Insomnia Cookies was founded by Seth Berkowitz when he was a college student. The company, a chain of late-night cookie stores located on college campuses, began with a delivery-only concept, but more recently has incorporated retail outlets.

When Insomnia Cookies was founded, Berkowitz did everything from baking cookies to delivering them. Today, however, the company has expanded to include COO Joe Essenfeld and Elise Piatkowski, the marketing director. Both Piatkowski and Essenfeld play important roles in decision making at Insomnia Cookies. In fact, Berkowitz says that he welcomes their input because it forces him to look at issues in different ways.

Essenfeld feels that the team works well because members continually critique one another by challenging decisions and ideas. Pitakowski, for example, believes she pays more attention to detail and has a better feel for the brand’s aesthetics than either Berkowitz or Essenfeld. She feels that Essenfeld has a tendency to leap before he looks, which sometimes can be problematic. Piatkowski also notes that the nature of the interaction between Essenfeld and Berkowitz has been beneficial for the company: Essenfeld encourages Berkowitz to explore areas he otherwise might have avoided, and Berkowitz helps Essenfeld moderate his more extreme thinking. According to Berkowitz, the team has been successful at separating members’ personal feelings from their professional feelings, which has facilitated the decision-making process.

Discussion Questions

1. Applying the steps in the phases of the decision-making process presented in Chapter 10, explain how Insomnia Cookies likely made the decision to close its Binghampton store.

2. In your opinion, does Insomnia Cookies’ decision to use a purple truck constitute a strategic decision?

Explain your answer.

3. Using the decision style model making presented in Chapter 10, how would you characterize the decision making styles of Seth Berkowitz, Joe Essenfeld, and Elise Piatkowski?