HEADS YOU WIN: How the Best Companies Think (Hardcover)

by Quinn Spitzer (Author), Ron Evans (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Quinn Spitzer and Ron Evans of the Kepner-Tregoe consulting firm believe "critical thinking" is the true route to a winning business. It is the foundation upon which all other management theories are built, they argue, but it has changed over the years in a manner that few truly understand. In Heads You Win: How The Best Companies Think, they analyze the way top corporations are now harnessing the collective brainpower in their organizations to achieve success.

From Publishers Weekly
Management fads come and go, but there is a constant in the workplace, argue the authors (CEO and practice leader, respectively, of a Pennsylvania consulting firm): Executives need to know how to think. Specifically, they must be able to analyze situations, identify the cause of problems and quickly implement solutions, make applicable decisions and seize opportunities. The authors demonstrate here how successful companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Chrysler and British Airways carry out this process. Consistent with their belief about how to solve problems, Spitzer and Evans break down each step into small bites, using a straightforward approach that recognizes that management books need not be deadly dull. "The initial objective of problem solving is not to solve the problem, but to keep from doing something stupid," they advise. They even provide a lengthy appendix that contains dozens of questions and forms to use in spurring critical thinking. When a new business buzzword is created every few months, a reminder of the importance of the basics is refreshing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (February 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068480431X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684804316
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,574,670 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful in improving quality of decision making, July 24, 2000

By	Anurag Gupta "platform guru" (Foster City, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I pride myself on my decision making / problem solving / analysis skills. Others have told me that I'm good at identifying the most important issues out of lots of data / information / (often contradictory) evidence. So, I got the book for a quick skim and to fill "gaps". The first few chapters didn't add much value. However, the last 2/3 of the book outlined a fairly simple and straight-forward decision making process. I have found this process useful to "pause" when analyzing / making decisions and become more aware of which implications can be directly deduced, which ones are hypothesis (thru intuition), and how to verify / refute the latter. I applied the process formally to making a decision to renew third party software license in our organization. One email detailing the situation and decision making process elicited meaningful / thoughtful / comprehensive comments and fact gathering.