Book Description

How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? Thats the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated than assumed. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, he shows how the difference between good decision-making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but on the few particular details on which we focus. Leaping boldly from example to example, displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Gladwell reveals how we can become better decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. The result is a book that is surprising and transforming. Never again will you think about thinking the same way. ... Read more

Book Description

ASW's Introduction to Management Science: A Quantitative Approach to Decision Making provides thorough, application-oriented coverage in a very readable writing style. This is the leading text on the market. Simply put, it's a classic!The problem-scenario approach introduces quantitative procedures through situations that include both problem formulation and technique application.The extensive linear programming coverage includes problem formulation, computer solution, and practical application. The text covers transportation, assignment, and the integer programming extension of linear programming, as well as advanced topics like waiting line models, simulation, and decision analysis. A large selection of problems includes self-test problems with complete solutions and case problems.Excel spreadsheet appendices are included as well. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

katz
Trust Me. This is the only book that you'll need to get started started in this area. The authors have done an excellent job in producing such a work, that takes care to explain all the details of management science.

I used this text for my professional exams (CIMA) and the it was great. All the chapters in this book are cleanly written to take that I doesn't leave anything unexplained. However, the following chapters are the ones that I like the most in this book:

1. Introduction to LP
2. LP: Sensitivity Analysis: Amazing work here.
3. LP Applications: formulation of problems in this chapter may be bit difficult at first, but keep reading and you'll learn and appreciate the work that the authors have put in.
4. LP - Simplex Method: My favorite chapter. Is highly readable. This one chapter alone is worth the book.
5. LP - Simplex Sensitivity.
6. Integer LP
7. Project Scheduling - Great, well written chapter, another favorite of mine.
8. Decision Analysis - Good but the problems are repetative.
9. Markov Process - An introduction only, but the application of markov process to accounts receivable anlaysis is very useful for anyone wondering about the applications of markov processes.

Overall a great book that is worth its price. ... Read more

Book Description

Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job.

In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. The First 90 Days provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly.

Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period.

Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without.

"Few companies develop a systematic 'on-boarding' process for their new leaders, even though this is a critical function with major organizational implications. Michael Watkins's The First 90 Days provides a powerful framework and strategies that will enable new leaders to take charge quickly. It is an invaluable tool for that most vulnerable time-the transition."

-Goli Darabi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Leadership & Succession Management, Fidelity Investments

"Every job-private- or public-sector, civilian or military-has its breakeven point, and everyone can accelerate their learning. Read this book at least twice: once before your next transition-before getting caught up in the whirl and blur of new faces, names, acronyms, and issues; then read it again after you've settled in, and consider how to accelerate transitions for your next new boss and for those who come to work for you."

-Colonel Eli Alford, U.S. Army

"Watkins provides an excellent road map, telling us what all new leaders need to know and do to accelerate their learning and success in a new role.The First 90 Days should be incorporated into every company's leadership development strategy, so that anyone making a transition in an organization can get up to speed quicker and smarter."

-Suzanne M. Danielle, Director of Global Leadership Development, Aventis

"Michael Watkins has nailed a huge corporate problem and provided the solution in one fell swoop. The pressure on new leaders to hit the ground running has never been greater, and the likelihood and cost of failure is escalating. Watkins's timing with The First 90 Days is impeccable."

-Gordon Curtis, Principal, Curtis Consulting "The First 90 Days is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Anyone who's been the CEO of a start-up or early-stage company knows that you go through many 90-day leadership transitions in the course of a company's formative years. In this groundbreaking book, Michael Watkins provides crucial insights, as well as a toolkit of techniques, to enable you to accelerate through these transitions successfully."

-Mike Kinkead, President and CEO, timeBLASTER Corporation, serial entrepreneur, and Cofounder and Trustee, Massachusetts Software Council ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Good advice, wish I'd read it sooner
I bought this book in anticpation of a move that never happened. That said, it was remarkably useful even in my current position. It helped me frame many of my career experiences in a larger context, and when I do make a move in the future, I will be prepared for it.

I even bought it for a friend as a "happy new job" gift. She loved it, too.

His earlier stuff is good too
I work for a leading health care company and went through one of Watkins's transition forum programs here. If really helped me get off to a running start. We also got his negotiation book, Breakthrough Business Negotiation, which also was very helpful. I've since also read his book on influencing government and business strategy, Winning the Influence Game. Definitely helpful if you are dealing with issues of regulation and reimbursement as we are. It's nice to see him getting recognition for the First 90 days, but his earlier stuff is just as good, if negotiation or influence are important to what you do.

Watkins' negotiation book is great too.
I bought The First 90 Days when I was heading into a new VP Sales position. It was a huge help just like the other reviews say. Then I got his Breakthrough Business Negotiation book and it was great too. I bought copies for all my regional and district sales managers. It's the best thing for tough negotiations I've read.

just what I needed
I was on day 6 of a new CEO job and everything was falling apart -- I encountered serious resistance to even minor changes that obviously needed to be made. Reading this book, I realized I had walked into a problem where management saw the company was in need of a turnaround, but the employees had no idea and saw their company as a steady success story.

Every bit of this book is gold. From how to approach change implementation based on situation, to managing upwards, to making the mental switch to your new position, it's all been helpful.

Many great ideas to think about!
There are many original great ideas presented in this book which stand alone on their own merit. But perhaps the biggest idea of the book is for companies to view a job transition as any other business process- and subsequently look to optimize it. There are so many transitions in most companies in any given year, that having a process that makes more transitions successful and the new employees effective sooner should noticeably improve the bottom line. Most importantly, this book makes you think!

