Art of Decisions
How to Manage in an Uncertain World
By Chris Blake
March 2008
Financial Times - Prentice Hall
Distributed By Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9780273710998
232 Pages, 6 x 9 1/4"
$49.50 paper original
When you think about it, being a manager means constantly having to make decisions. Who should you hire? What should your budget be? How should you handle this project? And even more critically, what should you do today?
Decision making is one of those core skills that is assumed but rarely taught. Yet it is a complex behaviour and understanding more about how we do it and how we can use more effective decision making techniques, will pay dividends in any manager's day-to-day life.The Art of Decisions will ensure you have the skills to make better decisions every time. The book combines business case studies, lessons from poker, the learning from 500 years of probability and game theory, and decades of psychological research to convey powerful messages about decision making in business. It distils the meaning of good business judgement and highlights the subjective influences that haunt all decision makers, showing you how to recognise them and deal with them.
Written for the time-starved business manager, The Art of Decisions will have a universal appeal as it applies to all business sectors and any manager, from the newly promoted team leader to the experienced international CEO. No other book on the market addresses the fundamental issues of business decision making. The Art of Decisions plugs that gap.
ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction
1 The anatomy of decisions
2 Bad things sometimes happen to the good guys
3 In search of the perfect decision?
4 I know I am right (but I am not sure why)
5 Calling off the search
6 Investing, risk, and poker
7 Rules of Thumb: Part 1 – risk and investing
8 Deciding close to home
9 Deciding far from home
10 Overconfidence and the entrepreneur
11 The trouble with winners and experts
12 Map-making and the planning fallacy
13 Fear, greed, and risk taking
14 The Dragon’s Den syndrome
15 Rules of Thumb: Part 2 – fighting to win
16 The Art of Decision making
Glossary of poker terms used in the book
Bibliography
Features
Author
- This book will ensure you have the skills to make better decisions every time.
- Combines business case studies and lessons from poker; the learning from 500 years of probability and game theory, and decades of psychological research to convey powerful messages about decision making in business.
- It applies to all business sectors and all managers, from the newly promoted team leader to the experienced international CEO.
- Christopher Blake – the relevant career highlights:
- A successful business manager – managing director of publishing companies for Reed Elsevier, Thomson, and Wolters Kluwer
- A successful dot com entrepreneur – still an investor and director of the internet business established in 1998 (www.babyworld.com).
- A founding investment director for a listed venture capital firm (Inflexion plc)
- A successful private investor and experienced non-executive director
- A popular lecturer – an associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes Management School, and an Associate at the Oxford Brookes Enterprise Centre
- A poker player since his teens
- Unusually, Chris has experience of taking business decisions from all sides – as a business manager, an entrepreneur, an institutional investor, and as a private investor - and has stacked up a host of anecdotes from each world.
- The ideas behind the book have been developed from a series of talks he has given to business managers on decision making, investing, and poker over the past five years. Delegate feedback from a recent course included the following: “Dynamic and enjoyable”; “Challenging and stimulating”; “Very useful, particularly good for taking back to day-to-day job and decision making”; “Inspiring and thoughtful”; “Brilliant. Clear message, very good examples…”
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