Discussion Question

In this course, the Discussion Boards will focus on practical issues regarding analytics in the practical world. If you do not want to comment on your organization (due to confidentiality issues or if your experience does not fit the Assignment) then comment on another organization that you are familiar with. You may also do research on a company and base your answers on your findings.

Remember that you must answer the discussion question by Saturday and must post on three separate days. Please see the syllabus for details on Discussion Board requirements.

This discussion is based on the article “A pyramid of decision approaches” by Paul Schoemaker and Edward Russo from California Management review. Make sure to acquire this article before starting the discussion.

While analytics is very valuable, it is not practical to analyze every decision situation. In the fast pace of the business world, you often allow rules-of-thumb to replace analysis. Making decisions based on rules allow us not only to save time but also take advantage of the expertise and experience of those who developed the rule for us. Unfortunately, you do not always recognize when you should question the rules and instead make an alternative decision based on your own analysis. Being able to know when not to use the rules as given is a critical skill in applying analytics efficiently.

The article you will use this week is pretty long and covers various approaches to decision making. You will focus on the discussion on rules that starts on page 12. You will question your own organization’s use of rules and see if you can find improvements.

For this discussion, you will apply the six steps listed on page 15. Please use the template below in your analysis.

Step 1: The rule

Identify an important rule of thumb from your organization that is used to make quick decisions.

Step 2: Success example

Give an example of where this rule comes close to the correct decision.

Step 3: Failure example

Give an actual example of where it failed badly and explain why.

Step 4: Limits

Construct cases where the rule would produce disastrous results (to understand its limits).

Step 5: Improvements

Generate possible improvements of the rule. How can analytics help in avoiding failure?

Step 6: Testing

Describe how the new rule would be tested before being implemented organization-wide.