Download or read book HBR Guide to Making Better Decisions written by Harvard Business Review and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to make better; faster decisions. You make decisions every day--from prioritizing your to-do list to choosing which long-term innovation projects to pursue. But most decisions don't have a clear-cut answer, and assessing the alternatives and the risks involved can be overwhelming. You need a smarter approach to making the best choice possible. The HBR Guide to Making Better Decisions provides practical tips and advice to help you generate more-creative ideas, evaluate your alternatives fairly, and make the final call with confidence. You'll learn how to: Overcome the cognitive biases that can skew your thinking Look at problems in new ways Manage the trade-offs between options Balance data with your own judgment React appropriately when you've made a bad choice Communicate your decision--and overcome any resistance Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from a source you trust. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
Download or read book Business Strategy written by The Economist and published by The Economist. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effectiveness of a good strategy well implemented determines a business' future success or failure. Yet history is full of strategic decisions, big and small, that were ill-conceived, poorly organized and consequently disastrous. This updated guide looks at the whole process of strategic decision-making, from vision, forecasting, and resource allocation, through to implementation and innovation. Strategy is about understanding where you are now, where you are heading and how you will get there. There is no room for timidity or confusion. Although the CEO and the board decide a company's overall direction, it is the managers at all levels of the organization who will determine how the vision can be transformed into action. In short, everyone is involved in strategy. But getting it right involves difficult choices: which customers to target, what products to offer, and the best way to keep costs low and service high. And constantly changing business conditions inevitably bring risks. Even after business strategy has been developed, a company must remain nimble and alert to change, and view strategy as an ongoing and evolving process. The message of this guide is simple: strategy matters, and getting it right is fundamental to business success.
Download or read book Smart Choices written by John S. Hammond and published by Harvard Business School Press. This book was released on 2015-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where should I live? Is it time to get a new job? Which job candidate should I hire? What business strategy should I pursue? We spend the majority of our lives making decisions, both big and small. Yet, even though our success is largely determined by the choices that we make, very few of us are equipped with useful decision-making skills. Because of this, we often approach our choices tentatively, or even fearfully, and avoid giving them the time and thought required to put our best foot forward. In Smart Choices, John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa--experts with over 100 years of experience resolving complex decision problems--offer a proven, straightforward, and flexible roadmap for making better and more impactful decisions, and offer the tools to achieve your goals in every aspect of your life. Their step-by-step, divide-and conquer approach will teach you how to: * Evaluate your plans * Break your potential decision into its key elements * Identify the key drivers that are most relevant to your goals * Apply systematic thinking * Use the right information to make the smartest choice Smart Choices doesn’t tell you what to decide; it tells you how. As you routinely use the process, you’ll become more confident in your ability to make decisions at work and at home. And, more importantly, by applying its time-tested methods, you’ll make better decisions going forward. Be proactive. Don’t wait until a decision is forced on you--or made for you. Seek out decisions that advance your long-term goals, values, and beliefs. Take charge of your life by making Smart Choices a lifetime habit.
Download or read book Guide to Decision Making written by Helga Drummond and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive look at decision-making practices and what can be done to eradicate errors Designed to help companies in any industry make fewer mistakes, The Economist Guide to Decision Making is an in-depth look at the tools and techniques for preventing errors and improving efficiency. Exploring how and why decisions go awry in the first place; what decision-makers can do to counter the psychological, social, and other forces that can undermine individual judgment and pull organizations off course; and highlighting often overlooked aspects of the science of decision making, the book illustrates how mistakes really happen so that they can be better avoided. Drawing on examples taken from companies around the world, including Motorola, EMI, and the London Stock Exchange, as well as gold mines in South Africa, and food contamination scandals in China, The Economist Guide to Decision Making thoughtfully considers how companies can be more effective and improve their decision-making strategies. Presents new ways for companies to improve their decision-making processes Explains how decision-making works and discusses the tools available for helping reduce the likelihood of errors Draws on examples taken from companies around the globe Decision making can never prevent mistakes entirely, but a better understanding of how to improve practices and processes is invaluable for companies looking to increase their overall efficiency. The Economist Guide to Decision Making leads the way.
Download or read book A Practitioner s Guide to Business Analytics PB written by Randy Bartlett and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2013-01-25 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gain the competitive edge with the smart use of business analytics In today’s volatile business environment, the strategic use of business analytics is more important than ever. A Practitioners Guide to Business Analytics helps you get the organizational commitment you need to get business analytics up and running in your company. It provides solutions for meeting the strategic challenges of applying analytics, such as: Integrating analytics into decision making, corporate culture, and business strategy Leading and organizing analytics within the corporation Applying statistical qualifications, statistical diagnostics, and statistical review Providing effective building blocks to support analytics—statistical software, data collection, and data management Randy Bartlett, Ph.D., is Chief Statistical Officer of the consulting company Blue Sigma Analytics. He currently works with Infosys, where he has helped build their new Business Analytics practice.
