Effective Decision Making Practice - Essay Example

? Effective Decision Making of the of the Effective Decision Making Introduction The decision-making practice is conversant to everyone, being functional at almost all distinct and comprehensive stages in person’s professional and private life. It is generally presumed that decisions are always taken to sort out conflicts and issues. In some situations, it seems more preferable to avoid and not to act at that moment. The true identification of the situation and effective decisions collectively yield better results when dealing with unexpected consequences. Alan Mulally is a man that has turned around the automaker's finances through his effective decision making. Mulally became the CEO of Ford Motor Company in Fall 2006. He is not an expert in building cars, yet he has been able to steer his company through the rough waters that has devastated other auto companies without any government bailouts. One interesting observation is that his leadership style is very positive in terms of effective decision-making. This paper identifies the role of Alan Mullally as a leader who has always supported effective decision making. It also discusses how Mullally has created a constructive decision environment. The paper further discusses the generation and evaluation of alternatives in effective decision making and implementation of decisions effectively. Discussion In 2006, Bill Ford Jr., the founder's great-grandson, put sideways the very factual probability of merger, even bankruptcy, and took a decision to place another CEO on his position as an attempt to save Ford Motor Company. He offered the post to a Detroit outsider, Alan Mullally, accredited with the post-9/11 resuscitation of Boeing and lured to Ford by the prospect of saving an "American and global icon. (Brown, 2009, 52)" After joining Ford as a CEO, Mullally has taken several decisions to change the company's prejudiced culture and insisted on teamwork. He developed a recovery plan and worked out on that plan uncompromisingly. He surveyed the entire business weekly to measure progress of other competitors and deeply monitored his own company’s performance. Mullally’s wise decisions win over the Ford family by safeguarding a critical finance just aforementioned to the credit calamity along with the reduction in the number of brands and streamlining of production as per customer demands (Naughton, 2011, 66). He invested and applied advanced technologies for improved fuel efficiency and better production. His one of the effective decisions was an agreement UAW that yielded cheap labor costs that fended off the corporate invaders and convinced the public to buy Ford Cars. Another major decision Mullally has taken to get Ford the place where it is now was the well-publicized denial to accept the government bailout GM and Chrysler necessary to survive (Taylor, 2009, money.cnn.com). Mullally rests controlled in reducing costs and invest more in product development. Restructured models lift Ford Motor's U.S. market share to 17.5% from 16.1 %. That profited the company from the challenges of its competitors. Suppliers report that domestic-make customers turned progressively to Ford after General Motors and Chrysler went through bankruptcy and accepted government coffers to persist (Taylor, 2009, money.cnn.com). Mullally has created a constructive decision environment on the basis of his timely efforts and effective decisions. In late 2006, Ford borrowed $23 billion, hocking everything, including the company's Blue Oval logo. That gave Ford the cash cushion it needed to withstand losses and develop new models such as the Fiesta. The most important thing Ford has done is invest heavily in new product during this down cycle (Naughton, 2011, 66). The trade-off was a debt load that Mullally has said puts Ford at a competitive disadvantage with rivals GM and Chrysler, which slashed their debt in bankruptcy. Mullally's discipline showed when he made the historic decision to terminate the 71-year-old Mercury brand by year end. His logic: Mercury's market share was less than 1 percent, and Ford could better spend limited product development dollars on the Lincoln brand (Taylor, 2009, money.cnn.com). For Mullally, it's all about spending on product wisely. A person should consider some key points before implementing any decision. It is very important to clearly state the problem first. It will help you identify what you actually want. Listing down all the options will lead you to analyze all the alternatives and options available. There probably will be several other choices to make within these major options but it is important to keep all options clear. After listing all alternatives, it is vital to evaluate all the alternatives (Swanson, 2009, blogs.msdn.com). This will help you see the good and bad points of each of your options. Gathering information is also a very important step in implementing a decision (Ross, n.d, www.solonline.org). The best decision is an informed decision. Sometimes you will need to gather information on each of your options before you can make a choice. After a lot of soul-searching about the benefits and drawbacks of each of your options, you will need to choose the one that seems right to you. Now it's time to make your decision a reality. The best way to feel confident about your decision is to start your action plan. After you have made your decision and put your plan into action, give your decision an honest assessment. If you are truly happy with your decision, congratulate yourself. If you don't think you made the best choice, don't beat yourself up (Millard, 2006, www.edge.ai). Remember that you made the best decision that you could, with the information you had at the time. If it's possible to modify your decision without too much effect on you or others, go for it. Conclusion In conclusion, we can say that effective decision making that yield positive outcomes is an art. It is one of the qualities of a leader to successfully implement his decisions without getting any negative upshot. Effective decision making skills cannot be gained in one day. The more one practices, the more he improves his decision abilities. The CEO of Ford Motor Company Mullally has put his all efforts and his effective decisions engineered Ford's historic turnaround that transformed the company into the world's most profitable car company by 2011. In building a constructive decision environment, Mulally's openness seems to have won him support throughout the organization. The tale of how Mullally re-energized Ford is a typical expression of the Mullally method-analyzing a condition using factual information and then gaining assistance through determination. References Brown, G. (2009). Inside the Mind of Mulally. Fortune, Vol. 159 Issue 11, p52 Millard, R. (2006). Dealing With Blind Spots. Edge International Review.13-15. Retrieved on March 10th, 2012 from http://www.edge.ai/files/dealing_with_blind_spots.pdf Naughton, Keith. (2011). The Happiest Man in Detroit. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Issue 4215, p66-71 Paired Comparison Analysis: Working Out the Relative Importance of Different Options. (2009). Retrieved on March 10th, 2012 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_02.htm Ross, R. (n.d.) The ladder of inference. Society for Organizational Learning. Retrieved on March 12th, 2012 from http://www.solonline.org/pra/tool/ladder.html Swanson, M. (2009). My decision matrix. Retrieved on March 12th, 2012 from http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2008/07/20/my-decision-matrix.aspx Taylor, A. III. (2009). Fixing up Ford. Fortune Magazine. Retrieved on March 12th, 2012 from http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/11/news/companies/mulally_ford.fortune/index.htm Read More