Super Deciders

Introduction

Claudio Feser, Daniella Laureiro-Martinez, Karolin Frankenberger, and Stefano Brusoni

Should we improve our internal combustion engine or switch to electric engines? Should we upgrade our organization or change it? Should we optimize our branch network or launch a digital channel? Should we build our new business organically, or buy a competitor to accelerate our development?

These are all examples of “either/or” decisions that executives face day in, day out. Deciding on and resolving such dilemmas constitute much of what executives do. According to a recent study by the consultancy firm McKinsey & Company, executives spend nearly 40% of their time making decisions (De Smet et al., 2019). Management guru Peter Drucker wrote that whatever managers do, they do it through making decisions (Drucker, 1967).

The performance of executives is to a large extent the result of the quality of their decisions (Harrison, 1996). In fact, research suggests that, of all leadership skills, decision-making is the one most strongly associated with leadership effectiveness (Hoffman et al., 2011).

In business, making good decisions matters and making bad ones can be fatal.

In the late 2000s, major automotive companies largely overlooked the demand for fully electric cars and were reluctant to invest in electric vehicle technology. Tesla, a newcomer in the industry, seized upon this opportunity and disrupted the market to become the world’s most valuable automotive company in July 2020. ...