Drawn from around the world and throughout the ages, this volume is a thoroughly entertaining collection of management decisions that changed the world. It ranges from the establishment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, to Walt Disney's decision to call his mouse Micky instead of Mortimer, to the creation of Amazon.com.
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Crainer's objective is to present a cornucopia of management decisions drawn from history to honor as well as to learn from them. He selects these decisions on the basis of the results achieved--they made things happen. In addition, he offers his "Hall of Infamy," 21 major decisions that failed. His 75 great decisions include Henry Ford's decision to start his own company; Sears Roebuck's decision to go into retail sales; Bill Gates' decision to license MS-DOS to IBM; Napoleon's decision to promote people on the basis of merit; and the ancient Chinese decision to institute a system of currency. The author's list of the worst decisions includes the sale for $1 of bottling rights for Coca-Cola; Xerox's rejection of the first PC and virtually handing it to Apple Computer; Sony's development of Betamax (a much better product than VHS), but failure to license it; and IBM's inability to see that PCs were indistinguishable and there was no need for consumers to pay for the IBM brand. Mary Whaley
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About the Author
Stuart Crainer (Oxford, U.K.) is a noted business and management writer who contributes regularly to The Financial Times, The (London) Times, the British Airlines in-flight magazine, Across the Board, and other publications. His many books include The Ultimate Business Library (AMACOM 0-8144-0395-6), The Ultimate Book of Business Quotations (AMACOM 0-8144-0447-2), The Ultimate Book of Business Gurus (AMACOM 0-8144-0448-0), Business the Jack Welch Way (AMACOM 0-8144-7033-5), and Business the Rupert Murdoch Way (AMACOM 0-8144-7034-3).
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A bad decision,
By S. M. Gil (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made: ...and 21 of the Worst (Hardcover)
If you buy this book, you will make the 22nd worst decision.The examples included in the book are not based in actual business decisions, irrespective of what the title says,althuough in the discussion of the examples chosen, the author tries to link the example chosen with daily business situations,with irregular success. Personally, I feel cheated by a misleading title.If you are a middle-to high manager, there is nothing there for you
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Multi-perspective Structured Decision Process,
By H. Arsham "Dr. Professor Hossein Arsham" (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made: ...and 21 of the Worst (Hardcover)
Stuart Crainer describes good management decisions made throughout history based on the ideas and insights of "executives, consultants, academics, commentators, and opinionated people from the business would and elsewhere"(p.xvi). The 75 greatest decisions are arranged under ten headings. They are Industry Inventors, The Name Game, Getting on, Marketing Magic, Lucky foresight, Leading by Example, Competitive Advantages, Bright Ideas, and People Power. Under each heading Crainer provides specific examples of decisions made and offers lessons learned. Although Crainer recognizes management as a scientific process and that management science has a place in decision making, he, also, contends that reality is often more complex than analytical models allow for. Crainer states that decision making does not always allow for consistent, systematized, or rational thinking. On human-side of decision making process, the author holds that emotion or prejudice also play a large part in the decision making process. He, also, contends that managerial decision making is based on intuition, experience, and analysis. While he believes analysis is a crucial part of decision making, he states that intuition and experience cannot be measured. He calls these components the "mysterious art" of management.In the section titled "Industry Inventors," Crainer recognizes those who created a new industry. Examples range from a posting of an advertisement by a slave owner to locate slaves in 100 BC to Bill Gates decision to license MS-DOS to IBM in 1981. Most notables are the example of Henry Ford's decision to start his own company in 1903. Crainer argues that this decision led to the first industrial mass production line, created a market for automobiles, and provided and outlines for industrial production. Ford, also, saw the potential for international operations and established his first sales branch abroad in France in 1908. The lessons stated by Crainer were to create your vision and that flexibility is a must. He holds that Ford saw the potential for a mass market for automobiles and created a means to provide it. He, also, feels that Ford's inflexibility in production and limiting of choices caused him to lose ground. Ford failed to focus on the need for marketing. "The Name Game" section focuses on the importance of a name. While this section offers only three examples, the discussion of Thomas Watson, Sr. deciding to change the name of Computing Tabulating Recording Company to International Business Machines was cited. IBM had no international operations at the time, but Crainer describes this as a "bold statement of ambitions"(p.28). The lessons cited for this example include thinking big and thinking internationally. In "Marketing Magic" Crainer holds that marketing is the essence of business. He, also, describes that great marketing decisions are noted for their simplicity, opportunism, and success. Crainer quotes Philip Kotler as saying, "Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets." (p.37) Richard Sears' decision to put his products in a catalog, thus opening a new rural market and the decision by Mattel to extend its Barbie brand by introducing Ken in 1961 are examples presented in this section. However, the lessons learned in the example of Harley-Davidson are invaluable. The example states the decision of Harley executives to start the Harley Owners Group (H.O.G) as a strategy that worked to get customers more involved with the brand. The lessons from this example include loving the product, connecting with customers, and making quality and issue. Crainer states that the executives' decision to form the group demonstrated a deep commitment to a product. At the time of publication, the H.O.G. had 325,000 members, demonstrating a true