Why Decisions Fail critiques 15 infamously bad decisions that became public debacles. Including the Firestone tire recall and Quaker's failed acquisition of Snapple, the author examines how these mistakes could have been avoided and explains how any organization's decision-making process can be improved to prevent such failures. Author Paul Nutt began by looking at 400 decisions made by top managers involving such topics as products and services, pricing and markets, personnel policy, technology acquisition, and strategic reorganization. Analyzing how each decision was made, he determined that two out of three decisions were based on failure-prone or questionable tactics. He identifies these key errors and suggests alternatives that have proven successful


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
The Decision Debacles

Ch. 1 Blunders that Launch a Decision Debacle
Ch. 2 Traps that Catch Decision Makers
Ch. 3 Decision-Making Processes Prone to Success and Failure
Ch. 4 Traps in Failing to Lead the Effort with Agreed-Upon Claims
Ch. 5 The Traps in Unmanaged Social and Political Forces
Ch. 6 Traps in Misleading Directions
Ch. 7 Traps in Limited Search and No Innovation
Ch. 8 The Traps in Misusing Evaluation
Ch. 9 Ethical Traps
Ch. 10 Learning Traps
Ch. 11 The Lessons: Avoiding the Blunders and Traps

App. 1 The Decision-Making Research Project
App. 2 Estimating Risk
App. 3 Citations for the Debacles
References and Selected Readings
Index
About the Author