Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time

Business revolves around making decisions, often risky decisions, usually with incomplete information and too often in less time than we need. Executives at every level, in every industry, are confronted with information overload, less leeway for mistakes, and a business environment that changes rapidly. In light of this increased pressure and volatility, the old-fashioned ways of making decisions-depending on intuition, common sense, and specialized expertise-are simply no longer sufficient. Distilling over thirty years of groundbreaking research, Winning Decisions, written by two seasoned business advisers and world leaders in behavioral decision studies, is a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind guide to the proven methods of making critical business decisions confidently, quickly-and correctly.
Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take for granted in themselves and others-but it's not as easy as some might think. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over a hundred companies, including Arthur Andersen, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unilever, contend that decision-making, like any other skill, must be developed and honed if it is to be used effectively. Winning Decisions offers step-by-step analyses of how people typically make decisions, and provides invaluable advice on how to improve your chances of getting your next big decision right the first time. The book is packed with worksheets, tools, questionnaires, case studies, and anecdotes analyzing major decisions made by organizations like British Airways, NASA, Shell Oil, and Pepsi. Some of the proven, straightforward techniques covered in Winning Decisions include how to:

Reframe issues to ensure that the real problem is being addressedImprove the quality and quantity of your options
Convert expert yet conflicting opinions into useful insights
Make diversity of views and conflict work to your advantage
Foster efficient and effective group decision-making
Learn from past decisions--your own and those of others

With Winning Decisions, managers and other professionals now have access to a proven set of skills and strategies they need for making the right decision, right away.

J. EDWARD RUSSO, PH.D., is a Professor of Marketing and Behavior Science at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has served as an adviser to such companies as Boeing, Eli Lilly, General Motors, Harris Bank, and SmithKline Beecham. Russo is also actively involved in the study and application of leading-edge decision technologies to real-world problems and is a frequent speaker in executive decision programs. He is the co-author, with Paul Schoemaker, of Decision Traps. He lives with his family in Ithaca, New York.
PAUL J. H. SCHOEMAKER, PH.D., is the founder and Chairman of Decision Strategies International and Research Director of the Mack Center for Technology and Innovation at the Wharton School. He has consulted with about a hundred organizations, including a two-year sabbatical with Royal Dutch/Shell’s scenario planning group in London. Schoemaker has been a professor at the University of Chicago and the Wharton School, and a frequent speaker in various executive programs, including those at Berkeley and Cedep at Insead. He lives with his family in Villanova, Pennsylvania.