Learning to decide. (Review).

* Management: Strategy and Decision Making, online, 2002, SmartForce (888-395-0014, www.smartforce.com), $14-$25 per student per year for typical enterprise license.

Today everyone in an organization needs to have some understanding of strategy. Decision making shows a similar trend. In command-and-control organizations, the people at the top called the shots. The competitive situation now changes so quickly in a high-speed global economy that companies depend on all their employees to make good decisions.

Strategy and Decision-Making is segmented into four modules: Business-Level Strategy, Corporate-Level Strategy, The Nature of Decision Making, and Decision-Making Models. Business-Level Strategy covers Michael Porter's differentiation, overall cost leadership, and focus strategies as well as the Miles and Snow typology of prospector, defender, analyzer, and reactor strategies. You also learn about the product life cycle. (Since the program covers Porter's concepts of strategy, I think it would be a good idea for the user to learn about Porter's five competitive forces as well.)

Corporate-Level Strategy teaches the General Electric Business Screen and Boston Consulting Group Matrix. It talks about the advantages and disadvantages of related and unrelated diversification, strategic business units versus a single product business, and options for implementing strategies.

The Nature of Decision Making covers a model process including recognition of a need, definition of the situation, and identification, assessment, and selection of alternatives. It distinguishes between programmed and nonprogrammed decisions and the conditions of decision making including certainty, uncertainty, and risk.

Decision-Making Models includes the classical and administrative models that touch upon the rational and behavioral aspects of decisions. The module shows the advantages and disadvantages of decision making groups including the interactive, Delphi, and nominal.

During the program and at the end, you are asked multiple-choice questions to test your knowledge. I had some difficulty entering the course using the Internet Explorer browser. After I switched to Netscape, I had no further problems.

Strategy and Decision Making offers a wealth of information. It uses real world examples to illustrate concepts and presents them in relation to the overall functions of a company. Once a company chooses a strategy, marketing, finance, operations, and other functions have to be aligned to execute the strategy.

The course does not go into enough depth about execution, however. More details are needed to understand fully the implications of executing a strategy, for example, the need to hire the people who fit a strategy or to introduce appropriate financial controls or to target the right markets with marketing campaigns.

But I had a more fundamental problem with the course. I felt that I could have learned the same material just as well by reading a textbook. The repetitive presentation and limited interactivity wore me down, and I had to work up the energy to continue.

Recommendation

This course disappointed me. I had a hard time staying engaged because of the textbook format. However, I have studied strategy extensively and been involved with strategy planning in my career. It is possible that if I had more limited knowledge and experience, the course would be more interesting for me. The course content is extensive, the real world examples helpful, and the inclusion of strategy execution wise. Still, this course is only one step removed from print.

Strategy and Decision Making product rating

Holds user interest  *
Production quality   **
Ease of navigation   **
Interactivity        *
Value of content     **
Instructional value  * 1/2
Value for the money  * 1/2
Overall rating       * 1/2

**** Outstanding

*** 1/2 Very good

*** Good

** 1/2 Above average

** Average

* 1/2 Below Average

* Poor

NA Not applicable

NR Not rated (Usually not enough information)

Tim Anderson ([e-mail]) is vice president of business development for Training Media Review. He has an extensive background in Internet strategy and execution, having worked at Amazon.com, Junglee (acquired by Amazon), Vicinity, and the Dialog Corporation.