Thriving in the Midst of Storm
One need only pick up the paper or turn on the news to be bombarded with uncertainty about the future. Job security. Tight credit. Stock prices. The fact is, the future has always been uncertain, but there was some comfort in the sense that uncertainty was "out there," over long time horizons: years, if not decades away. Now, the uncertain future is immediate, and real.
Making Strategic Decisions in Difficult Economic Times
Do you have the skills to make good decisions in uncertain times? When making strategic decisions, our natural impulses and habits create traps that lead you astray. It doesn't need to be this way. A systematic approach to strategic decision-making and risk management can help you make high-quality decisions in any environment.
There are industries – energy, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, to name a few – that make big bets while facing great uncertainty over long time horizons. In good times and bad, they must evaluate investments and opportunities where the results of their decisions will not be known for years, sometimes (as in the case of pharmaceutical companies) decades. These companies do not have the luxury of waiting for the economy to improve. What can we learn from their tested approaches?
The aerospace company Boeing is in such an industry. In this Executive eBriefing, David Leonhardi describes how the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group applied decision methodology to develop the 787 Dreamliner, a truly big and risky bet. Dave, a business strategist at Boeing, describes the methods and approaches his team used to guide corporate leaders to a high-quality decision. Carl Spetzler, CEO of Strategic Decisions Group, generalizes the learnings and describe how they apply to making strategic decisions during the current storm.
The tools and processes Dave covers have been taught by SDG for years to internal decision support teams at corporations throughout the world. Now this methodology and approach is available through the Stanford Center for Professional Development's certificate program in Strategic Decision and Risk Management.
