Question

But Adriana didn't give up, insisting her team continue to promote the product. She pushed her deployment plan and launched it in the entire market, along with a robust and expensive television and magazine ad campaign. Just like during the regional trial, it was a dismal failure with very limited sales. The executive team suggested that Adriana's strategy planning was flawed in selecting this type of new product as the core of her strategy. Consider the potential techniques for improving decision making that Adriana could have utilized to avoid defects in her planning process.

Answer 1

Answer: Devil's advocacy

Explanation: A devil's advocate is someone who takes a view that they don't necessarily agree with or an unpopular view, for the sake of an argument or to explore new avenues of adressing a situation, or problem at hand. This helps to address the situation with valid reasoning, and find improved solutions to solve it.

In Adriana's case, she could have elected someone on her team to play devil's advocate to identify any potential flaws in the plan, or strongly argue against the suggested strategy. This forces the team to consider if the plan they want to implement is the best one or to find alternatives towards tackling their problems.