Difficulty of Decision-Making: 15 Case Studies of Major Decision-Making Errors

Author: (USA) Nate
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book is quite different from many bestsellers currently available in the market. The research covered by this book spans an extremely wide range. To prove the conclusions, the author collected and analyzed more than 400 decisions made by senior managers of various organizations. These decisions spanned over more than 20 years and covered numerous private, public, and non-profit organizations from the United States, Canada, and Europe. To further enhance the authenticity and persuasiveness of these arguments, the author primarily focused the research on major issues frequently encountered by senior managers in the decision-making process. To increase credibility, the research highlighted that these decisions involved real individuals and their real experiences. These decisions included many choices that senior managers often face in the decision-making process—such as product, price, and market decisions, internal operations, personnel policies, technology sources, organizational restructuring after mergers and acquisitions, and control systems. Among these numerous cases, the author carefully selected 15 famous cases of organizational heavy failures to illustrate the key points of the book. These cases vividly and thoroughly analyze some decisions that were originally wrong and some that could have been completely avoided. The preface will briefly list some examples of decision failures. The book will elaborate on every possible strategy that may be involved in each stage of decision-making. In the analysis of this book, each stage will be unfolded in order of optimal priority. The book starts with a case of a failed decision, then discusses what constitutes a wrong decision, analyzes the reasons behind it, and uses this as an opportunity to reveal the root causes of wrong decisions, finally providing corrective measures. It then proposes several strategies that have been tested by practice, discusses their strengths, and how they can be applied in the decision-making process.