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Making decisions is a difficult task, especially if that decision will affect an entire company or enterprise and all its workers. This is why when business decisions are made, the business decision making process is split between a group of people, usually that company's Board of Directors. This Board then argues their points with each other and takes a vote on what the company should do. IF there is a majority vote, the decision is made. If not enough people vote, then the issue still argued and continued until the next meeting. However, in a company that is publicly traded, every shareholder has the right to have a say in the decision that is made.

That is why in large publicly traded companies, a meeting is held often so that the business decision making process is split between those shareholders who show up. Allowing the decision making to take place in a large meeting gives everyone a chance to voice his or her opinion. If you want to learn more about how businesses make decisions affecting the entire company and its workers, then Business.com can help as it offers valuable information about this process. Simply click the links on the left and you will be able to learn about the process in no time at all.

Business Decision-Making Key Terms

Understanding the terms for various decision-making strategies and theories

When it comes to making decisions regarding the next step for your business, you've probably done the ever-popular list of pros and cons for that decision. However, there are a number of other business decision-making strategies that may help you gain more insight into the possible outcome of a decision and whether it's a chance worth taking. At first glance, you probably wouldn't recognize any of these decision-making strategies, but may come across them as you search for a new method. This resource provides a brief explanation of a few strategies to get you started.

Pareto analysis

The Pareto analysis approaches business decision-making based on the possible changes you can make in an effort to take your business to the next level. With this strategy, you list the possible changes and then rank or score them based upon the best-desired outcome.

MAUT

MAUT stands for Multi-Attribute Utility Theory. Also known as the Pugh Matrix, the Pugh method, decision matrix or grid analysis, this is a great way to find the best business decision when there are a number of good options in front of you. Put simply, you list the possible decisions in rows and the factors affecting those decisions in a column, ranking each factor for each decision and choosing the decision with the best ranking score.
Adams State College explains how to use MAUT in more detail.

Force field

To start a force field analysis, list the business decision you're contemplating in the middle of the page. On the left side, list the forces working toward the decision, and on the right side, list the forces working against the decision. Assign a value to each force on a scale of one to five and tally the results.

Decision tree

When you have several possible strategies for a decision, a decision tree may be the way to determine the best one. It gets its name from the branching effect that results from writing out decisions and listing possible outcomes.

Starbursting

Starbursting is a way of brainstorming new ideas to determine all of the factors that go into making a decision happen. Basically, with the starburst model, you ask the who, what, why, where, when and how related to a decision.

Six thinking hats

The idea of the six thinking hats method of decision-making is to explore a decision from six different perspectives, known as the white, red, black, yellow, green and blue hats.

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