Strategic

CHAPTER 3Decision Making

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life and the procedure. The process is its own reward.”

—Amelia Earhart, aviator

History's greatest navigators, including notables such as Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Amelia Earhart, and Neil Armstrong, all faced critical decisions during their journeys. A decision is the act or process of making a judgment or stating a preference between several options. A study involving 17,000 CEOs found that of the CEOs who rated poorly on decision making, 94% had low scores because they were indecisive. Two‐thirds of those CEOs who were fired over decision‐making issues were let go because they did not make decisions quickly enough to keep pace with the business.¹ Stephen Gorman, former CEO of Greyhound, noted, “A bad decision was better than a lack of direction. Most decisions can be undone, but you have to learn to move with the right amount of speed.”²

The definition of strategy begins with “the intelligent allocation of limited resources.” The process of intelligent allocation requires decisions to be made. It is also worth remembering that companies don't make decisions—individuals do. Therefore, mastering the decision‐making process is a vital skill of strong strategic leaders. Let's begin by breaking down decisions into their primary elements: Challenge, Goal, ...