Memo
Corfu Spring Theme Park & Resort
To:
Jacob Terranova – Director of Revenue
Jay Walter – Food Service Manager
Bruce Abbott – Merchandise Manager
Allyson Wheeler – Attractions/Rentals Manager
Brandon Pietron – Games Manager
From: Andrea Kempisty – Merchandise Area Supervisor
Alicia Glass – Merchandise Area Supervisor
CC:
Bob Montgomery – General Manager and CEO
Date: 7/23/2013
Re:
The Hidden Traps in Decision Making – J. Hammond, R. Kenney, and H. Raiffa
Good Morning, All.
As you know, Alicia Glass and myself, were given the opportunity, thanks to our General
Manager, Bob Montgomery, to spend the past week in Upstate New York attending a decisionmaking seminar featuring guest speakers: John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa.
At this seminar we gained insight and knowledge of the many flaws which arise throughout the
decision making process. Additionally, we were given the task of identifying decision-making
errors found within the Revenue Department and ultimately, use what we gained this week to
create reasonable, and practical remedies to these issues.
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Former Harvard Business School professor, John Hammond spoke on days 1 and 2 of the seminar,
beginning by outlining the several different types of common decision-making errors which exist
in the world of business today. We would like to focus on the following “traps”, that are most
prominent in “our business world”.
1. The Anchoring Trap
This can most easily be summarized by stating, “When considering a decision the mind
gives disproportionate weight to the first information it receives.” (Hammond, 1998) In
other words, humans unconsciously believe, the first information heard is the most
important or valued information available. This “trap” is often seen within the Revenue
department when it comes to determining
2. The Status-Quo Trap
This trap is esstiantally the theory that, people prefer to do nothing and avoid taking risks.
It is this “desire to protect our egos from damange”, which has resulted in poor decisionmaking not only at Corfu Springs, but throughout the business world. This type of “trap”
is most often experienced when a manager is faced with two new choices, but does not
want to risk being wrong, so instead, stays the current course and does nothing.
3. The Sunk-Cost Trap
This “trap” occurs when a poor decision has been made, however those involved in
making the decision are too afraid to admit defeat and forge on with the decision
regardless of its unsuccessful nature.
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4. The Confirming Evidence Trap
This “trap” is the result of false researching. In other words, we seek the information we
hope to find. If we would like to introduce a new product to our guests, we give little
consideration to the negative information we discover, and place an unnecessarily high
amount of confidence in the information that agrees with what presumed to be true.
There are several other traps outlined throughout the week by Hammond, Kenney, and
Raiffa, which we will distribute to all at the end of the week.
As we discussed earlier, the second part of our exploratory task was to identify decision
making issues within our own department. This task seemed productive but harsh, and
so, Alicia and I decided to put a “spin” on this assignment and instead, present an issue
which faced our department over the past off-season. This issue presented many of the
common decision-making traps discussed above and also identified many of our team’s
decision-making strengths and weaknesses. It is now, in hindsight, that we will re-live this
situation, and possibly re-evaluate some of the decisions, discussions, and outcomes.
An example of these “traps” at Corfu Spring would be: Customer dissatisfaction with food
options at the park. Survey scores for the park last year, revealed that our guests were
unhappy with the selection of food options available at our park – most notably citing a
lack of healthy and kid’s options. Unfortunately, throughout the park’s history both
healthy and kid’s choices have been unveiled and discontinued due to lack of profits
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generated. Due to the gloomy historical figures, it would be reasonable for the food
service department to fall into an Anchoring Trap, and discontinue this project
immediately following. Luckily, several meetings with the entire Revenue department
presented different perspectives, and the open-mined nature of our team allowed the
project to move forward to the next step.
At this point however, the Status-Quo Trap presented itself. If Corfu Spring’s selection of
food remained the same, there would be little risk to the Food Service department.
Ultimately, people need to eat at an amusement park, whether or not they enjoy the
choice available does not mean that guests will simply not eat at all. It merely means they
are less likely to eat more than needed to sustain a day of fun in the sun. Conversely, if
the Food Service Department made the decision to move forward, and roll out new and
improved menu items it would involve:

Research on what type of “healthy” and “kids” items to sell

Research on where to sell new menu items

New menu boards and signage

Additional Staff Training for preparation of new menu items

Additional ingredients to be purchased

Additional warehouse space to house ingredients

Etc.
All of the above bullet points present a new level of risk, and individual cost/benefit analysis is
required before moving to the next step. Again, after several “brainstorming” sessions as a whole
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Revenue department, several new menu items, their point of sales, and even initial training SOP’s
were created. Decisions being:
Healthy Options: *New: Black bean burger, Grilled Chicken wraps, and Grilled Chicken salad
Locations: Brand-new Boardwalk Café and water-park Shark Bites
Kids Options: *New: Kid-sized meal, option to substitute fries for fruit and pop for milk
Locations: Brand-new Boardwalk Café and water-park Shark Bites
Unfortunately, once the season was underway, it was discovered that while the new options
seemed to be selling well to guests, the locations were off. Initially it seemed logical to introduce
the new menu items at the same two locations, to reduce training costs incurred by training staff
members on preparation of the new items. This was a decision made by our marketing team,
who arguably fell into a Sunk-Cost Trap. When it was suggested, kid’s meals be moved to
Campfire Grill and Dog-a-roo, both of which are located near Beaver Brother’s Isle (our children’s
area), the food service department met some resistance. Research was conducted by both the
marketing team and revenue team and again, another “trap” was fallen into. At this point the
Confirming Evidence Trap was experienced as the marketing team was both reluctant to admit a
mistake, and too much emphasis was being placed on their research – supporting the decision.
Ultimately, Bob Montgomery’s intervene demonstrated that Corfu Spring should not have a
“failure-fearing” culture, and plans were then able to be constructed between both the
marketing and food service departments to move forward with a new campaign to move kid’s
meals to Campfire Grill and Dog-a-roo.
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Looking back on this single experience, it is easy to identify that Corfu Spring’s has made strides
in improving teamwork among departments, whether that be the sub-sections of the Revenue
department or park-wide (Revenue and Marketing). Additionally, this examples serves as a
reminder that Corfu Spring can only exist in an environment where mistakes are okay to be
admitted, so they can be corrected. Some of the negatives highlighted in this example, most
noteably seen linked to the Status-Quo Trap. A lack of enthusiasm and willingness to expend
extra effort can kill any project, no matter how well it is executed. While communication and
teamwork have improved, the traps that were experienced later on in the project may have been
avoided, had the willingness to work hard (train at more locations, conduct more extensive
research, etc.) been present from the start.
I would to thank you again for the opportunity to expand my knowledge on the topic of
decision-making traps and solutions. I hope you find this information and the alternate
perspective on an experience we were all involved in, to be beneficial to both yourself and Corfu
Spring Theme Park and Resort. If you would like further information on this past week’s seminar
presented, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Respectfully,
Andrea Kempisty
Merchandise Area Supervisor
Corfu Spring Theme Park & Resort
9993 Alleghany Road, Corfu NY 14036
(585) 599- 5208 ext. 12
Akempisty@CorfuSpring.com
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References
Hill, L. (1994). Managing your team. Harvard Business Review, 1-22.