Programmed and non programmed decision making Programmed and non programmed decision making is an important subject of business

studies. Programmed decisions are those which one makes, going by the book. Nonprogrammed decisions are those where a new situation awaits you and you have to decide that how to deal this. Over the past 6 months I have made these three decisions. 1- I ordered for the new supply of tables, chairs and some accessories of the office. This was clearly a programmed decision since the company had a policy regarding buying such things and I had to follow that policy. 2- My firm was doing well, but I realized that we could do better if we buy our closest competitor in the field. This had not happened before in our company. So it was a non-programmed decision and I made the decision and ended up buying that company. The decision eventually turned out to be a right one. 3- We had to launch a new brand and we had a lot of funds for its marketing. I had to make the choice between several advertising firms. Two choices seemed suitable to me. One was very old in the field. He had some 10 years of experience whereas the other one was relatively a new one. He had entered the field some 1, 1.5 year ago but had made some fantastic ads. I gave the new one a chance. This nonprogrammed decision didnt affect the quality of advertising but saved my firm a good amount of money.