Reference no: EM1347082

Q1) This module is about "business intelligence" and tools which facilitate assembly of information/knowledge in ways which enable "better" business decisions to be made. Leaving aside for the moment the ambiguity inherent in the term "better" (better for whom? better in the short run or the long run? how much better? etc. etc. etc.), let's think a little about the decision process itself and how information gets used (or not used) in it.

Let me start by asking what does "using information to make a decision" really mean to you? First, how do you determine that you need to "make a decision" in the first place? Then, how do you determine that information would help you make it? (Obviously, not all decisions require information in any meaningful sense - for example, whether to have Wheaties or Cheerios for breakfast.) How do you determine what information might help? Is this determination likely to be affected by whether or not you have the information in your hand or whether you'd have to go looking for it? How do you determine that you have enough information? And how does having the information in front of you really affect your choice process?

Finally, how do you weight the information you're using - that is, determine what's good or not good, trusted or slanted, helpful or not helpful, too little, too much, or just right, etc. etc. etc.?