Also noteworthy in this book is its straightforward organization- the book lays out 10 areas to consider during a transition, then dedicates a chapter to each, and concludes with a brief summary. The book also reads well, and has examples to clarify the 10 areas. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Once again using an astutely written fictional tale to unambiguously but painlessly deliver some hard truths about critical business procedures, Patrick Lencioni targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. And like those preceding it, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is an entertaining, quick read filled with useful information that will prove easy to digest and implement. This time, Lencioni weaves his lessons around the story of a troubled Silicon Valley firm and its unexpected choice for a new CEO: an old-school manager who had retired from a traditional manufacturing company two years earlier at age 55. Showing exactly how existing personnel failed to function as a unit, and precisely how the new boss worked to reestablish that essential conduct, the book's first part colorfully illustrates the ways that teamwork can elude even the most dedicated individuals--and be restored by an insightful leader. A second part offers details on Lencioni's "five dysfunctions" (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results), along with a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings. Like the author's previous books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, this is highly recommended. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (51)

Help for Dysfunctional Teams
Patrick Lencioni has written an exceptionally interesting fable on optimal team performance. He has prescribed guidelines for team success and applied them in an interesting, easy to read story with a twist. He has defined easy to follow principles that with practice can lead any group or team, large or small to be great.
The book begins with a story of a potentially great company with a dysfunctional executive staff. Even though this company assembled some of the best executives and attracted top tier investors (compared to their closest competitors), the company was on a downslide. Morale was slipping and key employees were leaving. The CEO (and co-founder) was relieved of his title by the board and the search for his successor began.
This company, Decision Tech, was a high profile, two years old company with much at stake. The chairman of the board pushed for hiring Kathryn, an ancient fifty-seven years old by Silicon Valley standards. Employees and the executive staff were stunned with the news of the new hire.
The story develops by weaving Lencioni's team dysfunctions into its web. The fable is enticing and not typical of your "how to produce" guidelines book. The author keeps your interest while at the same time introducing and teaching his methods.
At the end of the story, Mr. Lencioni reviews all levels of team dysfunctions and summarizes and reiterates each. Therefore reinforcing his principles and eliminating confusion.
This is the first book I have read by this author. I found it entertaining, yet very informative. I enjoyed the novel format while receiving important informational steps for success in a team or group.
I would highly recommend this book to any person or group seeking to improve or turn around the team in which they belong. It would be a great tool for corporate teams or even the local high school basketball team. All teams would greatly benefit from Mr. Lencioni's advice.

Insight Made Easy
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni attracts and captures your attention with his intriguing business story. Before going into thorough details of the five dysfunctions, Lencioni tells the story of a fictitious executive team working to revive a technology company near Silicone Valley. The characters are as realistic as can be and extremely easy to relate to. The story is quite simple to understand and keeps a quick pace. Typically, I have found educational books to drag on and only share stories that few people could relate with. However, this book leads readers through a reasonable, professional journey. The dysfunctions are practical and truthful. Often teams and groups feel that they have all of the possible resources necessary in attaining and mastering their goals, when in fact, they have a plethora of various hidden problems holding them back. Lencioni breaks apart each of these difficulties and explains how it will deny the team of their full potential. I felt that Lencioni's method of applying knowledge prior to teaching a lesson was much more effective than the traditional method of teaching then applying. When the author is finally "teaching" the lessons towards the end of the book, it seems as if you have already learned the information. Patrick Lencioni also provides a useful team assessment and a thoroughly detailed model of the dysfunctions. Insightful suggestions on overcoming the dysfunctions are included as well. Overall, this short, quick book is packed full of invaluable knowledge that can be applied to teams at all levels.

Highly Recmmended!
Patrick Lencioni offers a satisfactory fable about an executive wrestling to take hold of a company and create a smoothly functioning executive team. The narrative moves right along as he addresses the problem of feckless teamwork with the fictitious Decision Tech company as a test case. The novel is interesting, and you can read through it easily, getting to know the characters and participating in their business decisions. However, if you just want to learn about better teamwork quickly and leave, skim to the final chapters. Here, the author outlines a detailed model for diagnosing the five dysfunctions of a team and provides exercises and techniques to ameliorate those dysfunctions. The advice is complete and concrete. We recommend the meat and potatoes diagnosis and solutions as well as the cake and ice cream story, but how much narrative you want to read may depend on what shape your team is in when you start, as well as on your taste for tales.

Things to look for and fix on teams at all levels
This book is great because the simple narrative makes the 5 different disfunctions more concrete by showing exactly how they can manifest in a team. These are common issues not only executive-level teams, but also teams of lower-level folks like myself, working on individual features of a product. Some of the higher-level concepts like understanding what your 'first team' are a little bit less relevant, but most of the book is still very pertinent and easy to directly apply.

The worksheets and exercises he has in the back are also great, no-nonsense ways to bring your team back on track. The only things I might've liked to see are some more information around what can go wrong when you try to "correct" the particular issues and maybe some more concrete details on what it means to be a leader by his definition. It's a bit vauge in places and seems to be more a matter of reporting structure than technical / feature leadership (i.e. a team of all true peers but where one person is the technical / business expert), though he works to call out some of the details at the end.

Inspirational
According to Lencioni, "the ultimate test of a great team is results," and in this fable told in the style of similar books, such as The Goal, and The Present, the author discusses how to build and profit from teams. This book is not about teamwork, so much as the deliberate creation of teams to analyze and resolve problems within an organization. The book is highly readable and informative for any executive aspiring to learn about teams or share an inspirational book with his or her workforce.

Lencioni identifies 5 reasons teams fail: lack of commitment, failure to embrace conflict, lack of results focus, lack of accountability, and lack of trust. The author concludes his book and his philosophy with the statement success is a matter of "embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence."

Read this book and share it with your fellow employees. I would also recommend you read Goldratt's book The Goal (ISBN: 0884270610) in conjunction with this book. ... Read more

Book Description

The Memory Jogger II is an easy-to-use pocket guide that describes tools to help you make continuous improvements in an organization. The tools help people at all levels participate in identifying and solving problems; eliminating rework; streamlining processes; improving cross-functional communication; decreasing costs; and measuring results. The guide supports organization-wide consistency and participation in creating organizational breakthroughs and improvements. It measures 3.5" x 5.5". ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The guide for all
I first used this as a high school student then later at univerity doing engineering. Now I use it as an engineer. It's so worn it's due for replacement. Handy size, useful tools, practical.

US Navy Leadership School
This US Navy uses this book in the Leadership School for PO1s/E-6s. It's a great hip pocket book.

Great customer service
Great customer service. Arrived within 3 days, no problems getting the product ordered. Highly recommended!

