Desirability, Feasibility, and Sustainability as the New Strategic Decision Imperative

Abstract

Strategic decision-makingis critical to the performance of any organization. Winston Churchill described decision making in the following way, "A (person) must answer "aye" or "no" to the great questions which are put, and by that decision (s/he) must be bound." While organizational decisions aredifferent from the stakes Churchill faced as prime minister in a war, they are important to all organizational stakeholders. Increased competition, complex stakeholder relationships, and rising costs amidst budget challenges are just of few of the conditions that can complicate the process.This paper develops a framework for understanding the values involved in strategic decision making. Desirability Overzealousness could possibly have beento blame. Definetly, behavioral trends were misdiagnosed and misunderstood. While Apple has been incredibly successful understanding and shaping consumer preferences compared to the firm's peers (particularly during the last decade of Steve Jobs' leadership), the biggest failurein Apple's historyis almost entirely explained by misunderstandingand misdiagnosing desirability. When it was released in the mid-1990's Apple leadership expected the Newton, for which the phrase personal digital assistant was coined, to make handheld computing commonplace. By 1998 the Newton was completely removed from Apple's product line. Consumers could not see why they might need an expensive gadget that did not do the same job as well as the paper notepad. It was much too far ahead of the consumer adoption curve. Only the very earliest adopters were interested. Fast forward to the development of the iPhone and the iPad. While the iPad was developed first, it was the iPhone that leadership chose to lead with in 2007. Understanding behavioral trends at the time helps to describe why. Personal cell phones were already common when the first iPhone was introduced. What was uncommon was the sleek touchscreen interface and seamless vertical integration Apple popularized. Apple capitalized on the existing behavioral trend of cell phone adoption while radically reimaging the quality of that experience. The firm had found the ideal balance for introducing valuable innovation into a ready adoption curve. The market responded by making Apple the world's most valuable company. A similar effect takes place in other organizations across the industry spectrum. Leaders run the risk of diluting resources, unnecessarily increasing complexity, and disconnecting from reality when they support programs that are not grounded inrelevant behavioral trends. This can look like passively permitting outdated models or services to persist despite indications of their waning popularity. It can also take the form of embracinginitiativesthat don'thave clearly articulated launch customers and discernably interesting adoption size or impact potential.