Managers today play a role of fire fighting in daily business operations which need numerous tactical and strategic issues to encounter and solve. The decision-making process is primarily influenced by individual-based approach and varies between individuals.

Thus, the outcomes of the process vary and provide mixed results such as positive, neutral, or negative. Such outcomes create an imbalance in any organization’s performance. So, how should an organization negate such risk to achieve uniformity in outcomes? Is there any decision-making technique available to ensure continuous positive outcomes? If so, how can an organization find and acclimatize its decision-making to ensure positive performance? The aforesaid questions may seem to be naïve or unbelievable to achieve. However, the following decision-making techniques would provide a much-needed cue to the organizations to work towards achieving better performance. Is there any possibility to standardize the decision-making process and ensure uniformity in outcomes? It is possible provided the standard techniques are used. However, the outcomes may not be 100% uniform and accurate, but are essential to guide the organization to the right direction in achieving expected performance. The decision-making techniques could be used for different levels of decisions such as routine, tactical, and strategic. However, the decision-making process follows a top-down approach in most of the cases as it focuses primarily on commencing a process with strategic decisions, then leading to tactical and routine decisions which are operational in nature. Though most of the organizations tend more on strategic decisions, however, the performance is measured through effective tactical and routine decisions which are part of daily operations. Therefore, the decision-making techniques should focus all the aspects of decision making to ensure the successful outcomes. Considering different decision making techniques, it is imperative to incorporate the techniques which are inclusive in nature and provide the maximum performance output.

Instinct driven decision-making technique is the one most of us use in our daily life based on our instincts. Instincts are generally stimulated through our minds, and we execute the decisions accordingly. Sometimes, it could be a ‘reflex decision-making’ and spontaneous to provide solutions on the spot. However, most of the outcomes from this technique may not produce the expected results, and at times, far more damaging and counterproductive. It could be best used for routine decisions in which outcomes may not have a greater impact on the organization’s performance or future.  Successful managers tend to avoid instinct-driven decision-making as the outcomes are highly unpredictable and counterproductive. However, it could be used in routine situations which may not require high-level thinking and information processing. The managers avoid this technique due to its unpredictable nature and erratic outcomes.

Data driven decision-making technique is one of the most popular decision making techniques that managers use for strategic and tactical decisions. It could provide the expected results which are highly supported by the appropriate data. However, it throws a challenge to the managers as using faulty or in appropriate data to make decisions can lead to fatal outcomes. Therefore,  managers need to use their experience in assessing the relevancy of the data and gauge the current situation to take wise decisions. Data provides a support to make decisions and it is not appropriate to make decisions only using the data. It is highly imperative to use the data in sync with the current situation to make the decisions that can lead to the expected outcomes. Hence, the experience of managers proves to be very vital at this point. Appropriate data, in addition to experience, is necessary to make sound decisions. Managers need to make appropriate decisions through relevant data and experience ought to be applicable to the given situation.

Experience driven decision-making technique is one of the high-level decision-making technique which is individualistic in nature. It varies according to the experience and expertise of the managers in encountering numerous situations and offer appropriate decisions. It is highly useful in tactical situations provided that the managers have appropriate experience to tackle such situations and make wise decisions. However, it may not be suitable for all the managers as it is unique and different. It is also difficult to standardize the use of this technique as it depends on the managers who use this technique to make decisions. It is imperative for the organization to do a hands on experiment to test the outcomes of this technique through assessing different managers who use this technique and calculate the probability of the outcomes based on the attempts made. Such an experiment would provide a matrix to the top-level management to understand the efficacy of this technique through mapping with individual managers. Based on the outcomes, the organization can encourage the highly successful managers to train the other managers to gain expertise using this technique. This technique could be used for all levels of decisions, however, more useful towards tactical and strategic decisions.

Neuro driven decision making technique is one of the innovative decision making techniques that incur a comprehensive process to make decisions. It could be called a ‘Combined or Hybrid’ decision-making technique which includes all the different techniques discussed above. The managers need to consciously practice to gain expertise in using this technique and need to train the neurons in their brains by providing numerous inputs such as data, experiential learning (personal and others), assessing and assimilating with current situations, ability to predict and foresee the impact through the decisions made, to name a few. This technique needs a very high level of practice to ensure the accuracy of the outcomes. It could be used for all levels of decisions and more useful for strategic and tactical decisions. The organizations could encourage the managers to practice this technique to gain expertise which could prove beneficial to achieve success and growth.

In a nutshell, the managers need to gain expertise in all of the aforesaid techniques and should decide which one is better based on the current situation and expected impact on the organization’s performance. This article does not provide a foolproof recipe for decision-making, however, it provides a way to work and gain expertise through different decision-making techniques that could be used for achieving successful and sustainable marketing and business growth.