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When it comes to analyzing business decisions, Verne Harnish, contributing editor to Fortune Magazine and best selling author reminds readers of the truism: “success equals the sum total of all decisions one makes.” While Jim Collins, best selling author and researcher states: “it is the combination of thousands of decisions that leads to greatness.” As entrepreneurs and leaders of your own organizations, decision-making is perhaps one of the chief assets you bring to the table.

Yet, at times Harnish also reminds us that in business, there are always a few decisions that are just plain different – those, at times counterintuitive decisions that forever alter the course of a company. Remember when Apple decided to bring Steve Jobs back? Or when Johnson and Johnson recalled all Tylenol bottles because a few had been laced with cyanide? By analyzing these decisions, we can hope to inspire better decision-making in our own firms and learn from, steal and duplicate their success.

In the book, The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time: How Apple, Ford, IBM, Zappos and others made radical choices that changed the course of business. Harnish and his fellow contributors at Fortune Magazine delve into what they consider the top 10 greatest business decisions. Here are our top five favorites.

Walmart and Communication

It’s hard to imagine a world without Wal-Mart, but before Wal-Mart became one of the largest companies in the world, CEO and Founder, Sam Walton started a concept called Saturday morning meetings. All employees would gather at headquarters early Saturday mornings to discuss what was selling, what wasn’t and any problems or good news that had cropped up over the week. As a result, Sam Walton had a pulse on the day-to-day at the store and his people were laser focused on what was important. Today, Wal-Mart has 10,000+ stores (including Sam’s Club) and $447 billion dollars of revenue annually. What if you added a weekly or even daily huddle to your lawn care company, golf course or organization? Could you effectively boost communication among your people? Would it put you ahead of the competition? Learn more about daily huddles here.

Nordstrom and Customer Service

Everett, Elmer and Lloyd Nordstrom purchased the equity in their father’s small shoe store at the cusp of the Great Depression. In the midst of trying to grow a business (in the worst economy imaginable) the brothers decided to adapt a killer liberal return policy – they vowed to return all products, no questions asked. In fact, legend has it that a customer in Alaska returned a tire (Nordstrom has NEVER sold tires). Their policy insinuated that their products were high quality (why else would they guarantee it?) and sparked a culture devoted to fantastic customer service. While we aren’t saying you should adopt a 100% guarantee policy, is there someway you can revolutionize your business with kick-grass customer service?

Toyota and Quality

In 1961, Toyota pulled out of the American car market. Their Toyopet Sedan, the first car they imported to the U.S. was both costly and of shoddy quality. Five years later, Toyota tried again, entering the market with Corona, a vehicle engineered specifically for Americans, of excellent quality and had a reasonable price tag. The Corona was a hit! What was the difference? After shamefully retreating back to Japan, Toyota adapted the Dr. Denning’s focus on quality. Denning - a mathematician that preached “in God we trust; all others must bring data” believed that better quality will reduce expenses while increasing productivity and market share. By adapting his practices in the manufacturing process, Toyota threw their manufacturing upside down and is now known as a producer of high quality cars. What if your firm had 50% less callbacks? What would happened if you were as crazy focused about tracking quality in your business as Toyota is of their car manufacturing?

GE and Talent

The year Jack Welch was named CEO and Chairman of GE, he fired 100,000+ employees (25% of the staff) and invested $50 Million dollars in Crontonville – GE’s Executive Campus. It was an effort to both invest heavily in GE’s superstar employees (90% of GE is hired from within) and to build a platform where, “people could congregate and get the message straight from the horse’s mouth,” says Jack Welch. “I used GE’s Crontonville center as a vehicle to teach where we were going and why – our corporate values and vision.” How can YOU invest in YOUR super star employees? How can YOU ensure that employees are aligned with your corporate values and vision?

Ford Motor Company and Employee Experience

What is the single greatest decision of all time? According to Verne Harnish and other contributing authors at Fortune Magazine, it was the moment Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company, decided to double his workers’ wages. The ultra repetitive and mind-numbing work associated with assembly production resulted in yearly turn over at 370% (Ford had to hire 52,000 additional employees a year to make up the loss), union strikes and absentee workers (about 10% of the workforce wouldn’t show up on any given day). A decidedly less than inspired workforce was expensive and led to quality control problems. In an effort to boost worker-morale and the economy, Henry Ford decided to boost his worker’s wages from $2.50 to $5.00 a day. The result? “Turnover dropped from 370% to 16%, productivity was up 40% to 70% and the number of replacement workers hired fell from 52,000 to 2,000” in one year, says the authors. Is turnover running rampant in your firm? Is productivity low? While doubling wages may not be the answer for your organization, focusing on the employee experience may be a solution.

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