Decision Intelligence

CHAPTER 2Why Traditional Decision-Making Is Broken

“The future belongs to those who can navigate the complexities and uncertainties of our rapidly changing world with confidence and creativity.”

– Richard Branson

In recent years, there has been huge hype around methods that have long been used in very innovative and highly dynamic challenges, such as in product innovation. Iterative planning tools and cycles, agile working (see also Chapters 7 and 8), design thinking, and simulations are increasingly finding resonance even in more traditional industries and sectors. The explanation is that environmental complexity and the speed of change have increased dramatically, posing extreme challenges for companies in almost all areas. And the global influences of pandemics, supply chain difficulties, political instabilities, and rapidly changing user behavior have now reached even the most remote corners of corporate reality. Moreover, if we look at possible success factors for dealing with the new challenges, one thing can be said: traditional approaches and decision-making in this environment are not promising. Why is that?

The New (Corporate) Normal: An Increasingly Dynamic and Complex Reality with Uncertainties

Let's take a closer look at the two major influences. The first one is speed of change. Many organizations have learned and developed structures, patterns, strategies, planning cycles, and decision-making processes in a time when customer demands were a lot more stable, ...