BMGT 485 Week 4

Making Decisions n a Constantly Innovative Environment

Technology and Decisions

Innovation

Knowledge Management

Big Data and Data-Driven Decisions

SWOT Analysis

References

Week 4: Decision Making and Problem Solving

Lesson 1 of 6

Technology and Decisions

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower

Steve Jobs

Skill #4: Collect knowledge and information about current events, technology, the business environment, the client’s business, your company and consider these when making decisions.

Technology has brought and will bring enormous amounts of information for the manager to

consider when making business decisions. This has two main challenges for managers:

1. The �rst is maintaining sustainability in a technologically disruptive environment.

2. The second is managing knowledge for better decision making. 

Managers today must look ahead and stay informed of new innovation to be sure that their

business can stay competitive. They must know what is important to the stakeholders in

every decision they make and the problem they solve now and �ve years from now.

Developing expertise or hiring people whose expertise you can rely upon is crucial to staying

alive.  Innovation, the true core leadership challenge for staying competitive, will have at its

heart the need for technology.  In a recent Forbes article, Liz Ryan pointed out ten skills every

manager must know. She makes the point that every manager must understand how their

role �ts into the company and how their business competes in its marketplace. Thee ten

skills are as follows:

Every manager needs to be able to ask for and take in feedback from their

employees — without becoming defensive. 1

Every manager must develop the ability to take an employee's perspective and see

things from the employee's point of view.  2

Every manager needs to understand how his or her function �ts into the overall

organization and how their business competes in its marketplace.  3

Every manager needs to learn self-re�ection. They need to notice their own fear

reactions — for example, when their boss is upset with them or when they are

upset with one of their employees.

4

Every manager needs to know how to acknowledge and reinforce employees -

and how to avoid bashing and criticizing them when they make a mistake. 5

Every manager needs to learn to stand up for their teammates when a higher-up

manager gives an order that isn't feasible or achievable. 6

Every manager needs to learn to manage his or her own career, completely apart

from managing their department. 7

Every manager needs to learn to communicate with people of di�erent ages,

ethnic backgrounds, religions, political stripes and personality types and must

learn to be open to a wide range of perspectives.

8

Every leader must learn how to build trust and community at work. Without trust,

a department can't function the way it should. 9

Finally, every manager must learn to be human at work, especially when

conditions are ripe for fear-based management tactics to creep in. 10

All too often a manager knows their department but not how it works with others in the

company, customers and industry. Managers too often fail to look at current events or new

technology until it is too late!  Making decisions requires the perspective of the present and

knowledgeable guess at the future. Understanding the consequences an alternative may have

on the future can only be had if many factors about the decision are looked at by the

decision-maker. In fact, as was pointed out in week two our survey on managers points out

that 77.8% of the respondents felt that considering many factors in decision making through

the use of a structured process was one of the most important skills a manager can have

(Moss, 2018).

Lesson 2 of 6

Innovation

Innovation is moving at a scarily fast pace.

Bill Gates

According to Investopedia.com, "Disruptive Innovation refers to a technology whose

application signi�cantly a�ects the way a market or industry functions. An example of

modern disruptive innovation is the Internet, which signi�cantly altered the way companies

did business and which negatively impacted companies that were unwilling to adapt to it."

Read Kaplan's (2012) article where he discussed the LEAPS method for driving disruption in

business, which includes the following process:

Listen - Start with yourself, not the market

Explore - Go outside to stretch the inside

Act - Take small simple steps over and over

Persist - Take the surprise out of failure

Seize - Make the journey part of the destination

In 2016, a World Economic Forum report predicted that more than

7 million jobs would be lost due to technological advances  - more

than �ve million of those by 2020. Read about this prediction here.

Did this actually happen? Do some research and �nd out!

According to Merriam Webster, Arti�cial Intelligence is, "a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers, or the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior."

In 2018, the Society for Human Resources Managers predicted how AI may change how leaders inspire, manage, and engage a new workforce. Click below for more on these predictions.

