Booklist Review
Crainer's objective is to present a cornucopia of management decisions drawn from history to honor as well as to learn from them. He selects these decisions on the basis of the results achieved--they made things happen. In addition, he offers his "Hall of Infamy," 21 major decisions that failed. His 75 great decisions include Henry Ford's decision to start his own company; Sears Roebuck's decision to go into retail sales; Bill Gates' decision to license MS-DOS to IBM; Napoleon's decision to promote people on the basis of merit; and the ancient Chinese decision to institute a system of currency. The author's list of the worst decisions includes the sale for $1 of bottling rights for Coca-Cola; Xerox's rejection of the first PC and virtually handing it to Apple Computer; Sony's development of Betamax (a much better product than VHS), but failure to license it; and IBM's inability to see that PCs were indistinguishable and there was no need for consumers to pay for the IBM brand. --Mary Whaley
Choice Review
From the ancient Chinese to Elvis Presley and Bill Gates, Crainer (a business and management writer) celebrates an eclectic choice of the 75 most historically significant management decisions. Through a series of vignettes organized into categories such as "Industry Inventors," "The Name Game," "Marketing Magic," "Lucky Foresight," "Leading by Example," "Competitive Advantages," "Bright Ideas, and "People Power," the one- to two-page essays capture the essence and impact of a management decision on an organization's future. Examples of great decisions include the credit card, the Walkman, CNN, the PC, the weight-loss industry, market research, and brand management. Each essay concludes with a "Greatest Lesson" which discusses the principle underlying the novel product or concept. Though only the reader can evaluate the "greatness" of the author's choices, the book provides an interesting, if sometimes controversial and often humorous, perspective on historical and contemporary decision models. Appropriate for general readers, undergraduate students, and practitioners. S. R. Kahn; University of Cincinnati
