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Innovation, Innovation, Strategy, Interview

25 October 2018

Interview

Fattal Group: optimizing the decision-making process step-by-step

When Michel Fattal asked himself what the top common denominator was among the business leaders he knows, the answer was their day-to-day decision making with its wide-ranging biases (cognitive, emotional, etc.). It’s a subject Michel is passionate about, and he is always on the look-out for ways to optimize decision-making processes and, ultimately, the quality of the outcomes.

“We spend too much time evaluating the results of a decision even though it’s hard to understand from every angle,” Michel says, jumping right into it. “It’s much easier to improve and master the process upstream!”

Understanding the biases involved in decision-making

Michel Fattal went through the humbling experience of Harvard University as part of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). The lessons Michel has taken on board in terms of decision-making have been based, inter alia, on the Harvard case method. On the other hand, he realized that though the approach was valuable for reflecting on complex decision-making and for providing a methodological framework, it was difficult to apply the case studies to specific situations in an ever-changing world.

In addition, he noted that: “Decision-making is often tainted by the irrational nature of the people involved, which is hard to manage.” Fattal linked these two elements (case histories and biases) and developed his own methodology based on hypothesis testing and the inversion model. He subsequently probed more deeply, devising a training course for YPO members – in partnership with Olivier Sibony and HEC Paris – that is due to be delivered on the HEC Paris campus in 2019.

Using evidence-based examples when making decisions

“It’s been two or three years since I introduced hypothesis testing in the Fattal Group, using a very didactic approach and asking the relevant staff the relevant questions about the business,” says Michel. For example, there was the case of the multinational that no longer worked with the Fattal Group, raising the issue of whether Fattal should try to renew their relationship again or not. To the question “Should we go with them?”, the spontaneous answer from the company’s executives – “Of course!” – was emotional, with a very real desire to do so. “We took our thinking a stage further, testing the original hypothesis. We analyzed the market categories and projected revenues with realistic growth potential”, explains Michel. The financial model indicated that the collaboration did not make sense for the Fattal Group on the existing terms.

Excerpt from Business Digest N°290, Octobre 2018

Tagged with: problem solving, decision-making, complexity, bias, HEC, testing, process, Fattal Group

Published by Caroline Schuurman