Verified Document

Decision-Making Essay

Decision Making The strategic decision for Microsoft that will be discussed in the decision to proceed with Windows 8. Launching a new version of a flagship product is always a big decision, and this was no exception. Windows 8 represented a major overhaul of the company's signature product, redesigning the interface in particular with the objective of having it work across multiple technologies (i.e. tablets, laptops) rather than segregating different versions of Windows for different devices, as was the case in the past. This decision made the Windows experience perhaps better for the casual user, but has caused no end of frustration for the power user who uses Windows for work. There are few competitors, but at the same time the strategic decision to court the consumer looking for cat videos has created an opportunity for competition to emerge for the enterprise user.

Now, the author does not sit in on Microsoft strategic meetings, so let's be realistic in that we do not know for certain what decision-making processes were used. The Kahneman (2011) methodology is an effective tool for understanding a decision-making processes but it is intended for use by the person who is making...

The first step in this process is to check for self-interested biases. This does not appear to be the case, as there is a strategic case to be made for the decision. The second question Kahneman asks is whether or not the team has fallen in love with its proposal. This is the affect heuristic. In this case, the answer might well be yes. The company's massive enterprise base did not seem to factor much into the question, as Windows 8 represents a solution to a problem that this major customer group didn't have -- computers that work like tablets represents a steep decline in functionality that alienates enterprise customers. The third question is whether or not there was groupthink? In this case, it is possible but doubtful. There must have been people, in particular those who have to sell Windows 8 to the company's largest customers, who would have argued against the new strategic direction. So only question 2 appears to have introduced bias into the decision-making process.
Of the other questions, there is definitely a question with availability bias, because the company was trying to get in front of a trend, and was not willing to wait to explore all options. This created…

Sources used in this document:
References

Bingham, C., Eisenhardt, K., & Furr, N. (2011). Which strategy when? MIT Sloan Management Review. Fall 2011. 71-79.

Kahneman, D., Lovallo, D. & Sibony, O. (2011). Before you make that big decision. Harvard Business Review. June 2011. 3-13.

Lafley, A. (2009) What only the CEO can do. Harvard Business Review May 2009. 1-9.

Reed, B. (2014). Windows XP's death may not be enough to bail out Windows 8. BGR.com. Retrieved November 6, 2014 from http://bgr.com/2014/02/04/windows-8-adoption-analysis/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Decision Making
Words: 708 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

This analysis points to the need to make some merchandise changes, and get our branding allowed with a high level. This takes us away from the major competitors who are beating us, something of a blue ocean strategy (Investopedia, 2014) that allows us to carve out a niche for our business that plays to our strengths. We are good at selling clothes to women at premium prices, and that is

Decision Making
Words: 753 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

The concept of bounded ethicality raises the possibility that Madoff in fact did not understand that what he was doing was unethical. As an experience hedge fund manager, a rational-thinking Madoff had all the tools to understand the ethics of what he was doing, but bounded ethicality suggests that he may have not fully been able to process the situation. One bound could be a myopic vision of his own

Decision-Making Impulse Control and Cognitive Development
Words: 1449 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Decision Making, Impulse Control, And Cognitive Development Cognitive development entails the development in children with respect to processing of information, conceptual resources, skills in perception, learning the language and development of the brain. Piaget and Vygotsky advance theories explain cognitive development in children. These theories are similar in some aspects, yet they still differ about issues (Nakagaki, 2011). Piaget gives four stages to explain cognitive development whereby he advances that each

Decision-Making Critical Review Vroom, V.H.,
Words: 2517 Length: 8 Document Type: Research Paper

The two scenarios are likely to sway employees to provide false information if they are encouraged. However, the relationship had much strength in the positive. Therefore, in this study, there were clear choices. The participants were required to either tell the truth or lie. If things were easy for individuals in the world, lines of making moral decisions tend to be much fuzzier, however, the bottom line remains the same

Decision Making and Accounting Theories Business Owners
Words: 1802 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Decision Making and Accounting Theories Business owners find that they always have to put on business hats when they are starting up or managing their businesses. However in business it is not the owners who are meant to make decisions only, decisions can also be made by employees. When classification of business decisions is done it is on the basis of how predictable that particular decision is. Programmed decisions are those

Decision Making Tool the Sluggishness
Words: 418 Length: 1 Document Type: Term Paper

Be a good example to him. Demonstrate to him good work habits and if possible show to him the incentives and rewards that I achieved from practicing professionalism at work. The advantage to this is that my fellow co-worker can have motivation at work. The disadvantage on the other hand is that he might have a wrong concept and ask the same incentives and rewards from the management despite of

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now