A management book that's meant to be USED!!!
This little book omits all the BS and jargon of textbooks and compresses the actual TOOLS for planning, process improvement, and quality control into just the information that you need to select and implement the appropriate management tools. Keep it in a desk drawer where it's handy to use, instead of on a bookshelf! I bought it for a class (in Project Management), but I USE it at work!

It is NOT a book that will give you all the theory behind the methods, nor the history of how they were developed and have evolved. It SIMPLY (and that's the beauty of it) describes when, why, and how to use the variety of tools, and gives very helpful examples showing them in action.

This ... book is worth more to me than most of my $100 textbooks combined -- and it's one I'll keep and not resell.

Great little book on CPI
This little book can go anywhere, and gives excellent examples of continuous process improvement tools. The explanations are straightforward, and you don't need to be an engineer or statistician to understand and apply the tools, techniques, and concepts presented. ... Read more

Book Description

A Bold Manifesto on the Future of Information Technology

Over the last decade, and even since the bursting of the technology bubble, pundits, consultants, and thought leaders have argued that information technology provides the edge necessary for business success.

IT expert Nicholas G. Carr offers a radically different view in this eloquent and explosive book. As IT's power and presence have grown, he argues, its strategic relevance has actually decreased. IT has been transformed from a source of advantage into a commoditized "cost of doing business"-with huge implications for business management.

Expanding on Carr's seminal Harvard Business Review article that generated a storm of controversy, Does IT Matter? provides a truly compelling-and unsettling-account of IT's changing business role and its leveling influence on competition.

Through astute analysis of historical and contemporary examples, Carr shows that the evolution of IT closely parallels that of earlier technologies such as railroads and electric power. He goes on to lay out a new agenda for IT management, stressing cost control and risk management over innovation and investment. And he examines the broader implications for business strategy and organization as well as for the technology industry.

A frame-changing statement on one of the most important business phenomena of our time, Does IT Matter? marks a crucial milepost in the debate about IT's future.

... Read more

Reviews (21)

Where is IT going?
Full Title: Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage -- With $2 trillion being spent on computers and communications each year there is an underlying assumption that IT is critical to increasing the competitive advantage and strategic success of a business.

But with the ready availability of computers, storage, software and people, has the IT function perhaps become one of the foundation building blocks of a corporation, just like sales, engineering or manufacturing?

Similar to other books that are appearing, the author argues that it is time to look at IT with a managerial view. What are you getting for the investment? Is IT simply another cost center or a strategic benefit to the company? How do you control costs and yet get the information you need in a timely manner? The book provides an interesting and timely view of such points.

A different view of the computer revolution
There has seemed to be a neverending flood of hype about computers for at least the last 20 years. Information technology (IT) is going to change everything, we've been told - from the way businesses operate to the way people live. Well, the flood ends here. Meticulously argued, well researched, and surprisingly lively, this short book dissects one computer myth after another. Most of it focuses on the business world, showing how IT is turning into another commonplace technology like electricity. There's an engaging historical review of how big technologies create big business changes early in their development, but then quickly turn into routine costs. It also provides practical advice for companies on how they should manage IT. It ends, though, with a broader examination of how we tend to get carried away with our dreams of big technological revolutions. It shows that in comparison with earlier technologies computers have had a fairly modest impact on society and commerce - and that some of the consequences have been less than positive. This book is a breath of fresh air.

Excellent questions with inferior answers
'Does IT Matter' is a difficult book to rate. As to the questions it raises, it deserves 5 stars. But its answers, are two-star, at best.

By way of analogy, most bomb threats are bogus, but each one must be treated as if it were genuine. With that, in his new book Does IT Matter?, Nicholas Carr throws a bomb, and it turns out to be a dud.

Carr's book is an outgrowth of his article "IT Doesn't Matter," which appeared in the May 2003 issue of the Harvard Business Review. His hypothesis is that the strategic importance of IT has diminished. Carr views IT as a commodity, akin to electricity.

He also compares IT to the railroad infrastructure. In the early days, railroads that had their own tracks had a huge advantage, but once the rails become ubiquitous and open, that advantage went away.

Carr feels that since all companies can purchase the same hardware and software, any strategic advantage is obviated. It's true that the core functions of IT (processing, network transport, storage, etc.) are affordable and available to all, but there's still huge strategic advantage to be gained in how they're implemented.

It's much like two airlines that purchase the same model of airplane. If one airline streamlines and optimizes operations, trains its staff and follows standard operating procedures, it can expect to make a profit. If the other has operational inefficiencies, labor problems and other setbacks, it could lose money. The airplane is identical, but the outcome is not.

Carr is correct in that there have been some huge IT outlays of dubious value. But to say that IT is simply the procurement of hardware and software is to be blind to the fact that hardware and software are but two of the myriad components of IT.

To use the railroad metaphor, hardware and off-the-shelf software are the rails of IT; how they are designed and implemented is what provides their strategic value. Carr views IT as completely evolved. But the reality is that although IT has matured, it still is in a growth mode. The IT of today is vastly different from the IT of both 1999 and 2009.

Carr's view that most innovations within IT will tend to enhance the reliability and efficiency of IT rather than provide a competitive advantage is in direct opposition to what is said by every CIO I have met.

Does Enterprise Architecture Matter?
Readers of this book should also read books on Enterprise Architecture as a solution to the concerns raised by the author.

Provocative title, narrow claim, strong argument
You may recall the uproar in 2003 around a short Harvard Business Review article entitled "IT Doesn't Matter". Various IT company leaders spoke out against the article, with Carly Fiorina calling it "dead wrong" and Steve Ballmer calling it "hogwash". There were also many lengthy rebuttals. Nicholas Carr, the author of the original 8 page article, expanded the argument into a well-written book, explaining his claim more thoroughly and responding to his critics.

The book (like the article) has a provocative title, but in fact Carr's claim is much narrower than the title suggests. Carr is only focused on *corporate IT*, the systems that companies build and deploy for their own use and the use of their customers and suppliers. He is not looking at consumer IT --- the digital wonders that are showing up in our living rooms, cars, and in our pockets. And he is not looking at governmental IT --- the systems that are used to find terrorists, wage combat, or evaluate welfare eligibility.

