Business Reality
Hire or outsource? Cut the price or add value? Choose, and defend it.
A decision lab strips away the analysis paralysis: two options, real constraints, a time limit, and somebody in the room who has actually made this call and can say what it cost them.
Analysis is comfortable. Choosing is not.
Students are trained to analyse, which rewards thoroughness and postpones commitment. Managers are paid to decide, which rewards judgement under a deadline and living with the consequence.
The lab format forces the second. Every question is binary, every group has a time limit, and every recommendation gets challenged by somebody who has faced the same choice with their own money.
The decisions
40 topics across 8 areas. Eight binary calls, each with a real constraint attached.
Hire or Outsource?The first structural decision most businesses face.5
- What work is it, and is it permanent?
- What does each option cost fully?
- What capability do you keep in-house?
- What happens if the outsourced partner fails?
- How reversible is each?
Reduce the Price or Improve the Value?Two ways to answer the same competitive pressure.5
- What does the customer actually compare?
- What does a cut do to margin?
- Can you raise the price back?
- What would improving value cost and take?
- Which is reversible?
Expand or Consolidate?Grow the footprint, or make the existing one work.5
- Is the current operation actually working?
- What breaks if you double?
- What does a new location cost before it earns?
- What is the opportunity cost of not moving?
- What would you need to see first?
Borrow or Use Internal Funds?Somebody's money, either way.5
- What does the borrowing cost, in total?
- What does using reserves cost you in flexibility?
- What is the cash position if it goes badly?
- How predictable is the return?
- What would the bank ask?
Automate or Stay Manual?A decision students almost always get wrong in one direction.5
- Is the process stable enough to automate?
- What does implementation actually cost, including time?
- What breaks when volume changes?
- What happens to the people doing it now?
- What is the payback period?
Keep or Exit a Difficult Customer?Revenue is not always worth what it costs.5
- What are they worth, net of the trouble?
- What do they cost in team time and morale?
- What is the concentration risk if they leave?
- Can the relationship be renegotiated?
- What do you say if you exit?
Build a Sales Team or Use Partners?Control against reach.5
- What does a salesperson cost before they produce?
- What margin do partners take?
- Who owns the customer relationship?
- How fast does each get you there?
- What is hard to unwind?
Growth or Profitability?The decision underneath most of the others.5
- What does the business need to survive?
- What does growth cost in cash?
- Who is funding it, and what do they expect?
- What happens if growth stalls mid-investment?
- Which mistake is recoverable?
How the lab runs
- A decision, with real numbers and a real constraint
- Fifteen minutes in groups
- A recommendation, stated in one sentence
- The trade-off named out loud
- A challenge from somebody who made this call
- What they actually did, and what it cost
What gets assessed
- Did you name the trade-off, or hide it?
- Did you decide, or hedge?
- What would change your mind?
- Who is disadvantaged by your choice?
- Is it reversible, and did you account for that?
How the session runs
Each round is one binary decision with real numbers attached. Groups get fifteen minutes, then state a recommendation in a single sentence and name what it costs. A practitioner who has made the same call challenges it, then says what they chose and how it went. Several rounds, increasing in difficulty.
What your students leave with
- Practice committing to a decision under time pressure
- The habit of naming what a choice costs
- The reversible-or-not test applied to real options
- Exposure to how practitioners weigh the same calls
- The ability to defend a position to somebody who disagrees
- A clearer sense of their own decision-making instincts
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Analysis is comfortable. Choosing is the job.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.