We all need to be better entrepreneurial decision makers. Through this course, we can understand what’s different about the decision making of entrepreneurs versus typical managers. We also want to learn how to make more efficient and effective decisions with reasonable resource commitments and relative speed.

The environment of entrepreneurs is uniquely challenging. Entrepreneurs are, or at least should be, doing new things. They may not have all the resources and relationships of established companies. There are higher levels of uncertainty and complexity, and greater levels of consequences from failure. If you’re a large firm, and you spend a million dollars for an undesirable outcome, that’s probably recoverable. The consequences for entrepreneurs are more significant. As an entrepreneur, misspending several thousand dollars may result in the end of your company. Entrepreneurs are under more stress in making decisions.

Through effective decision making we can improve our clarity and focus. We can make better decisions, even with limited information. We can accept higher levels of risk that involve major consequences.

Many strategic decisions need to be made, and many considerations need to be taken into effect. Those decision-making elements are mental processes. They are cognitive processes as you look at opportunities, and think about skills and abilities, and how to navigate them. We will address:

• Studying the psychological traits of entrepreneurs, and discussing how you can enhance these within yourself;
• Examining the opportunity discovery aspects of how to recognize and develop new ideas;
• Exploring the cognitive aspects of decision making, and really think about the thinking that goes in entrepreneurship; and
• Developing the analytical skills to evaluate and select opportunities.

Entrepreneurs make significant decisions in dynamic and uncertain environments. There are tools and techniques to facilitate making these decisions. My goal is to help you anticipate, analyze, and make better decisions in your entrepreneurial pursuits.

In summary, strategic decision making is certainly something that we’re familiar with, whether we’ve called it that or not. We do it with frequency, professionally and personally. It’s something that we need to better understand. And it’s something that we can improve upon individually.

We also want to recognize that we can learn from others. We can learn from other entrepreneurs. We can learn from other successful companies and startups, and what they did for better and for worse, in the creation and growth of their ventures. We recognize that studying decision making is helpful to being better entrepreneurial decision makers and better entrepreneurs.