More significantly, Carr is also focused on one corporate use of IT, to attain a *competitive advantage*. Can Coke achieve some competitive advantage over Pepsi by implementing a new application? Carr is not asking whether IT can add value to a company --- clearly there are thousands of examples of IT saving money, providing value to customers, to suppliers, and adding value in other ways. Instead, Carr asks whether we can expect IT to add this value in a way that competitors cannot quickly realize the same added value. Can Coke do something significant with IT that will not be quickly replicated by Pepsi?

Finally, Carr agrees that in the past IT has been used to gain competitive advantages. By automating reservations, pricing, and seat assignments in the 1960s, American Airlines really did achieve a lasting advantage over its rivals. By creating logistics applications in the 1980s, Walmart really did achieve a lasting advantage over Sears and Kmart. Carr's claim is that *those days are gone*, that the days of using IT for competitive advantage are over.

His claim rests on three broad trends, each of which undercuts the opportunities for competitive advantage. First, the time needed to replicate a particular IT application---the "technology replication cycle" in his words---has shortened considerably over the last few decades. Hardware, tools and platform technologies have made it increasingly easier, faster, and cheaper to replicate a successful application built elsewhere. This declining technology cycle is likely to continue, and make any advantage in the ownership of a particular application to be short-lived.

Another reinforcing trend is the push toward standardization. 40 years ago every company built their own applications. Since then software products have emerged. These products can always be customized to particular situations, but they often are not. It is often cheaper and easier to adapt the business to the best practices in SAP, rather than to customize SAP to the specifics of the business. The economics of standardization --- the cost advantages for companies to be like their competitors --- trump the advantages of maintaining differences. BPOs further this push to standardization, and away from competitive advantage via IT.

A third trend is the spread of IT business insight. It is much better understood today how to achieve value with IT. The secrets of how to do this spreads with individual experience, with analysts, with books and trade rags, and with consultants. If a company has success with a particular technology, everyone in their industry knows about it quickly.

These three trends (Carr claims) are reducing IT to a role much like electricity. Electricity is critical to all businesses today, but (aside from mishaps like the recent problems in California) no one would expect to find a competitive advantage in superior use of electricity.

Does Carr make his case? I think he does, although there are some big exceptions to his argument. ... Read more

Book Description

The only user-friendly beginner's guide to Six Sigma
Six Sigma is the most common-and perhaps least understood-methodology for streamlining processes in manufacturing, service delivery, management, and almost any other business activity. For business leaders seeking increased efficiency and customer service, Six Sigma is the key.

Written specifically for Six Sigma beginners-whether they're small business owners who want to implement Six Sigma, or professionals and students who need to get up to speed fast-Six Sigma For Dummies is the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide on the market. Hundreds of thousands of professionals work in Six Sigma companies such as GE, Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft, and Nokia, but have a hard time fully understanding the methodology. This simple, friendly guide makes Six Sigma make sense.

Intended to help readers implement Six Sigma in their small and medium-sized businesses to improve quality and reduce costs, this no-nonsense guide explains:

• What Six Sigma is
• What Six Sigma's goals and objectives are
• The benefits of Six Sigma in both large and small businesses
• How the belt system works
• The DMAIC approach
• How to implement Six Sigma
• How to use Six Sigma tools
• How Six Sigma's approach aims for zero-defects

Neil DeCarlo (Fountain Hills, AZ) is Chief Knowledge Officer and Craig Cygi (Eden, UT) is Chief Product Officer for Six Sigma Technologies, an Arizona-based firm that provides low-cost, high-quality Six Sigma solutions to small and medium-sized companies and organizations. Neil also owns DeCarlo Communications, while Craig is founder and President of TolStack, Inc., a provider of advanced analysis software tools designed to assist Six Sigma practitioners. Both men have worked directly with Dr. Mikel Harry, a member of the team that developed Six Sigma in the mid-1980s and one of the world's recognized authorities on Six Sigma management. ... Read more

Book Description

The Power of Appreciative Inquiry describes a new strategy that inspires people and brings about a higher performance level in any organization. This method encourages people to study, discuss, learn from, and build on what works well when they are at their best, rather than focusing on what’s going wrong. The theory, practice, and spirit of this approach to organizational change is described in plain language. The authors provide guidelines for defining the change agenda, initiative, or project; forming the "steering team"; and launching an organization-wide kick off. Case histories demonstrate how organizations can attain sustained positive change by studying their strengths. This book is the most authoritative, comprehensive guide to Appreciative Inquiry by two of the founders and pioneers of this technique. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

The Power of Appreciative Inquiry
I read this book one weekend, and felt inspired! I have been a student of people, groups, and organizations for 30+ years, and was extraordinarily uplifted by the philosophy and stories that the authors captured. Their clear writing summarizes the rigorous underpinnings of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in psychology and sociology and in the maturing methodologies that have emerged in AI practice, yet the book is eminently accessible. And it does a good job of integrating theory and practice, so has widespread practical application for those who want to implement the appreciative inquiry process. Overall I felt fueled by the stories, and realized that opportunities to help create other positive stories exist everywhere: in my work with individuals, teams, and communities, and in health care and educational institutions as well as in businesses. Colleagues and I are reconnecting to our best selves, and creating conditions for other individuals, groups, organizations, and communities to do so also. Through making Appreciative Inquiry more transparent, the authors encourage us to be part of the contagion. I have heartily recommended the book to clients and colleagues. With deep appreciation, Bea Mah Holland

Outstanding Return on Investment
Note: the previous review I just submitted, I spelled the authors names incorrectly. Please adjust. Thank you.

An outstanding book with a priceless ROI!
First of all, we must note that this is a significant book among the many that have been written on Appreciative Inquiry. This book is brilliantly written with the practioner in mind and is easy to understand. I mentally refer to it as my 'happy book' since I grin and feel good each time I pick it up to read. It deals with those pesky questions such as, 'what do I do first?' and 'how can I get a large organization enthusiastic about using AI?' These ladies also give us some other options than using the AI summit (there are 8 options in all), which can open more possibilities and let us use our own creativity to apply to AI.

