Optimal versus satisfactory decision making: a case study of sales with a target

We consider a common managerial problem where an agent strives to achieve a prescribed target. We use this problem as a vehicle for comparing and discussing two approaches to decision making: optimising and “satisficing” (where the latter is a neologism due to H. Simon, 1976 Economics Nobel PrizeWinner).We compute the optimising and satisfactory strategies for the problem at hand and highlight the differences in their outcomes.