connection with customers. By using branding and name recognition for its products, Harley-Davidson also insisted on a high quality regime. Crainer describes that some decisions are based on luck, foresight, and gut reactions in the "Lucky Foresight" section. The most notable example in this sections that of the creation of the Walkman radio by Sony. Sony's chief Akito Morita is quoted as saying that "the public does not know what is possible, we do"(p.77) when faced with the need for market research. Morita envisioned the Walkman when he noticed that young people liked listening to music wherever they went. The lessons described by Crainer include starting with a philosophy, trusting your nose, and forgetting market research. Morita's philosophy help spawn Japan into an industrial power as opposed to the belief that Japanese products were substandard. The author illustrates the ethical elements to decision making in "Leading by Example." He describes the decision of Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills to keep his business open and 2400 people on the payroll after a fire destroyed his factory. Crainer depicts Malden Mills as unusual for a business in 1995. In an environment of downsizing, Malden Mills held onto traditional corporate values of loyalty and trust. Feuerstein used his personal savings account to maintain the payroll for the 2400 employees displaced due to the fire. In return for his loyalty, the factory was back at almost full capacity in 90 days and the employees' productivity and quality increased dramatically. The lessons learned from this example are clear, ethics pay and businesses are a large part of the community and the community is a large part of the business. In the next section Crainer portrays examples of good organizational designs. Of note in this section is the description of Michael Dell's decision to bypass dealers and sell direct to consumers. The demonstration of supplying superior customer service, decreasing costs, and improving product design are just some of the lessons learned from this example. "Getting On" describes the need for managing your own career. Crainer states, The route to outstanding performance is to identify and improve your unique skills, and then find jobs or assignments that match your skills, values, and so on." (p.123). An interesting example used to illustrate this concept was the decision by Napoleon to promote people based on merit. In a time when inherited nobility determined promotion, Napoleon recruited based on talent, irrespective of nobility. The lessons from this are that talent rules and understanding motivation are crucial. "Competitive Advantage" heading begins with a description of Porter's five competitive forces. Crainer relates that competitive advantage changes and can be bought. Interestingly, Crainer depicts Harvard Business School in this section. Crainer proffers that "no other school can match this potent combo of branding, finance, and ivy." (p.149). Crainer states that with the development of the Harvard Business Review and the HBS fund that Harvard created a place for itself. The major lesson learned from this example is customer loyalty. The Business School relies on alumni and donations to maintain its HBS fund for financial aid to its students. In "Bright Ideas" Crainer describes that you make your own luck. He states, "luck may come your way, but you still have to convert it into business reality." (p.175). Crainer depicts the creation of McDonald's in this section. He describes how McDonald's began as the idea of two brothers and was developed by Ray Kroc. The lessons learned include seeing the opportunity, maintaining control, and insisting on quality. In his final section, "People Power," Crainer recites the establishment of a center for executive development by GE in 1956. Ahead of its time, GE recognized the need to develop its managers and incorporate the organizational culture. Many companies such as. Ford, Intel, Apple, and Sun Microsystems, have since followed suit. The lessons here are in developing people for the future and that leaders must teach. Unfortunately, Crainer did not take as much care in describing bad decisions as he did with great ones. The 21 worst decisions may be placed for humor rather than true learning. Examples include the selling of the bottling rights for Coca-Cola, Apple's refusal of cloning its operating system, Xerox's turning down the first PC, and the failure of Matsushita to license Betamax resulting in the commonplace VHS video. Crainer does not delve into the reasoning behind these poor decisions to offer any true lessons from the results. Crainer, while acknowledging the existence of analysis in decision making, seemed to place a much greater focus on gut feelings as a basis. I am sure that all of the great decisions involved much more analysis than described in this book, however, it was refreshing to note that relying on your gut is still acceptable, when it works. I am assured that since one can justify, and communicate his decision that any means necessary to reach it are reasonable and defendable. However, de
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A collection of management examples in a compact package,
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This review is from: The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made: ...and 21 of the Worst (Hardcover)
Anyone coming into this book looking for a deep case study of decisions will be disappointed. This book is more of an introductory survey course into business decisions made - the decision is cited, given a page of explination and the lessons to be derived are bulleted to end the section. Some of the decisions are a stretch - noting the posting of a reward for a runaway slave as the first example of advertising. It's as if he took a number of management textbooks, distilled them into one cliff notes version and presented it in themed chapters. Yet that is why the book is so informative - you are exposed to a wide variety of decisions with the meat extracted for quick digestions. Decisions are stripped from a lot of their extraneous outcomes, and focus is put on what makes them great (or worst in the appendix). It is a launching point - giving you examples and letting you think beyond the story. The reader is left to ponder many of the points brought up. It is to show you how seemingly little things (Microsoft retaining the right to license DOS to other companies) can build empires. Sit down, read and absorb the examples, and then try to apply them to your decisions.
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