The Buck Stops Here Bella Vista AR
(479) 855-9300
Bella Vista, AR
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Rogers, AR
The Buck Stops Here
Posted by : Joe Farace
In any SOHO operation's life cycle, you eventually reach a point when you need advice to help you reach an important decision. Not every small business has a mentor, but even if you're lucky enough to have someone who can help, there are some decisions only you--as the Big Cheese--can make. It might simply be the purchase of new equipment, or it could be as important as opening another out-of-state office. In making decisions about these and other matters, there are factors that, if not properly evaluated, can sink a growing operation. Don't give up. Put decision theory to work for you.
In the early 1970s, "decision theory" was a hot corporate buzzword. Decision theory is a branch of statistics that's concerned with the strategy of decision making in non-deterministic systems. It tries to find strategies that maximize the expected value of a function by first assigning values, then measuring the desirability of potential outcomes.
In the age before shrink-wrapped software, I created a series of BASIC language programs for decision making that were built around a few key steps:
Write a mission statement defining goals and objectives.Identify options and alternatives.Define and rank by importance the factors used to judge your options.Enter data (ratings based on judgment factors that are assigned to the options).Evaluate the scores and verify your best option.Confirm that its selection satisfies your goals and objections. ...Click here to read the rest of this article from Computer User