The book is organized into three sections: Chapters 1-4 explain what AI is and how it works, Chapters 5-10 explain ways to practice AI and the last Chapter 11 deals with why it works so well. Additionally, each chapter gives specific, practical advice on "how to" with charts and case studies. Perhaps the most valuable chapter is in the third section, which answers the questions "why does AI work so effectively? Perhaps you may do as I did and read this chapter first. This is a very powerful and valuable chapter.

Although based on sound theory and research, the real value of this book comes from the experiences each author shares with us, which highlights ideas and concepts with specific examples from the field. Appreciative Inquiry can seem to be deceptively simple. Simple, it is not. We have only scratched 5% of the learnings from AI's beginnings and there is so much more to learn and experience. The importance of this particular book is that it can be so helpful for both the novice (the one who is trying to understand what AI is all about) and the experienced practioner (the OD professional who uses AI in her practice). It is both a good first book to read to try to understand the underpinnings of Appreciative Inquiry and a tool book for us more experienced folks.

This is a good solid book to have on your shelf that you can refer to often to clarify understandings, theory, and applications of appreciative inquiry. It's a joy to read.

I highly recommend it; the ROI is priceless!

Helene C. Sugarman
Principle, Dynamic Communication
(Organization Development Consulting using AI) and
Chartered Co-owner of AIConsulting, LLP

User Friendly Handbook for AI Interventions
As a practitioner and passionate "convert" to AI from more traditional action research and deficit approach/gap analysis models, I wish I'd had this book 5 years ago when first exposed to AI. It is an outstanding "how to." The descriptions of various designs and activities were pleasant affirmation that the interventions I had designed were "right on." I found the authors' weaving in of actual cases and their candor about when things waned or executives pushed refreshing and reassuring.

The model in chapter 2 of "change agenda, form of engagement, and inquiry strategy" is an excellent way of looking at an initiative from the beginning, parallel to Peter Block's "entry and contracting" phase in action research, but in AI language and philosophy. Whitney & Trosten-Bloom add 3 more underlying principles of AI to Cooperrider's original work:wholeness, enactment, and free choice. They are right on in my opinion. What was particularly helpful in this section was the "principle in practice" followed by an example.

The tables of suggested steps/sequences for each section describing the 4D model in practice were particularly helpful guides, though the authors continually remind the reader of the improvisational nature of this philosophy and approach to positive change. The whole book was respectful of different learning styles and made meaning out of so much of the earlier, more academic publications about appreciative inquiry.

Whitney and Trosten-Bloom have created a very "user friendly," accessible handbook, well organized and written in layman's language. I find it helpful for the current practitioner of AI wanting to learn through the lens of case study snippets, for the novice wanting to learn how it works and how to "do it" before investing the time for more rigorous academic readings, for the manager who wants to approach change in a positive framework, and the OD consultant seeking new, innovative ways to co-create effective, energized workplaces with their clients.

Hats off to the authors for this most recent addition to the growing body of knowledge on AI!

A readable "how to" book about organizational change
The authors have produced a very lively and readable book that pulled me into the heart of positive change and the spirit of affirmation. Their stories of success establish them as credible organizational change experts. From the principles behind the theory, to the methods of operationalizing the change process, this book gives clear direction on how to start now and move your company (and its bottom line) in the right direction. Avoiding the dry and parched style of other OD books, The Power Of Appreciative Inquiry gently guides the reader on a path that allows each person to discover his/her own use of this wonderful change process. I recommend it highly to all small business owners. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Winners Never Cheat
Whan I wrote my tenth book "Human Side of Management" my friends told me that book on "normal human behaviour in business environment" will not work. Ethics is unknown word in Croatian business (or anywhere around the World), they said. Six months later whole first edition (2000 copies) is sold and second edition is on the way (bare in mind, Croatia has only 4,2 million inhabitants). Many copies were bought as a business gift to colleagues or bosses.

Therefore, book "Winners Never Cheat" was a great support and confirmation for me, showing that people are the same all around the world - some want to do business according to ethical rules, without cheating and with respect to other people and some always has an excuse that lying and cheating is necessary because everyone else is doing business that way. Fortunatelly, world market is big enough so one can find his own "blue sea nitche", show knowledge and skills, win without cheating...and sleep like a baby.

Endless treasures in a small package...
In today's often cutthroat business practices, it's important to remember the lessons we all learned when we were young.To help, read this short book...Winners Never Cheat - Everyday Values We Learned As Children (But May Have Forgotten) by Jon M. Huntsman.

Chapter List:Lessons From The Sandbox; Check Your Moral Compass; Play By The Rules; Setting The Example; Keep Your Word; Pick Advisors Wisely; Get Mad, Not Even; Graciousness Is Next To Godliness; Your Name Is On The Door; The Obligation To Give Back; The Bottom Line

Jon Huntsman is the chairman and founder of Huntsman Corporation, which was the largest privately held chemical company in the world prior to going public in 2005.Jon built the business from a small operation in 1970 to what it is today...a multi-billion dollar firm.But instead of using business practices all too common these days (think Enron or Worldcom), he built the organization based on solid moral principles that everyone knows are intrinsically right.A handshake and promise is something to be kept.You should surround yourself with people who have and live the same ethics and value that you have.Giving back to the community and those less fortunate isn't a nice thing to do... it's a moral obligation.It'd be all too easy to write this off as simplistic platitudes that are easier said than done.But Huntsman has proven they do work, and there are numerous examples in the book that offer proof.

This isn't a 400 page book that requires days of patient determination to get through.It's a small-sized practical book that's only 185 pages, and each chapter and concept shouldn't take more than 10 to 15 minutes to read.But once read, and if contemplated and applied, they will change your life in more ways than you can count.A highly recommended read...

Fresh air to fill your business lungs - enjoy!
"Winners Never Cheat" is a tonic for our jaded age.To those already imprisoned in cynicism this book will read like a bunch of soft platitudes suitable only for children, but worse than useless to anyone trying to make it in the "real world".Of course, the cynics are not objectively correct.Cynicism and bad behavior are only necessary when you deem them to be the tools of your trade.If you decide that lying really is a losing long term strategy and that short run gains aren't worth long term losses, well, lying becomes a stupidity and easily avoided.

