Abstract
Since this work refers to strategy, and considering a loose definition of the term, its intention is to establish a plan to reach an objective, that is to make the best possible selection of projects, alternatives, and programs. In this chapter, this plan follows a logical sequence of steps, with comments just to give the reader a clue or indication of the importance of each one. The whole idea is that, going through the chapter, a decision maker team may be aware of what they need before doing anything. In other words it attempts to give a scheme of the decision making process This general outline will, on the other hand, allow all members of the team to learn what is the responsibility of each one.
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Notes
- 1.
From now on the expression ‘decision maker’ (DM) will be used to identify either a person or a group of persons who are in a position to render an educated opinion or judgment.
- 2.
Refers to the Large Hadron Collider built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) on the border between Switzerland and France for high-energy experiments.
- 3.
From now on the expression ‘projects’, ‘alternatives’, ‘programs’, ‘developments’, ‘plans’ are used with the same meaning, that is undertakings of different kind, size and purposes, to be built, implemented, organized, for a purpose, objective, goal or target.
- 4.
Linear Programming: Very well-known mathematical procedure for solving linear problems subject to restrictions in a large variety of situations and also complex decision-making scenarios. Its most valuable and widely used application is due to the American mathematician George Dantzig, who in 1948 developed an efficient algorithm called ‘Simplex’, used nowadays worldwide in hundreds of applications. This technique is considered by many as the most powerful mathematical tool invented in the twentieth century.
- 5.
Las Provincias, Valencia, Spain, June 06, 2008.
- 6.
Construction of the Vajont Dam in Northern Italy, the biggest in Europe, was finished in 1963. When filling the reservoir, a lack of stability in the mountains enclosing the lake that had formed behind the dam materialized with the fall of a large quantity of boulders into the reservoir. The water wave produced by this plunge killed thousands of people upwards and downwards of the dam.
- 7.
The Bhopal disaster in India in 1984 was a consequence of unforeseen circumstances that probably nobody had anticipated. In this case the combination of several factors such as the accidental contact of water with methylisocyanate caused a chemical reaction which, combined with other chemicals, generated gases that could not be contained and escaped to the surrounding area, a working-class neighborhood. It is assumed that more than 3,000 people died and perhaps another 500,000 suffered severe injuries.
- 8.
A multinational firm intended to mine a gold-bearing local mineral by using dangerous chemical compounds to obtain the precious metal. There was the danger of groundwater contamination due to the tailings that would result from the mining process. The project was halted because of protests by the people in the nearby city of Esquel.
- 9.
This is not strange since not all alternatives, even pertaining to the same project, necessarily must comply with all criteria. For instance, imagine a textile project manufacturing wool and cotton yarn. It is evident that a criterion that specifies the percentage of cotton in a yarn has no application in the wool yarn.
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Munier, N. (2011). Strategic Plan for Decision Making: Its Constituent Elements. In: A Strategy for Using Multicriteria Analysis in Decision-Making. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1512-7_1
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