Gathering information for strategic decisions, routinely

Abstract

Leaders at all levels of the company need to institute a simple but effective routine for collecting the information needed to take strategic action. This article explains how to make that process pervasive and suggests some specific tools to help it work effectively in your organization. There are three basic steps to strategic decision‐making: getting the right information, making a good decision and then implementing that decision. Success in the information stage translates into knowing the types of information needed to make the decision, finding it, and transmitting it quickly to the decision‐makers. The information required falls in three categories: knowledge about the competition, knowledge about your own company, and knowledge about your marketplace. It is not enough to merely gather the information; an infrastructure must be in place to ensure that market information is getting back to the decision‐makers. Get the decision‐makers together regularly to close on important issues. Critical to making better decisions is to identify alternative courses of action rather than simply one proposal. In addition to basic strategic planning there are two ways to experience making decisions under simulated conditions: wargaming and scenario planning. Regularly tracking the successful implementation of decisions made is a key method of ensuring action.