Is Decision Making an Art ?
“Whatever your dream is, you can do it. Confidence and boldness contain an unimaginable power and magic.” Agreed, but not to forget that decision-making skills also comes into play. In business management too, decision making is a crucial aspect as it is directly related to the growth of a business entity and at times it’s about survival. Usually, management leaders described decision making as the thinking of economy. Decision Making is getting complex and complex every day with business being dynamic and global in nature.
Decisions concerning complex systems, such as management of organizational operations, industrial processes, investment portfolios etc. tax our cognitive capabilities to a great extent. Thus, these days increased usage of computer-based decision support systems is witnessed. Decision authority is being transferred to software programs. A centralized machine forms the crux of the decision loop.
B-schools have introduced IT enabled Business oriented specializations/ electives to bridge between these technology and business requirements. Decision Support System had been a part of many management curriculum of late. Decision support system abbreviated as DSS is a computer-based information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. Management, operations, and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) employ DSS to make decisions about problems that may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance.
Industry oriented courses like IPER-PGDM have included Business Intelligence and Analytics (BIA) as one of the specializations to complement DSS. BIA /BI systems includes the process of turning data into information and then into knowledge. BI systems improve business decision-making by using fact-based support systems.
These BI systems feature tools for querying on the fly, report writing, decision support systems, executive information systems (Key Performance Indicators) and techniques such as statistical analysis and online analytical processing (OLAP).
Many European universities too offer specialization in Business Intelligence and Analytics Management. This specialization would help a management aspirant to develop a valuable set of skills and knowledge in:
- Gathering, store, report and analyze important data to drive business decisions
- Designing, developing and using a database, data mining, and data warehousing to derive business intelligence solutions
- Employ techniques focused on optimization modeling, numerical models and supply chain efficiency etc.
Conclusion:
Decision Making is an art for the learned. DSS and BIA do not make the decision for us. We need to take decisions. Business Decisions cannot be taken on guts /feelings – it has to take on facts available. Business Decisions are complex and require sufficient data and a great use of cognitive abilities. DSS/BIA are there to support. A good decision maker has to be good at cognitive skills and also at DSS/BIA so as to exploit the tools for the necessary information to take a decision.
