FAU Wk 3 Leadership Abilities and Decision Making for Business Success Responses

1- Hi,

A very good industry example. Can we determine the validity of consumer reviews when researching a purchase?

Thank you,

* this question is in reference to the attached paper*

2-While making a purchase, a consumer goes through the five stages of the consumer decision-making process. It includes the initial stages of need recognition where a customer identifies his/her need, followed by the research process where the consumers find the varied amount of products available. The third stage accounts for the evaluation of the available alternative options and finally then making a purchase. The fifth-stage then analyzes the entire purchasing decision, realizing that it is worth it to recommend to the closed circle of family and friends or not (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

Recently, marketers have utilized the internet as the most powerful tool to engage and interact and influence customers while going through the consumer decision-making process. Digital marketers are using the internet in numerous ways, and it has practically impacted sales by increasing the search volumes and the more average value of the products sold. By using internet technology, companies make desktop and mobile-friendly websites that help users review many products with just one click. The companies track and monitor all the conversions happening on the site by using Google Analytics. Other than traditional advertising, companies now prefer using the internet technology to advertise on commonly used sites such as Facebook with more than 2.8 billion users worldwide, thus increasing the chances of finding existing and potential customers. Google adverts are also being used for advertising on search engines, YouTube, and Google affiliated sites. Companies have also listed their business on GPS maps with proper addresses and phone numbers to easily access their location through internet technology (Horrigan, 2008).

A company that has surpassed by using the technology is Amazon. The company has a total net worth of more than $1.7 trillion. The company has used the technology to launch an e-commerce platform that has net sales in billions. It has successfully utilized this technology to use cross-selling and up-selling for marketing their products. Internet users can access the store to see a variety of products with alternative adds on extensions. It can also see a wide range of products with low to the premium quality as well. All this has been possible because of the internet that makes things accessible by just one click away (Ponciano, 2020).

Reference

Horrigan, J. B. (2008, May 18). The Internet and Consumer Choice. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2008/05/18/th…

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2015). Marketing Management: Knowledge and Skills 15th edition. Pearson Education.

Ponciano, J. (2020, August 26). Jeff Bezos Becomes The First Person Ever Worth $200 Billion. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020…

*1 and 2 are for marketing management*

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3- During my time in the military, I have come across many situations where thinking traps affected the decision making of leaders. In this particular situation, a new supervisor had just come into our unit and she was overlooking 28 individuals in a section of the unit. She seemed to be on top of her game as she had been promoted after only 3 months in the unit. However, she had some personal issues that affected her leadership abilities and decision making. She was a single mother and just recently divorced her ex husband before coming to the unit. However, she was engaging in inappropriate relationships with her Col workers. This was the start of the thinking trap for her because she was so deep in fraternizing with others that her that her decisions were solely based off of favoritism. It all caught up to her when one of the Airmen later found out that she was having inappropriate relationships with another airmen and got jealous. The airmen later filed a report and the Supervisor was demoted and sent to another section. So, as humans, emotions are set in and can cause us to think without clarity. Therefore, emotions were set in and obscured her decision making skills.

4-Thinking traps or psychological traps are known to create mental blocks that hinder any and all further decision-making abilities. These can set our minds in a constant state of focus on the pessimistic aspect of situations while placing emphasis on every fault, error and all negative attributes in association. One well-known individual in history that came to sink into these so-called traps was the famed American entrepreneur known as Walter Elias Disney. It is in every way hard to believe that such a widely-known successful man as Walt Disney did, in fact, struggle at one point in time. According to Caplan, L. (2017), it was even mentioned that he had a brief employment period at the Kansas City Star newspaper article post, but was later terminated soon after by his editor. Ironically, the reason for this shocking dismissal was due to the fact that he apparently lacked all sorts of imagination and was incapable of producing any good ideas—according to his editor. Due to this unpleasant scenario, the mental filter thinking trap is applied into Walter’s life all because of a singular close-minded individual who happened to be nothing more than his work associate. Of course, this does not state that he lacks artistic talent—if anything—it only shows that the work young Walt produced was an acquired taste and not everyone has the same sense of artistic taste. However, even though this did contribute to Walt’s unexpected dismissal, it did not define his imaginative capabilities.

It is mentioned by Campbell, Whitehead and Finkelstein that smart minds can sometimes make poor decisions. But why is that? The answer is actually quite clear. It appears that many judgements are known to become clouded in ways where important information may become blocked and can, therefore, lead individuals down the wrong path. According to The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership (2009), even though nature may state that all individuals have personal biases, there is still the aspect of reaching a conclusion. This can—in many scenarios—act as the heart of the problem. The reason for this is falling into the inoperative idea of jumping to conclusions without properly analyzing all necessary aspects. Not only is this mechanism faulty, but it is known to act as an obstacle to all those who wish to think critically and develop problem solving skills.

These processes relate to traps in the sense that they may tend to overcomplicate situations and scenarios by creating a series of imaginary obstacles in ways where individuals risk straying away from the general picture—almost as if they were given an incentive to do so. Jumping to conclusions, as stated before, is a suitable illustration for the concept of what a “trap” may be. Not only is jumping to conclusions known as rather rash and impulsive in nature, but individuals that take part in these particular activities could be the responsible source of their own unhealthy levels of stress. Jumping to conclusions only signifies the lack of knowledge required in order to obtain the end result. With this said, it is nothing more than an empty assumption without backup information for reference.

In previous readings, it is mentioned that individuals should not box themselves with only limited alternatives. This basically states that being broad-minded is a virtue and should be acknowledged as such in order to progress in ways that can add positive contributions to problems and push away unwanted obstacles that may block our ability to see beyond (Hammond et al., 1999, pp. 47–48). Having an ultimately clear mind is, with no doubt, one of the key tools in thinking rationally and viewing alternatives. If one is blindfolded from all possibilities and made self-convinced that there is no other option, they will stumble and fall into a trap created by their own hands.

References

? Caplan, L. (2017, December 28). Being successful and feeling good about yourself. Maryland State Bar Association – MSBA. https://www.msba.org/being-successful-and-feeling-good-about-yourself/

Hammond, J. S., Keeney, R. L., & Raiffa, H. (1999). Smart choices: a practical guide to making better decisions (pp. 47–48). Harvard Business Review Press.

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? The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership. (2009, September 16). Good leaders making bad decisions? – The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership. The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership. https://jacl.andrews.edu/good-leaders-making-bad-d…

* 3 and 4 are pertaining for advanced decision making*