Week 5

This week one particular subject that caught my attention were decision support systems. In my personal life I find it hard to make decisions, especially those that have a long lasting affect on my life. Some decisions I have known to be right, and having that knowledge has made such decisions obvious and easy to choose such as the decision to go on a mission. Many other decisions that I am faced with are much more difficult and require research, prayer, time, and weighing of options. I have found that the more information I have, the easier it is to make a good decision.

In the business world the same is very much true. In my marketing class we learned about how valuable gathering data for decision making is. It can be very beneficial if done correctly, helping a business know where to focus and how to be more efficient. One example was given was about a casino called Harrah's. While original thoughts lead managers to believe that "high rollers", or those who spent a lot of money when they came in and gambled, were the main source of revenue, studies done and analysed by decision support systems helped the company to recognize that regular average business men and women accounted for 82 percent of its revenue. This group accounted for only 26 percent of they're customer base (Levy, Grewal).

With the help of this information, the casino began implementing plans to benefit these regular customers to insure their business was made easy and convenient, allowing them to bypass lines, and come and go with ease.

In conclusion as a company or even in one's personal life learns to use such systems it can help decision making to be effective and simple.


Levy, Grewal. (2009) Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin Publishing. Pages 145-146.