The McKinsey Quarterly

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How we do it: Three executives reflect on strategic decision making

Sir Martin Sorrell, Randy Komisar, and Anne Mulcahy describe how they balance the importance of timely action with the need for thorough, unbiased decision processes.

Over the course of their careers, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP; Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; and Anne Mulcahy, Xerox’s chairman and former CEO, have made strategic decisions of all shapes and sizes. Their experiences, which the executives share in these three commentaries, highlight a critical challenge: striking the right balance between thorough, unbiased decision-making processes, on the one hand, and timely action, on the other. While there’s no silver bullet, taking concrete steps to cultivate internal critics, safeguard diversity of thought, clarify assumptions underlying different points of view, and force tough choices between business priorities can help.

Read the commentaries from each executive

Learn from mistakes and listen to feedback
—WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell

Balance out biases
—Kleiner Perkins’ Randy Komisar

Timeliness trumps perfection
—Xerox’s Anne Mulcahy

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Special package: Seeing through biases instrategic decisions
This article is part of a McKinsey Quarterly package on improving strategic decision making. Read others from the collection:

The case for behavioral strategy
Learn how to counter the subconscious biases that undermine strategic decision making.

Strategic decisions: When can you trust your gut?
Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and psychologist Gary Klein debate the power and perils of intuition.

How to test your decision-making instincts
Executives should trust their gut instincts—but only when four tests are met.

Taking the bias out of meetings
Managing bias effectively can help lessen the impact it has on your company’s strategy.
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