Focus on Value through Experimentation –

Value will emerge through experimentation

Many projects will fail, but lessons learned will be valuable

Managers should allow teams to be creative, curious, and innovative

Diversity to Create Collaboration and Broader Perspective –

Teams need to be diverse in background, gender, race, and nationality

Academic and disciplinary diversity is also important

Avoid homogenous project teams

Change to Align and Engage –

Become data driven as a culture change in the organization

Change the way people interact and communicate

Engage all employees

Reskilling Talent –

Understand employees' skills and where gaps may be

Facility skills training 

transform jobs and rede�ne work and create a team concept to create e�ciencies

Empower Decision-making –

Empower teams to make decisions

Give authority at lower levels

AI as your Coach and Advisor –

Create a new approach to leadership development

Jared Lindzon (2017) talked about the way that AI is also changing the way that companies are

organized. Take a few minutes to read through his article. How does this article relate to the

article above? Did you see any similarities?

Lesson 3 of 6

Knowledge Management

Skill #5: Know the basics of knowledge management and use this knowledge when considering collecting information when making a decision. 

How do you manage all the data that technology brings to a company?  Think about your own

life.  Like many people, you may have several e-mail accounts, two or three devices that

clutter your wall sockets; computers on your desk or in your pocketbook; and a growing

number of social media accounts, apps or chats. You have information coming at you from all

directions and you are just one person.  So, what must it be like leading a business?  Aside

from individual data management issues, a business has multiple uses for data collection not

the least of which is decision making.   Hence, a business must �nd ways to collect data,

store it, and evaluate it for e�cacy in decision making. This skill set is commonly known as

knowledge management and it is a skill set with which managers should have a working

familiarity. 

Click here to learn a bit more about the Basics of Knowledge Management.

An organization's strategy and its knowledge management need to be in alignment. It is

important that there is a strong �t between the two in order to have success. Watch the video

below to learn more about how knowledge management can drive enterprise strategy.

How knowledge management drives enterprise strategy

How knowledge management drives enterprise strategy

In this article, the authors discuss several facets of Knowledge Management, including four

kinds of process that are closely related, including:

Knowledge Representation - the process of identifying, preparing, documenting

and actualizing knowledge

Knowledge Communication - combining processes that concern the distribution

of information and knowledge, mediation of knowledge, knowledge sharing, co-

construction of knowledge, and knowledge-based cooperation

Use of Knowledge - Transformation of knowledge to goods and services

Development of Knowledge - external knowledge procurement, creating

knowledge resources, like research and development, and forming knowledge

networks.

the article also discusses critical success factors for implementing knowledge management

within the organization, including:

Corporate Culture

Employee Quali�cations

Learning Culture

Management Support

Integration of Knowledge Processes to Organization's Processes

New Information and Communication Technologies

Lesson 4 of 6

Big Data and Data-Driven Decisions

According to Merriam-Webster, Big Data is "an accumulation of

data that is too large and complex for processing by traditional

database management tools. Did you know that the �rst known

use of "Big Data" was in 1996?

Big Data and Competitive Advantage

According to a 2012 article from McGuire et al, there are �ve ways to leverage big data in an

organization:

Big Data can unlock signi�cant value by making information transparent. 1

As organizations create and store more transactional data in digital form, they can

collect more accurate and detailed performance information on everything from

product inventories to sick days and therefore expose variability and boost

performance.

2

Big Data allows ever-narrower segmentation of customers and therefore much

more precisely tailored products or services.  3

Sophisticated analytics can substantially improve decision-making, minimize

risks, and unearth valuable insights that would otherwise remain hidden.  4

Big Data can be used to develop the next generation of products and services.5

In that same article, the author provided �ve questions that executives can re�ect on to help

recognize how big data could upend assumptions behind their strategies and speed up the

scope of change underway.

What happens in a world of radical transparency, with data widely available?1

If you could test all of your decisions, how would that change the way you

compete? 2

How would your business change if you used Big Data for widespread, real-time

customization? 3

How can Big Data augment or even replace management?4

Could you create a new business model based on data?5

Make sure that you read the complete article for the rest of the important information

concerning Big Data and competitive advantage, as there is a great deal of excellent

information.

Marr (2016) came up with 10 steps for data-driving decision making in business. Click on the

numbers below to review each of the steps, and review the entire article as well for more

information on each of these items.

