Decision-making is at the core of all business activity, as executives set strategy and manage operations by weighing a vast array of factors to arrive at the desired balance of risk and reward. The enormous growth of companies' size and operations in recent years particularly across borders is making this process increasingly complex. It is cause for alarm, then, that executives themselves perceive the quality of decision-making at their companies as mixed at best.

This is the key finding of a major programme of research, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Business Objects, into how senior executives in different regions make decisions for their companies. It is based on a survey of 154 senior executives from around the world, as well as a series of in-depth interviews conducted with practitioners.