The decision making process in a start-up Fido Saliscale case study

In this paper, the aim is to demonstrate the importance of providing a structure to decision-making processes in small companies and/or startups, where decisions are often made based on the feelings and intuition of the entrepreneur. This demonstration is made in the first two chapters in a general character, analyzing and describing the processes based on information found in the present bibliography. In the final chapter, a case study of a small Italian family company based in Casalserugo in the province of Padua that designs, produces and sells electric stairclimbers for domestic use. The first chapter is necessary to give definitions to the two main concepts: decision making and start-up, which, once united, prepare the ground for a more comprehensive analysis. Starting from the definition of startups it is possible to immediately notice the characteristic features that will define their decision-making process. The first chapter is then completed by focusing on the cognitive biases that could occur in the decision making process in this kind of entities. The second chapter focuses on presenting the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach at first by defining it, then trying to apply it immediately with a simple example and some case studies, instead more complex and structured. The third chapter focuses on the case study presented in the title. The first part frames the company, its raison d'être and its history, presented synthetically,proposing its highlights from its birth until today. The second part instead describes the status quo, that is, how the company behaves typically with particular focus on the grossest errors revealed. They are proposed with a theoretical and discursive character but at the same time punctual. The third part focuses in the implementation of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Fido Saliscale using an Excel-based file.