This is not to say that the kind of honorable behavior Huntsman advocates in this book leads to easy business success or a world of bright flowers and constant sunshine.Far from it!Competition is still tough and things still go wrong.It is simply how you compete and what you do to get things right that matter.These "everyday" values make for a more sustainable success that lead to better personal interactions, trust, and a more enjoyable life for everyone.Business failure is unpleasant, but it is transient.Corrupting your character for short term success is bitter and not easily undone.

Huntsman fills this short book with anecdotes from his own successful career.We learn about lessons he learned in the Nixon Whitehouse working on HR Haldeman's staff.The author describes how he handled various negotiations for rather large business deals.He tells us that lawyers are invaluable as business tools, but not as a substitute for business thinking or creativity.He describes his personal relations with a few business leaders of large companies.

In a couple of these I feel he raises some questions that are never directly addressed.For example, he describes the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell as a friend without addressing what the huge and expensive reserves write down implies about the leader's character and leadership ability. He also mentions Armand Hammer as a friend!All I can suggest is to read about Mr. Hammer's true character in Edward Jay Epstein's terrific "Dossier".It is actually frightening to contemplate these two men being actual friends.I have to assume that Mr. Huntsman was simply using friend as a polite title the way Congressional enemies refer to each other as "my good friend".They could not possibly share genuine ideals and have anything in this book actually mean anything.

It is also clear that Mr. Huntsman has no use for Wall Street bankers.He must have hand some bad experiences in dealing with them.This makes me wonder why he ended up taking his company public.I also wonder if the bankers who helped him do so were honorable in his eyes or of low character.If they were honorable, shouldn't he have noted the exception in his book?If they were scumbags, why didn't he walk away from the deal?

Mr. Huntsman also makes a huge point of charitable giving.His personal example is inspiring and demonstrates what considered and generous giving can do to lift people and benefit communities.He also is unsparing of the notion that public corporations should be focused on profits for their shareholders.Mr. Huntsman says that as long as he is running Huntsman Chemical it will be doing charitable giving.This begs a thought experiment.Let's suppose that Mr. Huntsman were to retire, but still live a long, robust, and healthy retirement.Let's suppose that a chairman appointed by the board should decide, for personal reasons, to donate millions of Huntsman Chemical's dollars to anti-Mormon causes (Huntsman is a believing and faithful Mormon).Would this seem sensible or appropriate to Mr. Huntsman?That the person who did this would be immediately fired is beside the point.That shareholders in widely held firms have diverse interests apart from the management of the firm they own and that they are perfectly capable of their own charitable giving is really the point.When Huntsman chemical was a private and closely held firm, its giving was his business.Now that it is a publicly held firm, it is a different creature and has to act differently.There is a reason that I am more and more in favor of more firms staying private.

Two other short points.Two honest people with good intentions can still come out with different interpretations of simple English statements.I know this can all be avoided with careful negotiation, good contract writing and so forth.My point is that the fact of a powerful and even bitter disagreement is not necessarily evidence of bad character on the part of either side.It might well be that one or both of the parties is a ratbag, but they could both be good people who strongly disagree.This is important to note as you go about your business career and simply make sure to take extra steps to avoid such painful disagreements through prevention.

The second point is that I wish Mr. Huntsman had gone one step further.It is true that bad managers and dishonesty caused the financial tragedies at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, and others.However, who hired them?Why were they hired?Shareholders hired them by investing their money in these firms looking for the big returns.Those who lost money investing in equity in these firms are not innocent.They helped create an environment where the solid management teams of older less explosive firms were cast aside for the go-go huge return firms of the nineties.

We hired these clowns and they delivered the lies we asked them to tell us because they agreed with the lies we were telling ourselves about the likelihood of these huge returns.It is actually a dishonesty to simply blame the CEOs who ran these firms.Oh, they deserve every punishment they get.But let's not deceive ourselves that they were the only bad actors in this scenario.We were all acting in that dark comedy and deserve the wages earned.

Highly recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Excellent book
This book is definitely very advanced and is very clearly written. The approach will:
- state (and explain) business problems
- explain the rational in choosing the computer tool (despite the title, the book is not entirely focused on Excel).
- walk you step by step through the modeling process

The CD contains some valuable tools for advances topics (monte carlo and discrete event simulation). Frontline Systems were alo kind enough to send free of charge an updated version of the premium solver for education (the version on CD is not compatible with Excel 2003).

I consider the book a great value and recommend it to anyone who is willing to invest the time to learn from it.

Fasten your seatbelts...
I'll make two separate sets of comments - one for professors and one for students.

Students first... This will be a difficult course no matter which textbook you use. Having said that, I would say that the text is about average in terms of readability in comparison to other texts on the subject. There are plenty of realistic cases to illustrate basic decision/ management science concepts, as well as a very useful CD, with which I recommend that you become well-acquainted as the course moves forward. Not much has changed since the last edition, so you may be able to get by with a previous edition if the textbook (authored by Eppen). Be advised, however, that some of the chapter materials have been re-arranged, including the exercises at the end of each chapter.

For professors... You are probably already aware that this course can be challenging for the professor as well as the student, esp. with respect to how math-intensive you wish the course to be. I think Moore & Weatherford is an excellent text, but it is written as an advanced graduate text. I have been able to "tone it down" for undergraduates by accompanying it with a nice, soft, theory-oriented text on decision/ management science (featuring the teachings of Herbert Simon and some of the early decision science theorists). The text is accompanied with ample instructor resources including a very useful CD with solutions, decision science software. I would engage the students w/ the CD as early as possible. I have also found that the best exams for this course are take-home exams - give the students some moderately challenging decision models to formulate and solve, and focus your evaluation primarily on how well they are able to interpret the results and propose recommendations for decision makers, and secondarily on whether they were able to get the software to spit out the right answers.

Confusing and Poorly Written
Had to buy this book for my class. On the surface it looked OK -- plenty to screenshots and examples, but the problems arise when you try to read the long paragraphs. Language could have been clearer.
Book assumes solid knowledge of Excel, which should be expected of students, but still, some things should not be taken for granted :)
Another classic problem -- chapter 4 refers to examples mentioned in chapter 2. I hate this kind of cross-referencing !

