To create a constructive environment for successful decision making, make sure you do the following:
· Establish the objective - Define what you want to achieve.
· Agree on the process - Know how the final decision will be made, including whether it will be an individual or a team-based decision.
· Involve the right people - Stakeholder Analysis.
· Allow opinions to be heard - Encourage participants to contribute to the discussions, debates, and analysis without any fear of rejection from the group.
· Make sure you're asking the right question.
· Use creativity tools from the start.
Step 2: Generate Good Alternatives.
This step is still critical to making an effective decision. The more good options you consider the more comprehensive your final decision will be.
Here's a summary of some of the key tools and techniques to help you and your team develop good alternatives.
· Generating Ideas.
· Considering Different Perspectives.
· Organizing Ideas. This is especially helpful when you have a large number of ideas. Sometimes separate ideas can be combined into one comprehensive alternative.
Step 3: Explore the Alternatives.
When you're satisfied that you have a good selection of realistic alternatives, then you'll need to evaluate the feasibility, risks, and implications of each choice. Here, we discuss some of the most popular and effective analytical tools.
· Risk. In decision making, there's usually some degree of uncertainty, which inevitably leads to risk. By evaluating the risk involved with various options, you can determine whether the risk is manageable.
· Implications. Another way to look at your options is by considering the potential consequences of each.
· Validation. Determine if resources are adequate, if the solution matches your objectives, and if the decision is likely to work in the long term.
Step 4: Choose the Best Alternative.
After you have evaluated the alternatives, the next step is to choose between them. The choice may be obvious. However, if it isn’t, evaluating the alternatives can be done in numerous ways. Here are a few possibilities:
· Determine the pros and cons of each alternative.
· Perform a cost-benefit analysis for each alternative.
Step 5: Check Your Decision.
With all of the effort and hard work that goes into evaluating alternatives, and deciding the best way forward, it's easy to forget to 'sense check' your decisions. This is where you look at the decision you're about to make dispassionately, to make sure that your process has been thorough, and to ensure that common errors haven't crept into the decision-making process.
Step 6: Communicate Your Decision, and Move to Action!
Once you've made your decision, it's important to explain it to those affected by it, and involved in implementing it. Talk about why you chose the alternative you did. The more information you provide about risks and projected benefits, the more likely people are to support the decision.
Coordinator Tatyana Andreeva: Thank you, Altynai! How interesting! Now, as I can see, Financial Management is consists of financial planing, financial control and financial decision-making.
Coordinator Ilsiya Muhametshina: Yes, and I’d like to stress the fact, that this information is very important to us. And there is something else. Last, but not least, comes financial audit.
Coordinator Tatyana Andreeva: As I know, financial audit, or more accurately, an audit of financial statements, is the verification of the financial statements of a legal entity, with a view to express an audit opinion. The audit opinion is intended to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are presented fairly, in all material respects, and give a true and fair view in accordance with the financial reporting framework. The purpose of an audit is to enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial statements. But K. Kozlova, can more specific inform about it.
Kristina Kozlova: Let me give you general idea of Financial audit. A financial audit, or more accurately, an audit of financial statements, is the verification of the financial statements of a legal entity, with a view to express an audit opinion. The audit opinion is intended to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are presented fairly, in all material respects, and give a true and fair view in accordance with the financial reporting framework. The purpose of an audit is to enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial statements.
Financial audits are typically performed by firms of practising accountants who are experts in financial reporting. The financial audit is one of many assurance functions provided by accounting firms.
Thus, the main activities of the audit are to check the company's solvency, the analysis of capital and the overall activities of the company.
