Executive Economics: Ten Tools for Business Decision Makers [Hardcover]

Shlomo Maital (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 1994

As a science of decision-making, modern economics is unparalleled in its disciplined exploration of social dilemmas. This book explains how economic thinking can help clarify business decisions. Using ten basic principles for calculating accurate costs, benefits, and prices, the author shows how all decisions can be reduced to two questions: What is it really worth? What must I give up to get it? Using running examples from both large and small companies, the book shows executives how they can succeed using the creative discipline of the skilled economist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Maital (Economic Games People Play) here confronts a major problem with the discipline of economics: business managers are often skeptical about what the dismal science has to offer the "real world." The author claims that economics can be of considerable value to managers if concepts are conveyed in understandable terms and in a way that is relevant to managers' experiences and needs. In answer to two basic questions-"What is it worth? What do I give up to get it?"-Maital demonstrates how concepts of economics like costs, value, price, inefficiency, productivity, information and comparative advantage can be utilized by general managers if presented in plain English unhampered by convoluted mathematical models. His homilies-"Good executives create customers. Great ones create markets"-make sense. Illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Maital gives us a practical book that illustrates how the economic way of thinking and analyzing can be employed to help clarify business decisions. Although countless other texts at least attempt and often do accomplish that, Maital's volume explains how to utilize modern economics as a decision-making science tool in a very simple way, that is, with little mathematics and academic jargon. The book explains 10 basic principles that organizations can use to understand costs and benefits and make appropriate decisions based on two straightforward questions: what is it worth? and what must be given up to get it? The 10 chapters make use of company examples and address such issues as cost, trade-offs, volume, competitive advantage, learning curves, risks, markets and demand, scale and scope, and break-even analysis. The final chapter discusses the necessity of "competing by cooperating" and summarizes the 10 tools. Executive Economics is written for the business executives who want to grasp the relationships between cost, price, and value and to see how to orchestrate these most basic concepts to enhance their company's success. Advanced business students and academics should also find it worthwhile. Joseph Leonard

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (September 5, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029197856
• ISBN-13: 978-0029197851
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #952,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for MBA Students, February 21, 2000

By 

Clive Reynoldson (Perth, Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Executive Economics: Ten Tools for Business Decision Makers (Hardcover)

Professor Maital's book has been used at ECU (Perth, Western Australia) on 'executive' short courses and MBA programs for several semesters. "Executive Economics" has been successfully combined with more 'conventional' or mainstream economics texts. Students have thoroughly enjoyed Maital's exposition of key economic ideas and find the blend of accessible theory backed up by real world examples very helpful in their studies. However, "Executuve Economics" is now rather 'long in the tooth'. The 1990s have provided so much new material for books of this kind. A second edition, revised and updated would be most welcome.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent set of tools for the executive, July 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Executive Economics: Ten Tools for Business Decision Makers (Hardcover)

I not only read the book, but had the opportunity to hear Prof. Maitel teach from it, along with other topics, at the M.I.T. Executive Program referenced in the introduction. Very practical approach to everyday problems.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Economics for busy business managers, August 27, 2003

By 

Govindan Nair (Vienna, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Executive Economics: Ten Tools for Business Decision Makers (Hardcover)

As an instructor in a graduate course in managerial economics for non-economists, I have struggled to find texts which would appeal to students and professionals who are sceptical of the value of economics as a discipline which can help in solving business problems.

Professor Maital's book is an exception. It speaks directly to executives by focussing on the kinds of strategic problems they face, and introducing fundamental economic concepts by illustration, not by the formalistic exposition of standard texts.

I find his book as an excellent way to illustrate key concepts such as opportunity cost, marginal cost, economic versus accounting costs, and other concepts that unfortunately too often mystify students - or turn them off.

Even if many of the examples now seem dated, I would heartily recommend this book to both instructors and students who seek to bridge the world of business problem-solving with the tools of theoretical microeconomics.

The book is organized in ten highly readable chapters. My favorite quote from the book: "If you face no tradeoffs, your company is poorly managed."