Crendhill Industries

Credenhill Industries "Thorough-Cred" program is an outstanding example of applying critical thinking to decision making. The format takes three candidates and assigns them a leadership role in one of the organizations market segments. This allows Credenhill to measure and monitor the critical thinking abilities of its up and coming workforce. The simulation we went through followed one of the star employees as they took on the challenge of an electronics store plagued with problems. From lacking sales and management issues the electronics store also faced poor advertising and inventory controls combined with competition from new competitors and an ADA compliance issue. To say this was a challenge for a young manager was an understatement, but that is the exact environment Linda James looks for to test the future leaders of her organization. As walked through the exercise the structure provided all the critical thinking tools we have covered in class. The traditional wheel was used to help frame the problem, which allows us to identify problems, criteria, and goals. As we moved through the "Making the Decision phase" we were able to use the lists to try alternative solutions, and receive feedback from Linda herself. This allowed us to evaluate the impacts of our decisions and modify them to come to a final resolution. The last phase was to monitor or review metrics from the results of our decisions and the impact they had on the organization. The team believes that personal experiences would have driven some of their choices or guided their decisions. We believe this exercise brought all the critical thinking concepts we have covered in the classroom and our readings together in a fun exercise. We feel as we move forward in our careers we will employ the tools we have learned here to help make us better critical thinkers and have the ability to make more informed decisions.