IntroductionThinking critically and making decisions are important parts of today's business environment. It is important to understand how the decision-making process works and the steps to follow. The nine steps in the decision-making process are: identify the problem, define criteria, set goals and objectives, evaluate the effect of the problem, identify the causes of the problem, define alternatives, evaluate the impacts of alternatives, take the decision, implement the decision and measure its impacts. (Decision, 2007.) By using various methods and tools to help make important business decisions, an individual can ensure that the decisions they make will be as effective as possible. In this article, we will look at how the decision making process can be followed using various tools and techniques to make successful business decisions using these same tools and techniques during a critical thinking business scenario. The paper will also discuss how different tools and techniques could have been used to make different, but still successful, decisions. The stimulation techniques provided insight into achieving the business goal, identifying problems, how to solve the problems, and implementation. The criteria matrix was the technique used to identify problems. The criteria matrix provided a simple way to prioritize, organize and sort issues into categories deemed critical or non-critical and whether each was urgent or non-urgent. It was also a controlled way of deciding what the problem was, because you had all the information to start making decisions. This technique helped determine the criticality of issues, from problem identification through each step...... middle of paper ...... optimal for our situation, we were able to examine the issues in more detail. improvements to our processes and decisions that will help us in the future. By performing the simulation, it was also possible to see exactly how the tools can work on a daily basis in American companies and how we can improve our individual processes that we currently use. Lowy, A. & Hood, P. (2004). The Power of the 2x2 Matrix: Using 2x2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems and Make Better Decisions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Sixsigmapc.com. (2005). The decision-making hierarchy - SkillBrief. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from http://www.sixsigmaspc.com/dictionary/criteria-matrix.htmlWikipedia.com (2008) Brainstorming. Retrieved February 9, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming