Ingredients for Good Decision-Making

In a 2007 survey of 154 global C-level executives, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and commissioned by Business Objects, the research found that more than 9 out of 10 corporate executives admit they are making important decisions on the basis of inadequate information.

Other findings from this decision-making research:

• Less than 10% of executives receive the information they need.
• 72% of execs believe management decision making is only moderately efficient or worse.
• 25% of executives believes management frequently, or always, gets its decisions wrong.
• 56% of executives are concerned about making poor choices because of bad data.
• 55% of executive decisions are based on ad hoc consultation instead of corporate metrics.
• 70% of senior managers rate decision-making as moderately efficient or worse vs 52% of C-level superiors.
• Yet, only 29% of executive think poor decision-making structures are a common cause of bad decisions.

The ingredients for good decision-making?

The report's authors identify five ingredients of good decision-making. Obviously, supporting good decisions requires a lot more than technology, but business intelligence systems can help with each of these:

• High-quality data
• Access to advanced systems and training
• Sound judgment
• Trust
• Flexibility