This book offers a simple introduction to the fundamentals and applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) without a pre-requisite for a sophisticated mathematical background. It provides a quick and intuitive understanding of the methodology using spreadsheet examples and explains in a step-by-step fashion how to use Super Decisions, a freely available software developed by the Creative Decisions Foundations. The book is intended to be a resource for decision makers with little or no exposure to the field of Operations Research (OR); however, the book can be used as a very gentle introduction to the AHP methodology and/or as an AHP hands-on supplement for standard OR textbooks. AHP is an intuitive and mathematically simple methodology in the field of multi-criteria decision making. Because of this, most AHP books assume the reader has basic OR mathematical background. However, AHP simplicity suggests that decision makers from all disciplines can take advantage of the methodology without struggling with the mathematics behind it. To fulfill this need, this book delivers a quick and practical understanding of the method that can be useful for corporate executives.

This book is about how models can be developed to represent demand and supply on markets, where the emphasis is on demand models. Its primary focus is on models that can be used by managers to support marketing decisions. Modeling Markets presents a comprehensive overview of the tools and methodologies that managers can use in decision making. It has long been known that even simple models outperform judgments in predicting outcomes in a wide variety of contexts. More complex models potentially provide insights about structural relations not available from casual observations. In this book, the authors present a wealth of insights developed at the forefront of the field, covering all key aspects of specification, estimation, validation and use of models. The most current insights and innovations in quantitative marketing are presented, including in-depth discussion of Bayesian estimation methods. Throughout the book, the authors provide examples and illustrations. This book will be of interest to researchers, analysts, managers and students who want to understand, develop or use models of marketing phenomena.

This volume examines different aspects of management consulting in an innovative and comprehensive way. The chapters are based on original research and cover a wide range of countries (e.g. Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Norway), consulting firms, and client organizations. They show how the consulting industry managed to reach the importance it has today; how consultancies and management gurus develop new ideas and/or repackage old ones; and how consultants find or retain clients and interact with them in a given project.

This collection of essays deals with the situated management of risk in a wide variety of organizational settings - aviation, mental health, railway project management, energy, toy manufacture, financial services, chemicals regulation, and NGOs. Each chapter connects the analysis of risk studies with critical themes in organization studies more generally based on access to, and observations of, actors in the field. The emphasis in these contributions is upon the variety of ways in which organizational actors, in combination with a range of material technologies and artefacts, such as safety reporting systems, risk maps and key risk indicators, accomplish and make sense of the normal work of managing risk - riskwork. In contrast to a preoccupation with disasters and accidents after the event, the volume as whole is focused on the situationally specific character of routine risk management work. It emerges that this riskwork is highly varied, entangled with material artefacts which represent and construct risks and, importantly, is not confined to formal risk management departments or personnel. Each chapter suggests that the distributed nature of this riskwork lives uneasily with formalized risk management protocols and accountability requirements. In addition, riskwork as an organizational process makes contested issues of identity and values readily visible. These 'back stage/back office' encounters with risk are revealed as being as much emotional as they are rationally calculative. Overall, the collection combines constructivist sensibilities about risk objects with a micro-sociological orientation to the study of organizations.

The future of work is already here. Customers are adopting disruptive technologies faster than your company can adapt. When your customers are delighted, they can amplify your message in ways that were never before possible. But when your company's performance runs short of what you've promised, customers can seize control of your brand message, spreading their disappointment and frustration faster than you can keep up. To keep pace with today's connected customers, your company must become a connected company. That means deeply engaging with workers, partners, and customers, changing how work is done, how you measure success, and how performance is rewarded. It requires a new way of thinking about your company: less like a machine to be controlled, and more like a complex, dynamic system that can learn and adapt over time. Connected companies have the advantage, because they learn and move faster than their competitors. While others work in isolation, they link into rich networks of possibility and expand their influence. Connected companies around the world are aggressively acquiring customers and disrupting the competition. In The Connected Company, we examine what they're doing, how they're doing it, and why it works. And we show you how your company can use the same principles to adapt - and thrive - in today's ever-changing global marketplace.

