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Joseph Cowley
Category:
Business/Investing
Publisher: Authors Choice Press
ISBN-10: 0595150780
Pages: 249
Copyright: 1969, 2000
An armchair guide to scientific decision-making
A classic in its field, THE EXECUTIVE STRATEGIST is a down-to-earth guide to the techniques of scientific decision-making known as Operations Research or Management Science for busy executives and managers as well as the general reader. It suggests ways to solve basic problems involving inventory ("When is enough enough?"), competition ("How to tackle a smart opponent"), allocating resources ("Meeting the demand"), waiting lines ("Quicken the queue"),getting things done ("Concepts of control"), and search, information, and replacement ("The needle in the haystack"), plus problems in other areas. The book begins simpy with a case history from mythology (the judgement of Paris), builds gradually, introducing the reader step-by-step to all the complexities of today's management sciences, and concludes with a realistic formula for putting the methods to work. Filled with easy-to-follow charts and diagrams and delightful illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Al Ross, and written with a light touch and an easy-to-understand style, THE EXECUTIVE STRATEGIST has been translated into several languages and, picked up by three book clumbs, has been a best-seller overseas as well as in the United States. Originally published in hard-cover by McGraw-Hill, it is now available for the first time in paperback.
Excerpt
In the world of nature, the effect of a poor decision is swift and sure. The rabbit pursued by a hound takes the wrong turn only once. As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the Supreme Court Justice, once observed: "The judgment of nature on error is death."
In international affairs the cost of error can be high in money and human suffering.
In the business world, poor decisions mean loss of competitive advantage, diminution of market, and dwindling profits. They can also mean loss of jobs and (eventually) the decline of business empires.
It is the executive who must make most of the major decisions, and the measure of his or her worth lies in the quantity and quality of the decisions he or she is able to make. But increasingly today, such decisions are the product of groups.
The more complex the problem, the more people are required to...
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