Download or read book Yes or No written by Spencer Johnson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1993-06-04 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Yes" or "No," from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Spencer Johnson, presents a brilliant and practical system anyone can use to make better decisions, soon and often -- both at work and in personal life. The "Yes" or "No" System lets us: focus on real needs, versus mere wants create better options see the likely consequences of choices and identify and then use our own integrity, intuition, and insight to gain peace of mind, self-confidence, and freedom from fear
Download or read book Future Trends written by Lawrence R. Samuel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-08-10 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Future Trends: A Guide to Decision Making and Leadership in Business is the first and only book to link a decision-making and leadership platform to trends pointing to the future. By identifying sixty global, long-term trends and detailing how businesspeople can leverage them in both the short- and long-term, the book provides readers with a powerful body of knowledge unavailable anywhere else. In Future Trends, consultant and futurist Larry Samuel: Identifies sixty significant and opportunistic global, long-term trends; Details how businesspeople can leverage each trend in both the short- and long-term via a decision-making and leadership platform; Helps readers be recognized as a trusted source and “go-to” person in their respective field by becoming more fluent in the future; Takes a 360-degree, holistic view of tomorrow by examining cultural, economic, political, social, scientific, and technological trends; Steers clear from here-today-gone-tomorrow things and experiences that comprise most glimpses into the emerging cultural landscape Future Trends is divided into six sections covering Cultural Trends, Economic Trends, Political Trends, Social Trends, Scientific Trends, and Technological Trends. Each section includes ten trends that indicate where the world is heading. Many futurists focus on technology, forgetting the fact that the ways in which people actually live their lives are shaped by many other factors. Future Trends thus takes a 360-degree, holistic view of tomorrow, offering readers a fuller understanding of life on Earth over the next couple of decades.
Download or read book Decision Management Systems written by James Taylor and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A very rich book sprinkled with real-life examples as well as battle-tested advice.” —Pierre Haren, VP ILOG, IBM "James does a thorough job of explaining Decision Management Systems as enablers of a formidable business transformation.” —Deepak Advani, Vice President, Business Analytics Products and SPSS, IBM Build Systems That Work Actively to Help You Maximize Growth and Profits Most companies rely on operational systems that are largely passive. But what if you could make your systems active participants in optimizing your business? What if your systems could act intelligently on their own? Learn, not just report? Empower users to take action instead of simply escalating their problems? Evolve without massive IT investments? Decision Management Systems can do all that and more. In this book, the field’s leading expert demonstrates how to use them to drive unprecedented levels of business value. James Taylor shows how to integrate operational and analytic technologies to create systems that are more agile, more analytic, and more adaptive. Through actual case studies, you’ll learn how to combine technologies such as predictive analytics, optimization, and business rules—improving customer service, reducing fraud, managing risk, increasing agility, and driving growth. Both a practical how-to guide and a framework for planning, Decision Management Systems focuses on mainstream business challenges. Coverage includes Understanding how Decision Management Systems can transform your business Planning your systems “with the decision in mind” Identifying, modeling, and prioritizing the decisions you need to optimize Designing and implementing robust decision services Monitoring your ongoing decision-making and learning how to improve it Proven enablers of effective Decision Management Systems: people, process, and technology Identifying and overcoming obstacles that can derail your Decision Management Systems initiative
Download or read book Amazing Decisions written by Dan Ariely and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dan Ariely, the New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational, and illustrator Matt R. Trower present a playful graphic novel guide to better decision-making, based on the author’s groundbreaking research in behavioral economics, neuroscience, and psychology. The internationally renowned author Dan Ariely is known for his incisive investigations into the messy business of decision-making. Now, in Amazing Decisions, his unique perspective—informed by behavioral economics, neuroscience, and psychology—comes alive in the graphic form. The illustrator Matt R. Trower’s playful and expressive artwork captures the lessons of Ariely’s groundbreaking research as they explore the essential question: How can we make better decisions? Amazing Decisions follows the narrator, Adam, as he faces the daily barrage of choices and deliberations. He juggles two overlapping—and often contradictory—sets of norms: social norms and market norms. These norms inform our thinking in ways we often don’t notice, just as Adam is shadowed by the “market fairy” and the “social fairy,” each compelling him to act in certain ways. Good decision-making, Ariely argues, requires us to identify and evaluate the forces at play under different circumstances, leading to an optimal outcome. Amazing Decisions is a fascinating and entertaining guide to developing skills that will prove invaluable in personal and professional life.
