This week’s discussion will focus on management decision-making and control in two companies, American corporation Amazon.com, Inc. and Chinese company Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

Decision-making and control are two vital, and often interlinked, functions of international management. Strategic evaluation and control are the processes of determining the effectiveness of a given strategy in achieving the organizational objectives and taking corrective actions whenever required. Control can be exercised through formulation of contingency strategies and a crisis management team.

For your discussion, use the Decision-Making Process (stages 1-9) outlined in the textbook (Fig 11-1) and this Module’s content. Visit the corporate websites of two companies, Amazon and Alibaba, and examine what these firms are doing relating to the strategic evaluation and control process definition in the process above.

For example:

• Stage 1: What is one problem perception for each company?
• Stage 2: What is the problem identification for each company?
• Repeat for stages 3-9.

What overall assumptions can you make using this decision-making process?