the decision making process. Studies have shown that decisions are heavily influenced by emotions more than logic. Building on the two, people and information systems will give the best value for money. Measuring the impact of DSS on decision making will help calculate the extent to which it contributes to the goal. Decision makers should be aware that support systems may not always provide absolute objective reasoning, rather to keep the possible biases in mind while extracting the maximum benefits from the system.