- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Piatkus (28 Mar 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749922850
- ISBN-13: 978-0749922856
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,374,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Few people are born good decision makers, but it is a skill that can be learned. In today's rapidly changing work environment traditional decision-making methods - using intuition, intelligence, luck, common sense and training within the narrow bounds of our professional expertise - are not enough. Russo and Schoemaker are world leaders in assessing and improving the way we make the critical decisions that affect our business's future. In Winning Decisions they show you the strategies that do work. - reframe issues so you don't solve the wrong problem - improve the quantity and quality of your options - make intelligent decisions in the face of uncertainty - convert expert yet conflicting opinions into useful insights - and much more Easy to read, easy to follow and packed with applications, tools and solutions, Winning Decisions is an invaluable resource for everyone, in any field, who wants to make every decision their best decision.
About the Author
J. Edward Russo is Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. His consulting and executive education clients have included Boeing, PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Motors, Royal/Dutch Shell, SmithKline Beecham. Paul J. H. Schoemaker PhD is the founder, chairman and CEO of Decision Strategies International Inc. He is a regular speaker on the executive programmes at Berkeley, Cornell University and the Wharton Business School, also at the London Business School. His clients have included AT&T, Glaxo-Wellcome, Hewlett-Packard. Their first book, Confident Decision Making, was published by Piatkus.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a first book on decision-making, this book provides a good overview and is very well written. Futhermore, the book has lots of real life examples facilitating learning and making this an interesting and enlightning read.
Having read this book, I am now able to pinpoint the mistakes most people make when reasoning towards a decision and most importantly, I have learned to be aware of these pitfalls when I make decisions myself.
Having read this book, I am now able to pinpoint the mistakes most people make when reasoning towards a decision and most importantly, I have learned to be aware of these pitfalls when I make decisions myself.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
68 of 72 people found the following review helpful
Well, so what are you going to do?
10 Mar 2002
Format:Hardcover
A relative glut of periodicals and books exist on decisionmaking, whether personally or professionally. Many have solid foundations, many are commercialized tripe. In MAKING DECISIONS, authors Russo and Shoemaker hit on a timely subject for professional managers or entrepreneurs. The economy has plummeted and the stock market has deflated propelling each individual responsble for their company's path to success into crucial, perhaps vital decisions on a daily basis. And the rapid rate of change is forcing all executives and managers to make decisions faster.
Given the current environment, it is well worth the time to revisit an executive/manager's most basic of tasks: making a decision...a subject devoid of attention except in academic journals or business books. In a straightforward, well-presented fashion, the authors break down the decisionmaking process into four steps:
1. Framing or deciding what you are going to decide-and not decide;
2. Gathering intelligence-real intelligence, and not just information that will support your internal biases;
3. Coming to conclusions-determining how your company acts on the intelligence it gathers, and;
4. Learning from experience.
The authors guide the reader through each of the steps providing insight into the process, highlighting key concepts, and providing case studies and worksheets so the reader can begin to track their own issues at hand. Russo and Shoemaker have presented this material in such a way as to demystify the "process" of decisionmaking. The "process" gets so much attention as being clandestine, complex and erudite. However, by providing a detailed framework reflecting a relatively mechanical and logical process to making a decision, the authors have uncorked the mystery. When confronted with the need to assess a situation, gather information and reach a decision, most managers depend on a hit-or-miss approach. This approach is different from executive-to-executive and is measured relative to the frequency and experience an executive may have "putting out the proverbial fire." While there's nothing inherently wrong or incorrect about this type of venerable process, this process typically results in a lower-end spectrum result when nothing but mid-high to high results will suffice as a necessary competitive edge.
The alternative approach presented by the authors allows executives/managers to reframe issues by asking such questions as "What is the crux of the issue that I am facing?" so that they don't end up solving the wrong problem (i.e. analogous to "looking from the outside in"). It also allows them to increase their options by doing such things as "not necessarily taking yes for an answer," when it comes to initial research findings. In fact, these alternatives may result in something quite creative and innovative, a veritable whack on the side of the head.
As they should, the authors stress to the reader that improving one's decisionmaking skills is not an ironclad guarantee to success. Execution of a solid operating (business) plan and being in the right place at the right time (luck) are factors tantanmount to any successful venture. However, it is rational and logical that if one makes better decisions, one's odds of success are bound to increase. And, as one gains experience in making decisions and acting upon the achieved results, desired or not, success rates grow exponentially.
A solid read.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
This book deserves more than five stars
29 Dec 2004
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent book, one of the best I've ever read about decision making. It takes a structured approach to making decisions and discusses the "how" of decision making. It gives a bunch of ideas to use, mostly questions to help the decision maker focus his or her attention on the process of getting the decision right under uncertainty and time contraints.
The book, as great as it is, has one short coming to my way of thinking: it gives very little attention to intuitive decision making. I think that the authors have concentrated on deliberative decision making with the idea in mind that the process will ultimately become intuitive when practiced enough. Perhaps so. However, I would very highly recommend another book that talks about intuitive decision making, Educating Intuition by Hogarth. This excellent book may help a reader learn how to make the deliberative techniques part of the the intuitive decision making process.
The book, as great as it is, has one short coming to my way of thinking: it gives very little attention to intuitive decision making. I think that the authors have concentrated on deliberative decision making with the idea in mind that the process will ultimately become intuitive when practiced enough. Perhaps so. However, I would very highly recommend another book that talks about intuitive decision making, Educating Intuition by Hogarth. This excellent book may help a reader learn how to make the deliberative techniques part of the the intuitive decision making process.
25 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Buy Smart Choices instead
17 Sep 2004
Format:Hardcover
This book is okay, but it's poorly structured and repetitive. It doesn't offer a clear, systematic process for making decisions. I think Smart Choices is a far, far better book. Simpler, better structured, easier to work with.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