Don't buy it if you can live without it.

...

Unnecessarily difficult to understand
This book is makes a difficult subject even more difficult. It assumes that you already know alot of the concepts in it. It kin of leaves you stumbling around in the dark. I hate this book and the person who wrote it with a passion. A good author should be able to explain concepts in clear organized language, I do not care how difficult.

Not for the uninitiated
I had to buy this book for class. Even the professor stated that the book was heavy going and has to be reread over and over again to understand it. There are examples but they really don't go over them in enough detail. This book is really for someone who already has a good user knowledge of excel and somewhat familiar with solver. Many of my classmates have expressed dissatisfaction with the contents and how it was written. My main complaint is that there are not enough examples to illustrate the many new concepts found in this book. This is a difficult subject and the book doesn't make it easier. ... Read more

Book Description

The eighth edition of Management: Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations is a comprehensive survey of the principles and practices of management as they are currently being applied in the United States and around the world. The content and features are structured to reinforce two continuing themes that are woven into the chapters narratives: (1) the never-ending effort by managers and organizations to meet or exceed customers needs and (2) the need organizations and their people have to be guided by effective leadership. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

detailed and useful
This book was a requirement for a class. It was easy to understand and apply. It comes with key terms in the margins for easy review and description. The chapters begin with a learning objective and concludes with a summary of each objective. Each chapter is filled with detailed information and highlights corporations and how they have applied each concept. I would recommend it for anyone constructing an organization or for those wishing to change management styles. It also, has a CD Rom that is incredible. ... Read more

Book Description

This book illustrates the central decision problems managers face and provides the economic analysis needed to guide these decisions. The authors believe that an effective managerial economics book must go beyond the "nuts and bolts" of economic analysis to show how these economic analysis techniques are used by practicing managers. ... Read more

Download Description

"""This is a naughty book, a really cheeky little brat of a book which ought to be spanked soundly and sent to bed without any supper. Except that, if you did that, you would be missing out on a delightful, entertaining smorgasbord of advice, insights, red herrings, and jokes that together make up a classic text for business leaders.""

¿Stefan Stern, Business Voice

Everyone knows where a straight line goes... but a squiggly line can go anywhere.

Computers generate straight lines. Life generates squiggly ones. That's why your predictable business strategies never turn out the way you expect. Too many strategy books see the world as if it were a straight line. Serious. Predictable. And deadly dull. This book knows something they don't. It knows you need to slay dragons and charm snakes in a business world that's awfully squiggly, but, also, endlessly fun and fascinating. So, this book takes you off the beaten path. Way off.

Here, strategy finally does bite back, at all the boring books and professors you had to stomach to get here. It'll knock you off your chair and help open your mind...to get past the ""straight line"" thinking that can't be right.

Dare to be creative, contrarian....heck, be bold and make your own personal strategy revolution:

• Strategy as a ""little black dress""
• Bringing simplicity and elegance back into strategy formation
• A deep dive inside the strategist's head
• What you can know, what you can't know, and how to tell the difference
• Seduction, not just deduction
• Using strategy to treat employees like lovers, not servants
• Strategy with the gloves off¿and the halo on
• Power, intrigue, punch, and serious jeopardy
• and much more...
• ...and much less

Bring passion, imagination, creativity, and fun back to strategy¿and surprise the folks at home!

OK, strategy is crucial. We know that. Everyone knows that. But why must it be so deadly serious? So plodding, uncreative, boring? Dull strategy books promote dull strategists who create dull strategies that fail. Now there's an antidote: Strategy Bites Back.

It's full of insight and daring, from Gary Hamel to Napoleon Bonaparte, Michael Porter to Hans Christian Andersen, all tied together by the triumvirate that is Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joe Lampel. Essays, poems, case studies, cartoons...whatever it takes to free your mind and unleash the crucial emotional side of strategy formation.

This is the whole squiggly shebang: strategy and gamesmanship, black dresses, and seduction...strategy lessons from your mother, from beehives, chess grandmasters, even the National Zoo.

Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel take on every sacred cow and entrenched belief that keeps you from recognizing your most powerful options¿and acting on them. Fun? Heck, yeah. But it'll help you define inspired strategies that offer huge upsides...and what could be more fun than that?" ... Read more

Book Description

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions -- both big and small -- have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice -- the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish -- becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice -- from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs -- has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

Reviews (18)

If choices are making you crazy read this book
Dr. Schwartz has exposed the difference between the best and good enough. He tells us that "maximizers" are people who want the absolute best, so they have to examine every choice or they fear they are not getting the best. However, looking at all the choices is usually frustrating and takes too much time. A "satisficer" is a person who looks at the options and chooses an option that is good enough.
Maximizers may look at satisficers and say, "they're lazy or they're compromisers", but Dr. Schwartz points out that satisficers can have high standards. Dr. Schwart points out that the satisficer with high standards is internally motivated. The maximizer is more externally motivated because they are not looking at themselves, they're looking at others to see if what they have is better. Dr. Schwartz points out that social comparison brings unhappiness.

Having Problems choosing books to read chose this one.
In The Paradox of Choice Barry Schwartz provides evidence that we are faced with too many choices on a daily basis. He also presents impressive facts of psychological evidence about how more looking actually makes us less happy with our final decisions. In the beginning of the book it talks about shopping at a grocery store and the number of options there. As the number of options increases, the psychological stakes rise accordingly. This book is helpful in many ways; it shows us how to reduce stress in decision-making. Faced with numerous options in today society Schwartz provided information on leaving your losses behind and focus on the future. He also touched on the topic of regretting, because it's hard to go through life regretting every decision you made because it might not have been the best possible decision. I recommend this book to anyone whose been faced with decision making.

After reading The Paradox of Choice I realized the over-whelming amount of choices I came across within the next hour, and how I had a difficult time deciding on what to do. Even with the number options I had to choose from I couldn't pin point on just one. This book is a tool that everyone should use in coping with day-to-day decisions.