This thought provoking book is concerned with the need to deal adequately with uncertainty in environmental decision making. The author advances a critique of the use of traditional models and then develops an alternative model of decision making under uncertainty, based on the work of George Shackle. Richard Young forwards a critique of the conventional expected utility approach and, using an alternative conceptualisation of environmental uncertainty, contends that there are a number of different modes of uncertainty and that many environmental decisions are characterised by what is termed 'hard uncertainty'. The presence of hard uncertainty radically alters the way in which environmental uncertainty can be dealt with at both an epistemological and a practical level and poses a number of problems for traditional decision making frameworks based on probability. The author goes on to apply the model to a case study of the Belize Southern Highway - the first major application of Shackle's theory in the context of environmental economics. Detailing and explaining practical and theoretical approaches, this book will interest and inform academics in the fields of environmental economics and environmental science, geography, economics and social science, as well as decision makers in governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Have you ever come up with an idea for a new product or service but didn't take any action because you thought it would be too risky? Or at work, have you had what you thought could be a big idea for your company--perhaps changing the way you develop or distribute a product, provide customer service, or hire and train your employees? If you have, but you haven't known how to take the next step, you need to understand what the authors call the innovator's method--a set of tools emerging from lean start-up, design thinking, and agile software development that are revolutionizing how new ideas are created, refined, and brought to market. To date these tools have helped entrepreneurs, designers, and software developers manage uncertainty--through cheap and rapid experiments that systematically lower failure rates and risk. But many managers and leaders struggle to apply these powerful tools within their organizations, as they often run counter to traditional managerial thinking and practice. Authors Nathan Furr and Jeff Dyer wrote this book to address that very problem. Following the breakout success of The Innovator's DNA--which Dyer wrote with Hal Gregersen and bestselling author Clay Christensen to provide a framework for generating ideas--this book shows how to make those ideas actually happen, to commercialize them for success. Based on their research inside corporations and successful start-ups, Furr and Dyer developed the innovator's method, an end-to-end process for creating, refining, and bringing ideas to market. They show when and how to apply the tools of their method, how to adapt them to your business, and how to answer commonly asked questions about the method itself, including: How do we know if this idea is worth pursuing? Have we found the right solution? What is the best business model for this new offering? This book focuses on the "how"--how to test, how to validate, and how to commercialize ideas with the lean, design, and agile techniques successful start-ups use. Whether you're launching a start-up, leading an established one, or simply working to get a new product off the ground in an existing company, this book is for you.

The safe and continued functioning of critical infrastructures-such as electricity, natural gas, transportation, and water-is a social imperative. Yet the complex connections between these systems render them increasingly precarious. Furthermore, though we depend so heavily on interconnected infrastructures, we do not fully understand the risks involved in their failure. Emery Roe and Paul R. Schulman argue that designs, policies, and laws often overlook the knowledge and experiences of those who manage these systems on the ground-reliability professionals who have vital insights that would be invaluable to planning. To combat this major blind spot, the athors construct a new theoretical perspective that reveals how to make sense of complex interconnected networks and improve reliability through management, regulation, and political leadership. To illustrate their approach in action, they present a multi-year case study of one of the world's most important "infrastructure crossroads," the San Francisco Bay-Delta. Reliability and Risk advances our understanding of what it takes to ensure the dependability of the intricate-and sometimes hazardous-systems on which we rely every day.

A guide to the essential skills of project management, enabling you to bring in projects on time and within budget. Juggling all the tasks and resources you need to make a project run smoothly can seem like an onerous task - from engaging with stakeholders and scoping out the full specification of the project, through to keeping a rein on costs and sticking to schedules. Manage Projects Successfully offers calm and practical advice to help you with setting priorities, communicating with others, monitoring progress and dealing with unexpected events. Practical, easy to read and jargon-free, the book contains a quiz to assess strengths and weaknesses, step-by-step guidance and action points, top tips to bear in mind for the future, common mistakes and advice on how to avoid them, and summaries of key points.

