Decision: Top 10 Tools for Managers' Decision-Making

Author: Shlomo Maital
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: In the past decade, Shlomo Maital has been an outstanding professor in MIT's management education program. Anyone who reads this book will become an outstanding individual. This is an informative and engaging read, and with it, readers will become wiser and more excellent business managers. —Lester Thurow (Lester C. Thurow)
Shlomo Maital brings economics into life. The profound insights and decision-making tools he leaves for managers are hard to find in other similar books, and the entertainment value of this book is also a major highlight. He achieves this by illustrating his points with compelling and thought-provoking historical examples. —George Schillinger (A. George Schillinger)
New York Institute of Technology (Polytechnic University)
Maital reminds me of my university days, when economics research dominated, but I now realize how important those theories are for making successful decisions. This inspiring read once again proves the importance of management decision-making techniques. I recommend it as an excellent read for an introduction to economics. —Charles B. Housen (President of EII - Erving Industries, Inc.)
Real-world business managers often equate economic theory with the ivory tower, believing it to be useless. To change this "inapplicable" impression, the author, Shlomo Maital, very practically connects economic theory to the decision-making challenges faced in the daily work of business managers. He shows us how to make decisions around two critical economic issues: How much is it worth? How much must I give up to get it? To answer these two economic questions, we must identify and maintain the correct relationships between cost, price, and value, which form the "profit triangle." Specifically, the book's 10 chapters focus on examining cost, price, or value, and based on this, defines the corresponding decision-making tools, explaining how to use economic tools to improve the quality of business management decisions. Through cases from Fortune 500 companies and smaller businesses, Maital explains why the primary role of economics should be to deepen business managers' understanding of cost structures and why the largest business expenditures often do not appear on check stubs or profit-and-loss statements. In short, this book is written for business managers, and its focus is on management. The author—Shlomo Maital—has more than 10 years of teaching experience at MIT's Sloan School of Management and serves as a business consultant for numerous companies. Therefore, for business managers aspiring to secure a place in today's global competitive economy, this book is a must-read, offering many clear and effective decision-making tools.