Problem Solving and

Decision-making skills for

successful management
Dr. Natalia Cherepanova
Winter School
TSU 2024
About me

•Dr. Cherepanova Natalia

•Associate Professor
•Department of Organizational Behavior and HRM
•Tomsk State University
•Training programs: USA. Germany, China, Great Britain
•I teach courses Global trends in management, CSR, HRM and
OB

Email cherepanova_natalia@tpu.ru
 We all have different
background… However…

• We all may have understanding, what

does it mean: to manage an
organization!

• Using the chat please let us know what

do you think about the activity!
 LET’S PLAY GUESSWORK

Calculation of his salary

= Number per day Per item

This is Mike.
He is a carpenter.
He makes desks
 1 . W H AT D O E S M A N A G E R D O ?

What can we
actually, put here to
find out what he gets
his salary for?

This is Mike’s boss

His name is Bill.
Decision making word cloud
 Goals
1

2
What are the goals of any
business (for-profit) 3
organization?
4

Question to 6
think…. 7
 Martin Shkreli case

• Shkreli was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals — later Vyera — when

it raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after
obtaining exclusive rights to the decades-old drug in 2015. The
life-saving drug treats a rare parasitic disease that strikes pregnant
women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.
• He said: “I have the right to do that. It was an opportunity. There
is nothing wrong with it.”
• 1. What do you think about this “using the opportunity”
decision? Was Martin right having made a decision like this?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/shkreli-ordered-to-return-64m-is-barred-from-drug-industry/2022/01/14/97692a5c-756f-11ec-
a26d-1c21c16b1c93_story.html
 • Martin Shkreli, the former drug firm executive
who ordered dramatic price hikes of a life-
Martin Shkreli saving medicine, has been barred from the
industry for life.
case (end)
• In a decision on Friday, 14/01/2022 Judge
Denise Cote ordered him to repay $64.6m
(£47m) in profits he made from the scheme.

• She ruled that Mr Shkreli's actions had violated

laws against monopolies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60001147
Managers make
decisions about
everything in the
company
Always
successful ?
 Question to think about!
• 1 Think of the company’s decision that could be
considered an example of “great decision”.

Or

• 2. Think about the company’s decision that could

be considered an example of “bad decision”.
 DECISION MAKING MODEL
There are many different decision-making/problem-solving models that you can use. The five-step model shown
below has proven effective. When using this model, each step may be completed quickly, but every step must be
considered. It is not necessary to document each step, but it is important to think through every step.

Step 1: Identify the problem

Step 2: Explore alternatives

Step 3: Select an alternative

Step 4: Implement the solution

Step 5: Evaluate the situation

OR

Later, we will take a closer look at each of the five

steps and how you can apply them to business.
 QUESTION

Are you happy with the strategic

decisions in your life?
COLLECTIVE
DECISION
MAKING
 REACTIVE DECISION-
MAKING SPACE GARBAGE
• is a term for human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—
which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft
—nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages—
mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth orbit,
fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and
spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-built objects left in orbit, other
examples of space debris include fragments from their disintegration,
erosion and collisions, or even paint flecks, solidified liquids expelled
from spacecraft, and unburned particles from solid rocket motors. Space
debris represents a risk to spacecraft.
• Space debris is a negative externality—it creates an external cost on
others from the initial action to launch or use a spacecraft in near-Earth
orbit—a cost that is typically not considered nor fully accounted for in the
cost.
 QUESTION
• There is a vision that intuitive decision-making is actually =
experience + intensive work of mind + consideration of all possible
outcomes
The decision-making is going through the usual algorithm, but it happens
so fast that people think it the revelation was the reason.
What do you think about it?
 RISK IN
DECISION
MAKING