This book provides administrators in public and non-profit organizations with direction and a framework from which to lead their organizations effectively. Taking a global approach to the issues administrators need to examine when managing a group of employees at any level (including budgeting and expenditures, forecasting, policy creation and execution, communication and reporting), this book explores the driving forces in organizational decision making. Author Nick Valcik takes a holistic view on organizational management, beginning with the core aspects of public organizations and the leadership competencies necessary to manage an organization successfully. Designed to be used on undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration and in public affairs programs, the book discusses the basics of organizational structure, delves into risk management issues, and offers a set of tools that can be used by administrators to make informed decisions based on actual data or documented processes. Throughout the book, real world case studies provide students and practitioners with a clear understanding of how exactly the right decision tool may be applied when facing a particular decision in any organization.

A clear, actionable plan to fight frustration at work, make savvier decisions, and avoid costly mistakes when we're short on time, attention, and choices

One of the most frustrating dilemmas for working people today is how to be effective when we feel we don't have time or we're facing non-stop demands. "The Power of Pause" process is a dynamic practice that Nance Guilmartin has taught thousands of people worldwide, equipping them to regain control of thoughts and avoid miscommunications. This tested method helps readers to take a moment to wonder what's called for when we feel we're short on time, attention, temper, or choices. In that instant, we can use a simple method to rewire our overloaded circuits, tap into our "missing-in-action" common sense, and raise our communication intelligence. This process is "not" about slowing down the pace of workday life. It is about enabling anyone who is time-pressed to make savvier choices and avoid costly mistakes.Shows how to exercise leadership skills that save time and strengthen relationshipsOffers a process for learning to engage in productive exchanges rather than attacking or being resigned Enables managers and teams to save time and moneyReveals how to fix problems and achieve goals with less stress

"The" "Power of Pause" methods enable managers and teams across varying industries/any industry to save time and money, fix problems and achieve goals with less stress-even in the face of competition, cultural and language differences, or tight budgets.

This book presents recent advancements of research, new methods and techniques, applications and projects in decision making and decision support systems. It explores expert systems and neural networks, knowledge engineering and management, fuzzy sets and systems and computational methods for optimization, data analysis and decision making. It presents applications in Economics, Finance, Management and Engineering. The book undertakes to stimulate scientific exchange, ideas and experiences in the field of decision making in Economy and Management. Researchers and practitioners alike will benefit from this book, when they are dealing with imprecision, vagueness and uncertainty in the context of decision making.

Leadership and strategy are intricately connected--one of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to formulate strategy. In an organization, only the leader has the power to implement strategic change. Thus strategic thinking is a necessary and fundamental cognitive ability of a leader. Strategic thinking requires both an idealism (to imagine a better world) and a realism (to acquire the resources, skills and organization to get there). However, most organizations focus on short-term thinking for their employees and leave long-term strategy to the executives. But no high-level executive in any organization is fully knowledgeable about the details of operations. Thus for realistic strategy, there is a need for good top-down and bottom-up communication. When organizational communication is only top-down, high-level strategy can become only wishful thinking by the CEO. The purpose of proper strategic thinking is to eliminate wishful-thinking from organizational strategy. Strategic thinking is necessary at every level of an organization, not just at the top. This book uses actual histories of business successes and failures to illustrate theoretical concepts in strategic thinking.

Appendices A Rotastore A. l Tabular Results for Different Models A. 2 Tabular Results for Different Algorithms B OptiTrans B. l Input Data B. l. l Input Data Common to all Solution Approaches B. 1. 2 Specific Input Data for the MILP Model and the Column Enumeration Approach B. 1. 3 Specific Input Data for the Heuristic Methods B. 1. 3. 1 Penalty Criteria B. 1. 3. 2 Control Parameters of the OptiTrans Software B. 2 Tabular Results B. 2. 1 Tabular Results for the MILP Model B. 2. 2 Tabular Results for the Heuristic Methods B. 2. 2. 1 Input Data for a Whole Day - Offline Analysis B. 2. 2. 2 Results for CIH and SA References Index Preface This book covers the analysis and development of online algorithms involving exact optimization and heuristic techniques, and their appli- tion to solve two real life problems. The first problem is concerned with a complex technical system: a special carousel based high-speed storage system - Rotastore. It is shown that this logistic problem leads to an NP-hard Batch Presorting Pr- lem (BPSP) which is not easy to solve optimally in offline situations. We consider a polynomial case and develope an exact algorithm for offline situations. Competitive analysis showed that the proposed online - gorithm is 312-competitive. Online algorithms with lookahead improve the online solutions in particular cases. If the capacity constraint on additional storage is neglected the problem has a totally unimodular polyhedron.

