Businesses and certain "experienced business people" like to pretend that rationality is the only way to make "real" business decisions.
Here are some irrational decisions I see many businesses make:
- Penny-wise and pound foolish. Buying under-powered equipment, not having maintenance and backup plans, reacting to repeated and avoidable emergencies. Because thinking and planning is too hard.
- The boss gets the fastest/best/most powerful computer to surf the web with, while the workers struggle with deprecated hardware. Who is actually making the money?
- Demanding insane work hours, fostering unhealthy oneupmanship between staff, and generally disrespecting people. It is easier to continue to pay for the lost productivity and loyalty.
- Spending huge effort and resources to try and appeal to everyone, and thus attracting no one. Checklist marketing – we have done it therefore we have marketed. But we don’t actually know who we are talking to, what they are thinking, or even if they are listening.
- Using marketing to solve all problems. If we say it is not happening, it is not happening. If we tell people what to think about us, they will do so. No one will notice we don’t keep our promises.
- Maintaining a culture that attracts and encourages workplace psychopaths and bullies, while paying through the nose for staff turnovers, harassment suits, and crap productivity.
I am sure you can think of loads more examples of such irrational decisions. When will this denial stop?
