What were the best and worst decisions of 2011 by David Wethey

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This month David Wethey, founder AAI, discusses what he thinks were the best and worst decisions of 2011.

Everyone will have their own ideas about which were the best and the worst decisions last year.

Because 2012 is the year I am going to publish a book on decision making, it was hard to resist the temptation to pick five winners and five clangers from the year just ended. I’ve restricted myself to just five categories in each case. All the normal caveats apply:

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1.We might think we can see a clear outcome, but some decisions require more than a few months for us to be sure how a decision has turned out.
2.If you are not there, your speculation as to what happened and why, can quite simply be wrong.
3.It is often unfair to criticise, but we do it anyway
4. As Tom Peters found to his cost, lionising the famous can come back and bite you when they fall from grace. The same can happen with what looked to have been brilliant decisions.
5. Finally, any selection like this is going to be highly eclectic. I would never claim these are the most important or significant. I’ve just chosen ones that interested me

Five best decisions

(from marketing) the John Lewis advertising campaign from Adam & Eve, culminating in the haunting Christmas 90 seconds spot. Great decisions by both client and agency. For me this edged out Unilever’s pledge to ‘unlock the magic’ in its brands by mandating more creative advertising, because Marc Mathieu was making a promise, while John Lewis have actually delivered
(in politics) Rupert Murdoch’s decision to close down the News of the World. It was a surprising masterstroke by an 80 year old stage villain when under huge and public pressure. Making a brave and unexpected decision against your company’s immediate economic self interest is hard enough to do when everyone loves you. For someone so widely reviled to pull off such a political pre-emptive strike took the wind out of the sails of the very parliamentarians who were hounding him.
(in sport) As a golfer I was equally impressed by two Northern Irishmen. For Darren Clarke to stick to his instinctive game in really difficult conditions at Royal St George’s to win the Open Championship was outstanding. He absolutely must have known that this was his big chance, and not one that would ever recur. Equally admirable was Rory McIlroy’s determination to put the disappointment of his collapse at the Masters behind him. The road back started in his gutsy press conference at Augusta, and reached thrilling fulfilment in his stunning performance at Congressional to lift the US Open by such a huge margin. Success at the highest level of golf is down to consistent decision making over four days, rather than one big decision. But that takes nothing away from Clarke and McIlroy, whose wins were inspiring.
(in media and entertainment) ITV’s new drama policy: a decision to go for quality and take on the BBC at its own game. After a miserable few years, ITV is back on the front foot, with triumphs like Downton Abbey achieving the sort of ratings that even excite the clients who obsess about digital and social media. The next challenge: to persuade agencies to improve the amazingly low quality level of sponsorship bumpers. Great drama is not well served by feeble intros and extros.
(in the news) The Arab Spring – the unbelievable courage of activists who believed that the time had come to overthrow hated dictators. No commentators predicted it. Even after the first riots in Tunis and Tahrir Square, it was hard to believe that democracy would triumph. Decisions to risk your life and the lives of hundreds of others in the cause of freedom demand ultimate respect

Five worst decisions

(from marketing) Invidious to comment on the many disastrous ad campaigns of 2011, because I know many of the people who made and approved them, and because for all I know some may have been quite successful. But a bumper crop of adturds (see the website: www.adturds.co.uk) has to be bad news for both clients and agencies. The public must think we’ve lost our way. Principal Decision Trap: Group Failure – refusal to accept that bright people can make terrible decisions
(in politics) Dead heat between Sally Bercow going into the Celebrity Big Brother house, and Liam Fox failing to understand that going everywhere with Adam Werritty might not be a great plan. Decision traps: Upside Optimism for Sally, and Delusion for Liam.
(in sport) Another close run thing between Chelsea’s purchase of Fernando Torres for £50m (Decision Trap: Upside Optimism), and England’s nightmare at the RWC (not one terrible decision, but several, including one most of us know a bit about – why don’t we go to just one more bar?)
(in media and entertainment) Exiling Radio 5 live to Salford Quays, and transforming what was Britain’s outstanding station into Radio Manchester (or is it Belfast?). Tragic. Decision Trap: Frame Blindness – solving the wrong problem.
(in the news) Gaddafi not leaving Libya when he had the chance. Decision Trap: Policy Pride.

Read more from David Wethey