Speedy and efficient decision-making - EIU

I read this paper recently and decided to try to share it - it arises out of an Economist Intelligence Unit survey which polled business decision-makers from North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific across a wide range of industries and company sizes. 

The main findings were that: 

• Decision-making is accelerating, and becoming centralised in the C-suite, rather than being pushed out to regions or business units.
• Despite the wide recognition that accurate and timely decision-making is crucial, most firms’ ability to make good decisions needs improvement.
• Customer service is a significant trouble spot. Information from customer service and support is ranked among the most critical to a company’s business strategy, yet it ranks poorly as a source of good business insight.

The paper sparked a cord with me as I have had some very positive interactions with Service Management and Service Design professionals. Both groups, it would seem to me, would thoroughly agree with many of the papers findings. So much so that I reckon I'll be following more on these thoughts. 
  
Download the paper free here: 
http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/eb/Oracle_Decision_making_WEB_FINAL091202.pdf