Give examples of decisions in various conditions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9uhtDBo1Hg
M A K ING R ISK Y DECISIONS
It’s nothing short of a miracle that the Europa Hotel in Belfast is still standing. Between 1970 and 1994, it was damaged by
explosions 33 times, gaining it the dubious title of “the most bombed hotel in the world”.
On one occasion, the Provisionals simply walked into the lobby and left a bomb in a box at reception with the letters ‘IRA’ scrawled
on it.
For devoted customers and long-serving staff, the Europa will never be just another blandly generic hotel. It’s a place alive with
history, a testament to the hope and resilience of Belfast and its citizens.
When the Europa first opened its doors, in the summer of 1971, against a backdrop of rising political violence, it did so with a
flourish. By this time, it had already experienced its first bomb attack.
The city was under siege; it was turning into a war zone. Instead of the affluent tourists and travelers that the Europa was designed to
accommodate, it became a home-from-home for journalists who had been sent to cover the trouble in Belfast.
Former BBC journalist John Sergeant called it “a big modern hotel with no normal clients”. The late Simon Hoggard, of the
Guardian, described it as “a headquarters, a training school, a private club and only marginally a hotel … Everyone came to the
Europa – the press mainly, but everyone else came because of the press. If you were a politician, or a soldier, or even a paramilitary,
you knew that was where to put the word out. It was the information exchange.”
The Europa was a target for the IRA because of its high visibility as a landmark building, symbolizing investment in the city. And the
fact that the press corps were based there, guaranteed maximum publicity for any attack. “The windows were blown out on a weekly
basis,” remembers McAnerney. “Hardboard Hotel, that’s what they called it. There was a standing order with a warehouse that had
every pane of glass duplicated or triplicated, so they could be immediately replaced. But then the windows got blown out that many
times, the steel frames got warped, so they had to cover them up with hardboard instead. You got phone calls almost every day,
telling you to search your area [for suspect devices], in my case the bar. You got used to it, unfortunately. Thank God nobody was
seriously injured.”
Each time, the staff swept up the debris and carried on. The formidable Harper Brown was determined that the hotel would not
close its doors. During the general strike organized by the Ulster Workers Council in 1974, in protest against the Sunningdale power-
sharing agreement, the electricity supply was cut and the city was plunged into darkness.
But the Europa kept going. The Poppets served drinks by candlelight, while the enterprising chef lit a fire in the yard behind the
hotel and made soup over it. Bedclothes and linens were taken out of the hotel and brought to the nuns at Nazareth Lodge, on the
Ormeau Road, to be washed in their laundry which had its own generator. Even in these trying circumstances, Harper Brown insisted
on his workers being impeccably turned out. Bar staff were expected to be equipped with a wine opener, a watch and a cigarette
lighter. If a customer produced a cigarette, the bar man should be instantly at his side, offering him a light.
What about this decision?

• Starting from the early 1970s, Heinz supplied

most of McDonald's ketchup. Not only
Ketchup but other sauces!
• It seemed they were best friend forever…..Or
were they?
In 2013 MacDonald’s announced
the news: they are breaking their
long-term relationship with Heinz

•They started serving no-name sauces all over the

world.
•What happened? Why did their friendship fall apart?
• McDonald's ended its 40-year relationship
with ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, since that
company was led by Bernardo Hees, the
former chief executive and currently still a
board member of hamburger rival Burger
King.

• “As a result of recent management changes

at Heinz, we have decided to transition our
business to other suppliers over time,”
McDonald’s said in a statement.
What happened?

• Heinz decided to hire a new CEO knowing

that it would have end their relation ships
with MacDonald’s.
• Why did they make this decision?
• Do you think it was a smart decision?
Why did the Heinz
make this decision

• McDonald's was a small part of Heinz's

business
• Ketchup isn't even most of Heinz's
business.
• Heinz saw Bernardo Heez as a new
opportunity for the company
Interesting decisions
• Administrative trade policies are
bureaucratic rules designed to make it
difficult for imports to enter a country.

• It has been argued that the Japanese are

the masters of this trade barrier.

• For example, at one point the

Netherlands exported tulip bulbs to
almost every country in the world except
Japan.
• In Japan, customs inspectors insisted on
checking every tulip bulb by cutting it
vertically down the middle, and even
Japanese ingenuity could not put them
back together.
HOME TASK
JUICERO GREAT STARTUP …OR
IS IT?

Juicero was a company that made a

device that was marketed as a fruit
and vegetable juicer but was revealed
to extract juice from pre-processed
packets.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i0UugILBJg

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1oHp-VvhDE

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-20/juicero-offers-all-customers-a-refund-
amid-critical-coverage