         

Start with Strategy



Hone in on the business area



Identify your unanswered business questions



Find the data to answer your questions



Identify what data you already have



Work out if the costs and effort are justi�ed



Collect the data



Analyze the data



Present and distribute the insights



Incorporate the learning into the business



According to one article, there are many purposes, characteristics, bene�ts, and limitations to

data mining. Review the information below, and then read the entire article for more in-depth

information.

Processes which Include Data Mining –

Data Integration

Data Cleaning

Data Transformation

Pattern Evaluation

Data Presentation

Uses for Information Acquired in Data Mining –

1. Market Analysis

2. Production Control

3. Customer Retention

4. Science Exploration

5. Fraud Detection

6. Sports

7. Astrology

8. Internet Web Surf-Aid

What can Data Mining Do? –

Help to identify shopping patterns

Increase website optimization

Bene�cial for marketing campaigns

Determine customer groups

Help measure pro�tability factors

Increase brand loyalty

Purpose of Data Mining –

Increase customer loyalty

Identify hidden pro�tability

Minimize client involvement

Customer satisfaction

Characteristics of Data Mining –

1. Increased quantities of data

2. Provide incomplete data

3. Complicated data structure

Data Mining Applications –

1. Market Analysis and Management

a. Customer Pro�ling

b. Finding customer requirements

c. Cross-market analysis

d. Target marketing

e. Determining customer purchasing pattern

f. Provides summary information

2. Corporate Analysis and Risk Management

a. Finance Planning

b. Asset Evaluation

c. Resource Planning

d. Competition

3. Fraud Detection

Bene�ts of Data Mining Techniques –

It is helpful to predict future trends

It signi�es customer habits

Helps in decision making

Increase company revenue

It depends upon market-based analysis

Quick fraud detection

Limitations of Data Mining Techniques –

1. It violates user privacy

2. Additional irrelevant information

3. Misuse of information

4. Accuracy of data

Lesson 5 of 6

SWOT Analysis

It is important in a business setting that you fully understand what a SWOT analysis is and

how to apply one e�ectively. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and

Threats. Strengths and Weaknesses are factors that are internal to the organization whereas

Opportunities and Threats are external factors. Let's take a look below in more detail about

SWOT and how it is applied in business.

This article discusses how to do a SWOT analysis, so please read through it carefully. It also

provides a video (below) and a matrix that allows you to create a SWOT on your own. You may

want to keep the matrix for future use.

YO U TU B E

How to Use SWOT Analysis

How to Use SWOT Analysis

To learn more about SWOT and download the free worksheet, see our article

at: https://www.mindtools.com/swot?

utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign...

V I E W O N YO U TU B E 

Please review this Coca Cola Case Study of a SWOT Analysis

so you can see an example of a SWOT analysis applied. Did

you understand the internal Strengths and Weaknesses as

well as the external Opportunities and Threats?

Lesson 6 of 6

References

Anonymous (2014).  How knowledge management drives enterprise strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEcTEB9ajQ 1

Anonymous (n.d). Knowledge management.

https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2149/Knowledge-Management.html 2

Lindzon, J. (2017). How AI is changing the way companies are organized.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3068492/how-ai-is-changing-the-way-

companies-are-organized

3

Loyola, R. Leading in the age of AI and automation.

https://blog.hrps.org/blogpost/Leading-in-the-Age-of-AI-and-Automation 4

Marr, B. (2016). Data-driven decision making: 10 simple steps for any business.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/06/14/data-driven-decision-

making-10-simple-steps-for-any-business/?sh=1811cd4d5e1e

5

McGuire et al (2012). Why big data is the new competitive advantage.

https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/why-big-data-is-the-new-

competitive-advantage/

6

Mina, A. (2016). Technology will erase 5 million jobs.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-01-20/technology-

will-erase-5-million-jobs

7

Module 1 readings: Knowledge management basics: Concepts, objects, principles

and expectations. https://learn.umgc.edu/content/enforced/524378-001146-01-

2208-OL3-7382/Knowledge%20Management%20Basics.pdf

8

Reddy, C. (n.d.) Data mining: purpose, characteristics, bene�ts & limitations.

https://content.wisestep.com/data-mining-purpose-characteristics-bene�ts-

limitations/

9

Soren, K. (2012). Leading disruptive Innovation.

https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/leading-disruptive-innovation/ 10

SWOT Analysis (n.d.).

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm 11