Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Paul J.H. Schoemaker (Author)
Key Phrases: premature harmony, prospective hindsight, good decision process, Atlantic City, Royal Dutch, South Africa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Making "good, fast, frequent decisions... better than those with whom you compete," say J. Edward Russo and Paul J.H. Schoemaker, is a critical skill in today's business climate. They additionally believe it's a skill that all of us can learn, much like a proper golf swing. In Winning Decisions, they lay out a four-step process that constitutes "a broad, conceptual framework" applicable in virtually any situation where a decision is needed. Russo and Schoemaker, consultants and professors who collaborated on an earlier book about the roadblocks to proper decision making, turn their attention here to making decisions "with the head, not the gut." Their program is divided into four phases fully explained in their own sections: Framing, Gathering Intelligence, Coming to Conclusions, and Learning from Experience. In total, they reveal a disciplined system that will benefit anyone looking to make better decisions in just about any situation. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

The coauthors of 1989's Decision Traps offer a clear, straightforward explanation of how managers should perform one of their most basic tasks: making a decision. Russo, professor of marketing and behavior science at Cornell, and Shoemaker, research director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technology and Innovation, break their method into four steps: framing decisions, i.e., factoring in difficulties like information overload and the "galloping rate of change," and thereby determining which choices need to be addressed and which ones don't; gathering real intelligence, not just information that will support internal biases; coming to conclusions, i.e., assessing how one's company acts on the intelligence gathered; and learning from experience. The authors walk readers through each of the steps. Unlike many business books, this one is akin to a workbook, providing how-tos, case studies and worksheets so readers can put their ideas into play immediately. The authors highlight key concepts, and they even show an occasional humorous side. However, they stress that even improving the way one goes about making decisions won't guarantee that they'll be the right ones. Decisions still have to be executed successfully, and luck is always a factor. Still, with better decision-making skills, the odds are bound to go up. This book will prove valuable to managers at all levels of an organization. (On-sale: Dec. 26)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Business; 1 edition (December 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385502257
• ISBN-13: 978-0385502252
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #92,723 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well, so what are you going to do?, March 10, 2002

By	R. Shaff "Velocipede" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A relative glut of periodicals and books exist on decisionmaking, whether personally or professionally. Many have solid foundations, many are commercialized tripe. In MAKING DECISIONS, authors Russo and Shoemaker hit on a timely subject for professional managers or entrepreneurs. The economy has plummeted and the stock market has deflated propelling each individual responsble for their company's path to success into crucial, perhaps vital decisions on a daily basis. And the rapid rate of change is forcing all executives and managers to make decisions faster.

Given the current environment, it is well worth the time to revisit an executive/manager's most basic of tasks: making a decision...a subject devoid of attention except in academic journals or business books. In a straightforward, well-presented fashion, the authors break down the decisionmaking process into four steps:

1. Framing or deciding what you are going to decide-and not decide;
2. Gathering intelligence-real intelligence, and not just information that will support your internal biases;
3. Coming to conclusions-determining how your company acts on the intelligence it gathers, and;
4. Learning from experience.

The authors guide the reader through each of the steps providing insight into the process, highlighting key concepts, and providing case studies and worksheets so the reader can begin to track their own issues at hand. Russo and Shoemaker have presented this material in such a way as to demystify the "process" of decisionmaking. The "process" gets so much attention as being clandestine, complex and erudite. However, by providing a detailed framework reflecting a relatively mechanical and logical process to making a decision, the authors have uncorked the mystery. When confronted with the need to assess a situation, gather information and reach a decision, most managers depend on a hit-or-miss approach. This approach is different from executive-to-executive and is measured relative to the frequency and experience an executive may have "putting out the proverbial fire." While there's nothing inherently wrong or incorrect about this type of venerable process, this process typically results in a lower-end spectrum result when nothing but mid-high to high results will suffice as a necessary competitive edge.

The alternative approach presented by the authors allows executives/managers to reframe issues by asking such questions as "What is the crux of the issue that I am facing?" so that they don't end up solving the wrong problem (i.e. analogous to "looking from the outside in"). It also allows them to increase their options by doing such things as "not necessarily taking yes for an answer," when it comes to initial research findings. In fact, these alternatives may result in something quite creative and innovative, a veritable whack on the side of the head.

As they should, the authors stress to the reader that improving one's decisionmaking skills is not an ironclad guarantee to success. Execution of a solid operating (business) plan and being in the right place at the right time (luck) are factors tantanmount to any successful venture. However, it is rational and logical that if one makes better decisions, one's odds of success are bound to increase. And, as one gains experience in making decisions and acting upon the achieved results, desired or not, success rates grow exponentially.

A solid read.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book deserves more than five stars, December 29, 2004

By	R. Riddle (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an excellent book, one of the best I've ever read about decision making. It takes a structured approach to making decisions and discusses the "how" of decision making. It gives a bunch of ideas to use, mostly questions to help the decision maker focus his or her attention on the process of getting the decision right under uncertainty and time contraints.

The book, as great as it is, has one short coming to my way of thinking: it gives very little attention to intuitive decision making. I think that the authors have concentrated on deliberative decision making with the idea in mind that the process will ultimately become intuitive when practiced enough. Perhaps so. However, I would very highly recommend another book that talks about intuitive decision making, Educating Intuition by Hogarth. This excellent book may help a reader learn how to make the deliberative techniques part of the the intuitive decision making process.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy Smart Choices instead, September 17, 2004

By	A Reviewer "H" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This book is okay, but it's poorly structured and repetitive. It doesn't offer a clear, systematic process for making decisions. I think Smart Choices is a far, far better book. Simpler, better structured, easier to work with.