Jon and Paul Kramer: A Framework for Making Big Decisions

“Should I walk away from a toxic work environment where I’m being paid a boatload of money?”

“Should I spend $250,000 on a law degree when 44% of lawyers today regret their decision to spend a quarter of a million building their legal career?”

In today’s episode, Paul interviews his brother Jon on the biggest personal and professional decisions he’s made in life.

We address:

Is there a reliable decision-making framework that I can start using today?

How does my personality affect my decision-making process?

How can I evaluate bad decisions to learn from my mistakes?

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

• Be crystal clear on the outcome you want, and have a concrete plan of action towards it. Jon adheres to two constructs that he almost always uses when making decisions. The first consists of objectives, strategies, and tactics, and the second addresses Now what? So what? Do what? Paul puts particular emphasis on the emotional element of decision-making. Are you happy with the choice you made, and will you be happy in the long haul? By balancing the emotional and the rational, with equal focus put on each aspect, you’ll have yourself a reliable framework for making big decisions of all kinds.

• Understand your objectives before even considering your strategies and tactics. It doesn’t make sense to get into a car when you don’t know what your destination is. If you want to minimize the number of bad decisions you make, begin with the end in mind. As Jon himself says: “You’ve got to have a set of objectives that drive the course of your life.”

• Formulate strategies and tactics that will get you to your objective. Your objective is your starting point, but how you accomplish that objective depends on the strategies and tactics that you employ. Using the dramatic example of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, while the climbers knew exactly what their objective was (to reach the peak of Mount Everest), they made a number of mistakes along the way that cost many their lives due to ill-conceived strategies and tactics.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

• Jon’s decision-making framework [4:42]
• The role of emotion in making big decisions [9:59]
• Why have a framework for making decisions? [12:37]
• Should you approach personal decisions the same way you do career-related decisions? [14:54]
• How our personalities play into how we make decisions [18:23]
• Jon on his ill-informed decisions [20:11]
• The importance of understanding your objectives first and foremost [23:55]
• What to expect in future episodes of the podcast [29:59]
• Defining your core values so that they serve as your anchor when making decisions [32:13]
• The overarching impact of many small, seemingly-insignificant decisions [34:19]
• Establishing the right strategies and tactics based on your objectives [35:58]

ABOUT OUR HOSTS

JON KRAMER:

Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

PAUL KRAMER:

Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

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