A look at the decision making process of NBC. Firing Donald Trump

1. NBC and the decision
making process
“You’re Fired”

2. Decision Making
In any company, there are many decisions that need
to be made on a daily basis, some more than others.
NBC found itself making a tough decision this year
with turning the tables and cutting ties with the man
who himself have fired so many.

3. How the decision was
made
Lets look at this situation as if we are NBC and we
have become aware of the situation at hand. How
are we going to make a decision. We will look at the
steps it takes to eventually come to the conclusion
that cutting ties with Donald Trump is the best choice
for the company. First lets look at the two ways of
decision making.

4. Two main forms of decision
making
Rational:
-Rational and logical process
-organization becomes aware of issue
-define problem and gather information
-develop decisions and options
-optimal decision is discovered and made

5. Two main forms of decision
making
Alternative approach:
- Looks at decision making as Satisficing process
- Searches for a solution that will work well enough
for dealing with situation
- Makes decision without looking at all possible
alternatives
- “Not searching for the sharpest needle in the
haystack but for a needle sharp enough to sew with”

6. Step 1: NBC’S PROBLEM
No matter which approach you follow, an issue must
arise for there to need to be a decision to make.
The problem arises with Trump announcing his
presidency where he made the following comment
on Mexican immigrants:

7. Trumps Comment
“When Mexico sends its people, they're not
sending their best," he said. "They're not sending
you. They're sending people that have lots of
problems, and they're bringing those problems with
us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime.
They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good
people”

8. Uproar against NBC
His comment was met the way many expected it
would be, with many people begging NBC to cut ties
with Donald Trump.

9. Step 2: Information
Gathering
After a problem is discovered, we would then
need to gather all the information needed before
making a decision. For NBC, the information was
made clear as it was announced during his
speech. However a large part of information such
as how upset people were came in the form a a
petition.

10. Petition
Suprisingy the company Maceys became a huge
advoicate for dumping trump even though they have
worked closely in the past. Maceys executives
stated that actions speak louder than words and a
petition was created with maceys that would end up
getting over 200,000 backers.

11. Step 3: Decisions and
options
Next NBC must look at every possible decision and
look at their options. For NBC this wasn’t a easy
process because they had one thing working against
them, Donald Trumps Contract

12. Contract
One of the major concerns was the continuation of
the hit show celebrity apprentice hosted by Donald
Trump. Also with the way the contract was set up,
NBC would breach it by not showing the Miss U.S.A
pageant ran by Donald Trump.

13. Contract
Things were made a bit clearer on the side of celebrity
apprentice when Donald Trump wanted to make it
clear that he dropped them. This still didn't’t clear up
the issue of the miss U.S.A pageant.

14. Contract
Things would get heated for NBC if they decided to
cut ties with Donald Trump at this point, Trump even
saying that if the pageant didn't’t run that he would
see Univision and possibly even NBC in court.

15. Step 4: Optimal Decision
Made
With a rally of support and over 200,000 backers
NBC finally made there decision and took there
chances cutting ties with him. Since then, Trump has
banned all Univision employees from his Golf
Course and is still dealing with NBC.

16. NBC AND TRUMP
It has seemed though as if NBC has not fully given
up on Trump. Just a few weeks ago the station had
him host on of the longest running, most iconic
shows Saturday Night Live.

17. Process
When we look back at the Rational model of the
decission making process, we see that NBC pretty
much followed this step by step. The were made
aware of an issue, Gathered information, Looked at
their options and finally made the optical decision.

18. Question
Why did they follow this model as opposed to an
alternative model?
NBC is a big company, they need to keep
their name clean and the morals where they should
be. In this instance it wouldn't’t have been enough
just to find a needle sharp enough to sew with, they
needed to make sure they looked at every option
before making a decision.

19. Follow up
After Univision and NBC cut ties with trump a
majority of other companys followed suite. To date
11 other companys that have dropped trump. They
include universal telivision, NBC, ESPN, NASCAR
and more. It would appear that NBC’s decision
making process motivated many other companys to
do the same.

20. Follow up: Celebrity
apprentice
In case you were wondering, NBC announced that
Trump does not hold any ownership in the show and
that they are free to continue it with a new host
which they will be. As of today, NBC is saying that
this man will soon be the new face of celebrity
apprentice.

21. Work Cited
Stelterm, Brian. “NBCUniversal cuts ties with Donald
Trump” CNNMoney (New York) June 30
Santicci, Johnn. “The Companies That Have
Dumped Donald Trump” Jul 4, 2015
NBC News, “NBC Cuts Business Ties with Donald
Trump Over Immigration Remarks”. JUN 30
2015