Triggering the Strategic Decision‐Making Process Available to Purchase

In one case, after a detailed study of production processes, market forecasts and possible plant locations, top management of the industrial instruments division of a large US corporation approved a plan to produce a certain line of instruments. Why did these items (and not others) catch the attention of someone in the organisation and become the subject of a strategic decision‐making process? Why did this process start when it did (and not earlier or later)? In another case, a governmental committee did not approve a suggestion that working women receive a tax reduction as an incentive to increase female participation in the labour force. Why did the committee consider the suggestion at all? In a third case, at a luncheon meeting, an engineer suggested to the president of a manufacturing company that a plant be set up in a certain under developed country. The president rejected the idea out of hand, without bringing it up within his organisation. Why use a strategic decision‐making process never even initiated? An organisation's opportunities for making strategic decisions are practically unlimited. However, in only a few cases does the decision‐making process actually begin, and the number of strategic decisions eventually made by top management is even fewer. What triggers the decision‐making process? And how can top management achieve greater control over the triggering action?