Publications
Publications
- March 1991 (Revised January 1993)
- HBS Case Collection
Why Do Good Managers Choose Poor Strategies?
Abstract
The uncertainty and complexity of most business environments make successful management a difficult art. Frequently, bright, experienced, well-educated people manage their companies into strategic distress. Many of these bad results are not simply a matter of bad luck. This note discusses problems caused by cognitive biases and heuristics (ways of thinking about problems) that managers commonly use when analyzing strategy under uncertainty. Shows where these problems are likely to arise in strategy analysis and discusses five practices that help to mitigate the biases.
Keywords
Citation
Teisberg, Elizabeth O. "Why Do Good Managers Choose Poor Strategies?" Harvard Business School Background Note 391-172, March 1991. (Revised January 1993.)