04 Aug A key and paramount strategic decision that was implemented by my department was streamlining our biannual monetary bonus and annual raise review process.

Working as a contractor for the Missile Defense industry, our mission is to develop and deploy a layered Missile Defense System to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies, and friends from missile attacks in all phases of flight. In order to achieve our mission, we are dedicated to supporting the warfighter, proving the power of missile defense through testing and optimizing available resources. A launch vehicle is designed using a multidisciplinary process that combines disciplines such as propulsion, aerodynamics, structure, and trajectory. The design process is often divided into many sequential phases: the early design phase, the preliminary phase, the detailed phase, manufacturing, and its operating life. Various launch vehicle architectures, technologies, and life cycle alternatives are evaluated during the early design phase in order to select the best launch vehicle for a certain market. In the early conceptual design phase of a launch vehicle, my team and I spend a significant amount of time going through various linear optimization models to identify resources, cost, time, etc. to develop a timeline for the vehicle, minimize waste in resources and maximize space for the payload.

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In my industry of healthcare, it is common for organizations to often bring new goods and services to market in order to allow end users the opportunity to maintain and better their overall health. These initiatives require investments of time, money, and other resources which are generally considered fixed factors, especially when considering time constraints, needs, and budgets. Therefore, they can be charted accordingly using a linear optimization model to allow for adherence to benchmarks and available resources. Anderson et al., (2016) mentions that data envelopment analysis (DEA) is an application of linear programming used to measure the relative efficiency of operating units with the same goals and objectives. The goals are fixed elements of the application, such as the aforementioned threshold factors in my industry. I would use the linear model for the fixed factors and a nonlinear one for the flexible factors, such as market adoption and response factors.  

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A key and paramount strategic decision that was implemented by my department was streamlining our biannual monetary bonus and annual raise review process. Another was adopting a new application designed to better enhance employee, member, and client satisfaction. Based on the scope, I am sure that many analytic functions were considered. However, and if not already utilized, using optimization models would have enhanced the effects of these endeavors even more by allowing for the consideration of nonlinear functions. Anderson et al., (2016) mentions that because so many processes in business and nature behave in a nonlinear fashion, allowing nonlinear terms greatly increases the number of important applications that can be modeled as an optimization problem. Numerous problems in portfolio optimization, pricing options, blending, economics, facility location, forecasting, and scheduling lend themselves to the importance of nonlinear models. This would be a more beneficial (yet more complex) approach rather than the linear optimization model in that the endeavor is not quite taking place in an entirely closed environment, but an open one.

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Players respond to the game strategy and are the strategic designer that includes the whole of the action plans of players which can be used in distinct situations. In the game, the play comes, when all the players have to take decisions of their own and those decisions affect the results. Game theory is the study of behavior in strategic situations in which the outcome of an individual’s actions depends on the actions of others. This is relevant in the case of an oligopoly because when a firm has competition, each firm must consider not only its own decisions but also the actions and reactions of the other firms in the market. For instance, one of our public companies announced in August 2020, the intention to transition away from the business of dry bulk commodity transportation and towards marine-based renewable energy including investing in the next generation of wind turbine installation vessels. Exiting the dry cargo business and focusing on signing contracts for wind turbine installations would leverage us from our competitors. That’s the strategy our company thought would give us an advantage and see our company progress. Competition in business is a given. In the business environment, “winning” is a matter of securing competitive advantages through effective decision-making, strategy development, and execution. Applying game theory can help business leaders consider, analyze, and improve the actions they take

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In this video, the basketball team from Pine City, MN (Cohen, 2017) the whole team’s goal was to provide the best shots possible. The team discovered that if 3-point shots were made, there is a higher likelihood that they will gain more points versus completing layups. Taking the shots from the 3-point line, was more valuable than working with the team and practicing how to complete the layups. An alternate to just shooting the 3-pointers would be to work with the team on passing the ball for a layup. This would allow for less of an error when shooting from the 3-point line. Granted with layups, there are more team members with their hands on the ball, which increases the risk of errors.