Decision Management: How to Assure Better Decisions in Your Company

J. Frank Yates0787956260, 9780787956264, 9780787966744

Why do the people in some companies continually dazzle us with their brilliant decisions while those in others make one blunder after another? Do they understand their businesses better? Are they just plain smarter? Or is it all a matter of luck? The answer, says J. Frank Yates, is none of the above. The real key, rarely recognized, is how the leaders manage the company’s decision processes-the leaders’ decision management practices. Drawing on his thirty years of research and experience as well as scholarship from psychology, economics, statistics, strategy, medicine, and other fields to explain the fundamental nature of business decision problems, Yates highlights the ten cardinal decision issues crucial to managing the decision-making process-and ultimately better company decisions. He covers problems ranging from recognizing whether a decision is actually called for to assuring that a preferred course of action will be implemented. He shows how solid decisions result when managers ensure that deciders resolve every cardinal issue effectively for every decision problem facing the company. He also reveals how, conversely, chronically poor decisions are traceable to managers allowing-or even creating-conditions that encourage deciders to fall short in how they address at least one of those critical issues.

---

Table of contents :
Decision
Management……Page 10
Executive Summary……Page 6
Copyright……Page 11
Contents……Page 12
Series Foreword……Page 14
Preface……Page 16
1 The Art of Decision Management……Page 24
2 “What Is a Decision?” and Other Fundamentals……Page 46
3 Deciding to Decide: The Need Issue……Page 70
4 Determining the Means for Deciding: The Mode
and Investment Issues……Page 84
5 Prospecting for Solutions: The Options Issue……Page 116
6 Anticipating Outcomes: The Possibilities
and Judgment Issues……Page 134
7 Accounting for Taste: The Value and
Tradeoffs Issues……Page 164
8 Ensuring Smooth Sailing: The Acceptability
and Implementation Issues……Page 198
9 Starting and Sustaining Decision Management
Improvement Efforts……Page 218
Notes……Page 230
The Author……Page 236
Index……Page 238