Decision Making [antikvár]

Introduction Decisions. In many respects a business is a series of decisions linked by implementation and other activities. Decisions set the pace and direction; the rest is follow-through. Given the primacy of decisions, a company can compete and succeed only if it consistently makes good decisions—or, at least, better decisions than its rivals. Apple Computer's decision to take a flier on a digital music file-storage device—the iPod—was a wise decision. That decision, and the implementation work associated with it, revived the company's fortunes and rocketed its stock into the stratosphere. It naturally follows that bad decisions, especially those made at the top, are costly. Consider the case of Walt Disney Company's 1995 hiring of Michael Ovitz to be its president. Within a year, Disney regretted its choice and ended Ovitz's employment, with a severance package that cost $140 million. That's a lot to pay for a bad decision. But more pain was yet to come. A group of shareholders sued the Disney board for giving away a pile of their money to an employee whose work the board judged to be subpar. That suit, still in progress at this writing, has hit the company with more miUions in legal costs and has embroiled its top people and directors in depositions and courtroom appearances. The organization has gotten a black eye over the mess. But $140 million is small change compared with the losses that companies incur when decision makers make bad merger and acquisition deals. The 2002 merger between Hewlett-Packard and