Evaluation examines policies and programs across every arena of human endeavor, from efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS to programs that drive national science policy. Relying on a vast array of methods, from qualitative interviewing to econometrics, it is a "transdiscipline," as opposed to a formal area of academic study. Accounting for these challenges, Evaluation Foundations Revisited offers an introduction for those seeking to better understand evaluation as a professional field. While the acquisition of methods and methodologies to meet the needs of certain projects is important, the foundation of evaluative practice rests on understanding complex issues to balance. Evaluation Foundations Revisited is an invitation to examine the intellectual, practical, and philosophical nexus that lies at the heart of evaluation. Thomas A. Schwandt shows how to critically engage with the assumptions that underlie how evaluators define and position their work, as well as how they argue for the usefulness of evaluation in society. He looks at issues such as the role of theory, how notions of value and valuing are understood, how evidence is used, how evaluation is related to politics, and what comprises scientific integrity. By coming to better understand the foundations of evaluation, readers will develop what Schwandt terms "a life of the mind of practice," which enables evaluators to draw on a more holistic view to develop reasoned arguments and well fitted techniques.

Add value with every decision using a simple yet powerful framework Few things are as valuable in business, and in life, as the ability to make good decisions. Can you imagine how much more rewarding your life and your business would be if every decision you made were the best it could be? Decision Quality empowers you to make the best possible choice and get more of what you truly want from every decision. Dr. Carl Spetzler is a leader in the field of decision science and has worked with organizations across industries to improve their decision-making capabilities. He and his co-authors, all experienced consultants and educators in this field, show you how to frame a problem or opportunity, create a set of attractive alternatives, identify relevant uncertain information, clarify the values that are important in the decision, apply tools of analysis, and develop buy-in among stakeholders. Their straightforward approach is elegantly simple, yet practical and powerful. It can be applied to all types of decisions. Our business and our personal lives are marked by a stream of decisions. Some are small. Some are large. Some are life-altering or strategic. How well we make those decisions truly matters. This book gives you a framework and thinking tools that will help you to improve the odds of getting more of what you value from every choice. You will learn: * The six requirements for decision quality, and how to apply them * The difference between a good decision and a good outcome * Why a decision can only be as good as the best of the available alternatives * Methods for making both "significant" and strategic decisions * The mental traps that undermine decision quality and how to avoid them * How to deal with uncertainty a factor in every important choice * How to judge the quality of a decision at the time you're making it * How organizations have benefited from building quality into their decisions. Many people are satisfied with 'good enough' when making important decisions. This book provides a method that will take you and your co-workers beyond 'good enough' to true Decision Quality.

Enterprise Risk Management: A Common Framework for the Entire Organization discusses the many types of risks all businesses face. It reviews various categories of risk, including financial, cyber, health, safety and environmental, brand, supply chain, political, and strategic risks and many others. It provides a common framework and terminology for managing these risks to build an effective enterprise risk management system. This enables companies to prevent major risk events, detect them when they happen, and to respond quickly, appropriately, and resiliently. The book solves the problem of differing strategies, techniques, and terminology within an organization and between different risk specialties by presenting the core principles common to managing all types of risks, while also showing how these principles apply to physical, financial, brand, and global strategy risks. Enterprise Risk Management is ideal for executives and managers across the entire organization, providing the comprehensive understanding they need, in everyday language, to successfully navigate, manage, and mitigate the complex risks they face in today's global market.