Download or read book Decide and Conquer written by Stephen P. Robbins and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Make better decisions – every day, everywhere! Decide and Conquer, Second Edition
Download or read book Risk Assessment and Decision Making in Business and Industry written by Glenn Koller and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2005-03-30 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building upon the technical and organizational groundwork presented in the first edition, Risk Assessment and Decision Making in Business and Industry: A Practical Guide, Second Edition addresses the many aspects of risk/uncertainty (R/U) process implementation. This comprehensive volume covers four broad aspects of R/U: general concepts, i
Download or read book Behind Every Good Decision written by Piyanka Jain and published by AMACOM. This book was released on 2014-11-05 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a misconception in business that the only data that matters is BIG data, and that elaborate tools and data scientists are required to extract any practical information. However, nothing could be further from the truth. If you feel that you can’t understand how to read, let alone implement, these complex software programs that crunch the data and spit out more data, that will no longer be a problem! Authors and analytics experts Piyanka Jain and Puneet Sharma demystify the process of business analytics and demonstrate how professionals at any level can take the information at their disposal and in only five simple steps--using only Excel as a tool--make the decision necessary to increase revenue, decrease costs, improve product, or whatever else is being asked of them at that time. In Behind Every Good Decision, you will learn how to: Clarify the business question Lay out a hypothesis-driven plan Pull relevant data Convert it to insights Make decisions that make an impact Packed with examples and exercises, this refreshingly accessible book explains the four fundamental analytic techniques that can help solve a surprising 80 percent of all business problems. It doesn’t take a numbers person to know that is a formula you need!
Download or read book Harvard Business Review Guides Ultimate Boxed Set 16 Books written by Harvard Business Review and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 2098 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How-to guides to your most pressing work challenges. This 16-volume, specially priced boxed set makes a perfect gift for aspiring leaders looking for trusted advice on such diverse topics as data analytics, negotiating, business writing, and coaching. This set includes: Persuasive Presentations Better Business Writing Finance Basics Data Analytics Building Your Business Case Making Every Meeting Matter Project Management Emotional Intelligence Getting the Right Work Done Negotiating Leading Teams Coaching Employees Performance Management Delivering Effective Feedback Dealing with Conflict Managing Up and Across Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
Download or read book Deciding written by Roger Estall and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-03 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deciding by Roger Estall and Grant Purdy This book is intended to help decision-makers of all types make even better decisions. The central thesis is that whether 'Deciders' realise it or not, all decisions are made using what the authors describe as 'the universal method of decision-making'. The adequacy of each decision therefore depends on how skilfully the method is applied, whether Deciders achieve 'sufficient certainty' about the outcomes that will flow from the decision and the contribution made by those outcomes to the organisation's Purpose. The authors shun jargon. The eight chapters and five appendices of the book include many practical tips with examples and anecdotes from various sectors that explain the universal method. Issues such as context, assumptions, and detecting and responding to change after the decision is made are addressed and there are clear, simple diagrams - including an easy-to-follow illustration of the universal method - to help the reader grasp the main concepts. The authors say that Deciding is a book for thinkers, rather than for those seeking a formulaic or procedurally rigid methodology. They will have realised their goal, they say, if Deciding causes readers to reflect on the way they apply the universal method, reinforce what they already do well, and recognise opportunities to improve. The Authors Roger Estall and Grant Purdy who first met in 2003, have similar, yet separate 40+ year careers as both Deciders and advisers. They have each chaired and served on boards and held executive and technical management roles in multiple areas of the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Now based in Sydney and Melbourne respectively, their careers have taken them to many parts of the world.
Download or read book Analytics at Work written by Thomas H. Davenport and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a follow-up to the successful Competing on Analytics, authors Tom Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Robert Morison provide practical frameworks and tools for all companies that want to use analytics as a basis for more effective and more profitable decision making. Regardless of your company's strategy, and whether or not analytics are your company's primary source of competitive differentiation, this book is designed to help you assess your organization's analytical capabilities, provide the tools to build these capabilities, and put analytics to work. The book helps you answer these pressing questions: What assets do I need in place in my organization in order to use analytics to run my business? Once I have these assets, how do I deploy them to get the most from an analytic approach? How do I get an analytic initiative off the ground in the first place, and then how do I sustain analytics in my organization over time? Packed with tools, frameworks, and all new examples, Analytics at Work makes analytics understandable and accessible and teaches you how to make your company more analytical.
Download or read book Facilitator s Guide to Participatory Decision Making written by Sam Kaner and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-03-10 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best book on collaboration ever written!" —Diane Flannery, founding CEO, Juma Ventures And now this classic book is even better—much better. Completely revised and updated, the second edition is loaded with new tools and techniques. Two powerful new chapters on agenda design A full section devoted to reaching closure More than twice as many tools for handling difficult dynamics 70 brand-new pages and over 100 pages significantly improved
Download or read book How to Write a Great Business Plan written by William A. Sahlman and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you'd think the only things standing between would-be entrepreneurs and spectacular success are glossy five-color charts, bundles of meticulous-looking spreadsheets, and decades of month-by-month financial projections. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, often the more elaborately crafted a business plan, the more likely the venture is to flop. Why? Most plans waste too much ink on numbers and devote too little to information that really matters to investors. The result? Investors discount them. In How to Write a Great Business Plan, William A. Sahlman shows how to avoid this all-too-common mistake by ensuring that your plan assesses the factors critical to every new venture: The people—the individuals launching and leading the venture and outside parties providing key services or important resources The opportunity—what the business will sell and to whom, and whether the venture can grow and how fast The context—the regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic trends, and other forces shaping the venture's fate Risk and reward—what can go wrong and right, and how the entrepreneurial team will respond Timely in this age of innovation, How to Write a Great Business Plan helps you give your new venture the best possible chances for success.
