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Jeff Bezos on Overruling the Hierarchy

By David Kidd, BPR

“The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule the hierarchy.”

 That’s another quote from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

What he is saying is that decisions based on facts, on hard evidence are better for a company’s future as opposed to those decisions made as a result of a hierarchical corporate structure where the opinions of people in greater positions of power can carry a great deal of weight and influence.

Fact-based decision making has been defined as “a systematic process that emphasizes the collection of the right data and the quality of that data, the performance of objective not subjective analysis to extract insights to enable business decisions that are supported by the analytical results rather than guesswork, rule of thumb or a hunch.”

The CEO, the General Manager, the Owner (that is, the person who commands the most authority in the room) may have opinions about how a radio station sounds, what changes should be made, what talent is entertaining & which are not, which songs should be played & which should not, etc etc. Yet these opinions are just that……..they are often not based on any unshakeable facts, on evidence, on audience research.

Often the loudest voice in the room can sway the conversation in strategy meetings because of the hierarchy in the radio station. Those lower down the hierarchical structure….lower down the “corporate food chain”……are often too afraid to challenge these opinions….which could prove to be fatal if those opinions negatively impact the strategic planning process.

The only opinions that matter when it comes to formulating a strategy for your radio station are those of the listeners. Do your strategic research, your music research, your talent research, your brand image research and then, and only then, will you find out what the listeners want, and don’t want, from your radio station.