On the basis of fuzzy sets and some of their relevant generalizations, this book systematically presents the fundamental principles and applications of group decision making under different scenarios of preference relations. By using intuitionistic knowledge as the field of discourse, this work investigates by utilizing innovative research means the fundamental principles and methods of group decision making with various different intuitionistic preferences: Mathematical reasoning is employed to study the consistency of group decision making; Methods of fusing information are applied to look at the aggregation of multiple preferences; Techniques of soft computing and optimization are utilized to search for satisfactory decision alternatives. Each chapter follows the following structurally clear format of presentation: literature review, development of basic theory, verification and reasoning of principles , construction of models and computational schemes, and numerical examples, which cover such areas as technology, enterprise competitiveness, selection of airlines, experts decision making in weather-sensitive enterprises, etc. In terms of theoretical principles, this book can be used as a reference for researchers in the areas of management science, information science, systems engineering, operations research, and other relevant fields. It can also be employed as textbook for upper level undergraduate students and graduate students. In terms of applications, this book will be a good companion for all those decision makers in government, business, and technology areas.

Decision Making in Manufacturing Environment Using Graph Theory and Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods presents the concepts and details of applications of MADM methods. A range of methods are covered including Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), VIsekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR), Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Preference Ranking METHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE), ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realite (ELECTRE), COmplex PRoportional ASsessment (COPRAS), Grey Relational Analysis (GRA), UTility Additive (UTA), and Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA). The existing MADM methods are improved upon and three novel multiple attribute decision making methods for solving the decision making problems of the manufacturing environment are proposed. The concept of integrated weights is introduced in the proposed subjective and objective integrated weights (SOIW) method and the weighted Euclidean distance based approach (WEDBA) to consider both the decision maker's subjective preferences as well as the distribution of the attributes data of the decision matrix. These methods, which use fuzzy logic to convert the qualitative attributes into the quantitative attributes, are supported by various real-world application examples. Also, computer codes for AHP, TOPSIS, DEA, PROMETHEE, ELECTRE, COPRAS, and SOIW methods are included. This comprehensive coverage makes Decision Making in Manufacturing Environment Using Graph Theory and Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods a key reference for the designers, manufacturing engineers, practitioners, managers, institutes involved in both design and manufacturing related projects. It is also an ideal study resource for applied research workers, academicians, and students in mechanical and industrial engineering.

Eurocorridors are characterized by intensive transport flows and dynamic patterns of establishment and household locations. They are also considered the backbones of powerful spatial and economic forces in the areas that connect urban regions. One of the main difficulties in the spatial planning of eurocorridors has been the need to engage in different types of collective action. Such an approach can be extremely challenging in practice, useful to researchers in the fieldand to professionals as well.

In the light of this, the book s main objectives are:

- To define the problem by analyzing the key features, which include freight and passenger transport policies and issues; the territorial context, with its geographical, social, economic and cultural aspects; the plurality of subjects with different aims and resources and the lack of homogeneous information.

- To illustrate assessment models and evaluation frameworks (MCDA; Discrete Choice Analysis; Collaborative Assessments; Geovisualization Technologies) in theoretical terms and by the use of case studies."

The scale and complexity of research and practices of open innovation mandate a correspondingly sophisticated form of decision making. Strategic Planning Decisions brings together a number of tools that ease the decision process in technology companies, providing both conceptual frameworks and practical applications. Innovative approaches are presented such as an ontology-based model where all the relevant aspects of a potential technology are interrelated to provide a comprehensive and logically connected data pool for decision makers. Divided into two sections, Strategic Planning Decisions describe both strategic approaches using the decision tools, and tactical approaches. Some of these tools are expanded while some others are embedded in a model that will lay the ground for practical application. These include: bibliometric analysis, ontology, roadmapping, lead user, six sigma, and multi-actor & multi-objective decision making methods Recent research and relevant theory are balanced with up-to-date practical applications and hands-on techniques making Strategic Planning Decisions ideal for engineers who wish to keep up-to-date with current ideas in the field of TM. It also provides workable methods for practising managers from all levels who wish to apply a more rigorous approach in their work and consultants concerned with technology assessment and its management.