ASSIGNMENT 8 REFLECT

Practical Use of the Discovery Model

Author’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Practical Use of the Discovery Model

The problem that I believe to be affecting my client presently is information overload. This is the difficulty to understand an issue and make decisions effectively as a result of availability of too much information concerning that issue. Therefore, for the business to make good decisions there is need to use the discovery model so as to help find a solution to this problem (Hemp, 2009).

My understanding of the problem of information overload based on my research is that, there is high amount of input to the system exceeding its processing capacity which as a result leads to poor quality of decisions. In this scenario, the company finds it difficult to make marketing decisions concerning brands and quality of products suitable for different market niches. From research, although this problem of information overload has been in existence for a couple of years, recently, the problem has become widely recognized in many organizations (Edmunds & Morris, 2000). This has been previously associated with rapid advances in information and communication technology. With availability of abundance information, there is difficulty in obtaining relevant and useful information when needed.

The following questions will be asked with an aim to elicit this information from the client and discover the problem; How long do you take to make strategic marketing decisions? How many types of information do you access during the decision making process? Is it very easy to duplicate and transmit data across the internet? Do you rely on historical information in the decision making process? and How many channels do you use for incoming information?

While asking the client the above questions, I expect a positive reaction by the client admitting that decisions take longer than expected with less accuracy, the client rely on many types of information, the information is easy to duplicate and transmit through the internet, they rely on historical information which is ever piling up and available channels for incoming information is also increasing (Hemp, 2009).

References

Edmunds, A. & Morris, A. (2000). Problem of information overload in business

organizations: A review of the literature. International Journal of Information

Management. 20(1): 17-28.

Hemp, P. (2009). Death by information overload. Harvard Business Review. 87(9): 83-89.

Speier, C., Valacich, J.S. & Vessey, I. (1999). The influence of task interruption on

individual decision making: An information overload perspective. Decision Sciences.

30(2): 337-360.