SCENARIO
You have just started your management consulting firm and have signed your first major client, BHM Marketing, which specializes in small business advertising. The client has seen exponential growth with their business over the past three years and would like to start using historical data from their client engagements to develop a playbook for future business processes. The owner has tasked you with creating an Executive Report for their playbook highlighting some of the best practices in data-driven decision-making.
INSTRUCTIONS
The executive report should contain a synopsis of how BHM can use historical data to formulate business decisions and strategies. You will want to highlight the best practices in using data related to how BHM can:
Assess business decisions to support organizational effectiveness
Prioritize data-driven decisions based on available resources
Determine data-based business strategies
Your executive report should:
Introduce data-driven decision-making
Explain how BHM can use prioritization in decision-making
Explain how BHM can use historical data to make decisions
Recommend at least three data-based business strategies that could benefit BHM
Provide attribution for credible sources
Method
Affinity Diagrams
Key use
Brainstorming or mind
mapping
Analytical Hierarchy Process Complex decisions
(AHP)
Conjoint Analysis
Market research
Possible Strategy
Help visualize numerous ideas and data points.
Helps to mitigate subjectivity or intuition that might
influence the decision-making.
Helps forecast how accepting customers will be to
changes.
Cost/Benefit Analysis
Financial decision making
A technique used to make financial decisions.
Decision Making Trees
Assess multiple outcomes
Outcomes may not be exact and therefore help
provide a visual aid when considering multiple
strategies or solutions.
Game Theory
Negotiating with 3rd parties or A technique used to bargain or negotiate, product or
strategic decision-making
service launch decisions, or supply chain decisions
rd
with 3 parties.
as it puts the leaders in the other shoes (client,
competitor, customer).
Heuristic Methods
Trial and error
Typically used in the refinement of products or
services over time, using trial and error. They’re not
accurate but get the job done.
Influence Diagrams
Reducing human error
A technique used to provide a visual aid in
Approach (IDA)
determining how human error might influence a
decision or project, thus impacting the outcome.
Suitable for the HR or healthcare industry.
Linear Programming (LP)
Limited resources
A technique that uses math to represent
requirements as a linear equation. Suitable for
operational research.
Multiple Criteria Decision
Business decisions that
A technique that allows businesses to assess and
Analysis
compromise between logical evaluate various options based on defined criteria.
and intuition.
Examples include cost/price vs level of quality or
customer/client satisfaction vs high return on
investment (ROI).
Multi-voting
Fair and balanced group
A technique used in groups to weed out lower priority
decisions
options. Suitable for committees, boards, planning.
Net Present Value (NPV) and Investment and capital
A technique used to help a business compare
Present Value (PV)
budgeting decisions
financial options representing future cash flows.
Critical thinking is highly used to question all
assumptions when calculations are made to aid in
informing decisions.
Paired Comparison Analysis Comparing two options
A good starting point when comparing two options in
order of importance. However, doesn’t provide
information identifying the criteria used to support
each option.
Pro/Con Technique
Comparing two options
Another type of comparison analysis and can be used
in tandem with paired comparison analysis. Suitable
for weighing the options.
Scientific Method
The scientific approach to
Decision-making technique that uses the scientific
business decisions
method of hypothesis, method, results, conclusion
format to make decisions.
Trial and Error
A popular approach to making A technique that serves as the backbone for many
low-risk decisions
methods included the heuristic and scientific
methods. In business, in agile project management
that uses trial and error into its process with
minimum risk.
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Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
