On the one hand:
Follow the science; follow the engineering; follow the facts; adhere to policy and precedentOn the other hand:Listen to the customer; stay ahead of the competition; keep an eye on shareholder value; don't be late!
- Nothing is so simple as "follow the facts" and adhere to precedent.
- Nothing is so "lacking sense" as just "listen to the customer"
Here's another idea: seek stability and predictability. The fact is that without either, your only recourse is to apply a heavy discount to future value.
Not so fast!
Maybe your business model thrives on instability, in effect working off the 'rate of change' rather than the steady-state.
Many 'transactionalists' work this way, making large bets on even small changes (very large times a very small number may still be a quite large number, aka: the "one-percent doctrine").
But if you are the business leader that heads toward the unpredictable, then you should be thinking of how to make your business "anti-fragile", to wit: to be able to absorb great shock without collapse.
- By having interior firewalls to stop risks from propagating
- By having redundancy to fill in for failed capability and capacity
- By having reserves to cover losses
- By not being totally "just in time" because there may not be time
No matter the model for decision-making, an internalized methodology that you can apply with confidence is your best tool, to be practiced and made like "muscle memory"
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