Choose This Book!
The counterintuitive title of this book makes sense by page two, which is only the first of many wonders Schwartz makes happen over the course of this deceptively thin and breezy tome. Paradox explains why we feel like we have less time even as technology continues to promise to make life easier. In a nutshell, it's because we have too many choices and invest great amounts of time and mental capital in making decisions that were far simpler or simply didn't exist in the past. Schwartz start with examples like buying jeans--slim fit? baggy fit? classic fit? relaxed fit? tapered leg? button fly? zip fly?--or choosing phone service--AT&T? MCI? countless baby Bells? myriad cellular providers?--but quickly demonstrates that our choices in every area of life, including where to live, who (or whether) to marry, what to do for a living, and much more have expanded to a degree that we not only spend more time contemplating our choices, but experience far more regret afterward--or sometimes, he argues, choose not to choose at all because thinking about all the choices we must forego in order to choose just one paralyzes us--or makes the option we like the best seem less appealing.

Schwartz also notes that the increased array of choices combines with the human imagination in dangerous ways that make us sadder. Life gives us choices with fixed qualities--a good job with potential in a city far from home or a decent job with little potential that's close to home--but we compose our own options by assembling aspects of the real choices into fictional options that we then compare with reality. What a surprise that, as we learn of more and more choices, reality falls further and further short! I can't have it all: live close enough to family and retain the freedom to use distance as an excuse to avoid obligations, live in Minneapolis and also in a house with Brad, work with people I loved working with and also return to Illinois. Yet in times of distress, I (and all of us, Schwartz says) tend to compare the situation that troubles me not with a real alternative but with a fantasy constructed from several conflicting components. This is not a useful way to deal with whatever it is that troubles me, or any of us.

Fortunately, Schwartz closes the book by offering useful suggestions for understanding the problems unlimited choices pose in our society and dealing with them in our own lives. His book isn't perfect--it gets a bit redundant at times--but it's a fascinating take on a topic that plays a bigger role in modern life than many of us realize.

Feel better about your decisions...
Schwartz takes an interesting perspective on the decision sciences, exploring not how we could make decisions better, but instead how we can feel better about the decisions we do make.

He explains that we live in a world with overwhelming choice, where every activity from buying a box of cereal to choosing our ideal job offers us an almost unlimited set of options. But although these increased choices often make us better off objectively, they don't necessarily make us feel any better. Instead, we get anxious while making the decision and then feel regret once it's made, wondering if we made the "right" choice. Schwartz helps us understand the psychological underpinnings of our anxieties regarding choice, and then offers some simple but useful suggestions on how we can feel better in the world we live in.

I really enjoyed this book...and as a "maximizer" I found it very helpful. It's a quick read, so if you're at all intrigued by the title then I'd definitely buy it.

Interesting and helpful
I am deeply thankful to live at a time, in a country, where I enjoy unprecedented freedoms; I would never want someone else to restrict my choices. And I'm not sure that the author and I agree on this point.

However, "The Paradox of Choice" has certainly helped convince me that I could benefit from somewhat limiting my own options in certain areas, as I see fit. What I liked best about this book is the fact that its last chapter is devoted to giving readers practical, customizeable ways to control the ways in which choice can sometimes be paralyzing.

Worth skimming, at least. ... Read more

Book Description

Thompson and Strickland's, Strategic Management, has always included the most recent research in strategy in a way that students can understand and apply it to business cases and problems. In addition, Thompson offers more coverage of strategy implementation than most other texts, which many instructors think is critical if students are to understand the “how” and not just the “what” and “why”. Thompson’s coverage of Michael Porter’s classic 5-forces model is clearer and more detailed than in other texts, according to reviewers. With this edition the market leader looks better than ever before, offering a new 4-color design, improved writing style, and two new chapters on global and e-commerce strategy. The Thompson and Strickland cases have always been another strong selling point. Over the years, this author team has developed a great network of case authors and is able to select from the cream of the crop. And, having taught the course themselves for many years, they are very experienced in selecting the types of cases that will spark student interest and generate lively classroom discussions. Many of the cases reflect high profile companies, products, and people that students will have heard of, know about from personal experience, or can easily identify with. The new case line-up features an exciting collection of dot.com/New Economy companies. Cases are further selected to highlight other critical types of business and trends, such as non-U.S. companies, globalization, cross-cultural situations, relatively small, entrepreneurial firms, non-profit organizations, and more. ... Read more

Book Description

STATISTICS FOR MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS is the worldwide best selling business statistics text. It is currently being used at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world. This text teaches students how to apply statistics to real business problems through the authors' unique three-step approach to problem solving. Students learn to IDENTIFY the right technique by focusing on the relationship between the problem and data type. They then learn to COMPUTE the answer either by hand, using Excel, or using MINITAB. Finally, they INTERPRET the results in the context of the problem. This approach enhances student comprehension as well as practical skills, and offers maximum flexibility to instructors wishing to teach concepts by hand or with the computer, or by using both hand and computer methods. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

My Bible
This book became my statistics bible. After never attending any statistics classes at the University, I was suddenly forced to work with multiple regressions at work. This book helped me understand all about statistics that I needed for my business purposes. The examples are very helpfull to understand what the tests actually do and how you can solve your own inference problems. I read the whole book in about 10 days (2 hours a day) at the beach and now work mainly with the overviews in the last chapters when I have a problem to solve at work.

A lot of ambiguity and errors
I had to use this edition as text book for my Statistics Course in an MBA Program and found multiple errors and ambiguities in describing basic concepts. Lack of rigurousity in presentation is pervasive. Although an engineer by formation, I found this book a terrible reading as an initiation in statistics!

Warning don't go near the 5th edition
The 5th edition of this book, available still in many places, is one awful book. The instructions for most of the Minitab examples are incomplete and in many cases worthless. Many explanations are superficial and the tie in to the overall statistical picture is weak. I have heard the 6th is better, the 5th should not have been printed.

Basic an clearly understandable
This book covers a wide area of fields necessary for business and economic students. It also explains how to go on if necessary conditions are violated. Time-series analysis, which is very important for economic students, are not covered to the extent as other topics, but it nevertheless gives a good introduction of other statistical concepts necessary for understanding following books on time series analysis. For my opion there are a little bit to much exercises than necessary, for an autodidactic study but enough for class room work. A very fine feature is that there never come up terminologies which has not been discussed before and one can use MS-Excel.