Making decisions in the absence of clear facts

Bennis and O’Toole [Bennis, W.G., O’Toole, J., 2005. How business schools lost their way. Harvard Business Review 83, 96–104] have recently argued that decision makers need guidance in ‘making decisions in the absence of clear facts’. As such, decision makers must be able to resourcefully use whatever limited information is available and advantageously portray its implications. Based on recently published theory which directly addresses this requirement, this paper demonstrates, through a practical example, how decision makers can make systemic decisions in situations characterized by extremely limited information and, furthermore, what form such decisions can take. Evidence is provided, therefore, that operational research can effectively address what appears to be a gap in management training.