Choices, choices

A number of years ago in Madrid I had a conversation with a man who compared the lack of choices on European restaurant menus to a form of mind control. In the US, he suggested, where restaurant menus are more expansive, minds expand accordingly and people question other things.

It’s an interesting idea, though perhaps chicken and egg. But apart from mind control or mind expansion as a byproduct of menu size, do people actually make better ordering decisions when they have larger menus?

Research shows that on day-to-day issues an abundance of choices leads to lower purchase levels and even to less satisfaction with the selections made. So does that mean that “mind expanding” choices result in less buyer value? What about when buyers take the time to consider and weigh all of the options? Does more information lead to better decisions?

I often deal with large-scale corporate decision-making by advising clients on investment decisions: for example, where to build a new facility or what vendors to select.

One issue with projects of this sort is that large decisions are often generational events in which the client invests perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in the outcome. Because these events are relatively rare, it is impossible to take a portfolio view by making many comparable smaller decisions and studying which worked well in what situation.

Instead, when there is a single large decision to be made, it often becomes a question of understanding the drivers of value to the organization, conducting due diligence on each option and considering the qualitative issues involved in each choice. Where final options were similarly good, I have seen decisions swayed by anything from the driving distance of management to the proposed new facility location to whatever option was more similar to stories currently in the news. At that point, a good consultant’s talent is to accommodate the whole organization’s needs while also giving some allowance for those that will have to live with the decision.