Asset management is becoming increasingly important to an organization's strategy, given its effects on cost, production, and quality. No matter the sector, important decisions are made based on techniques and theories that are thought to optimize results; asset management models and techniques could help maximize effectiveness while reducing risk. Optimum Decision Making in Asset Management posits that effective decision making can be augmented by asset management based on mathematical techniques and models. Resolving the problems associated with minimizing uncertainty, this publication outlines a myriad of methodologies, procedures, case studies, and management tools that can help any organization achieve world-class maintenance. This book is ideal for managers, manufacturing engineers, programmers, academics, and advanced management students.

Decision making tools are essential for the successful outcome of any organization. Recent advances in predictive analytics have aided in identifying particular points of leverage where critical decisions can be made. Emerging Methods in Predictive Analytics: Risk Management and Decision Making provides an interdisciplinary approach to predictive analytics; bringing together the fields of business, statistics, and information technology for effective decision making. Managers, business professionals, and decision makers in diverse fields will find the applications and cases presented in this text essential in providing new avenues for risk assessment, management, and predicting the future outcomes of their decisions.

Success. It's a goal that many seek to achieve. They see the limos, the fans, the front cover of major magazines as the ultimate prize. But is success really what it's cracked up to be? Sadly enough, it isn't. Successful people around the world are hiding from the glory, dodging greedy relatives, shunning star-struck commuters. Why? Because their peace of mind is under attack. How can they regain their time, their sanity, their normalcy? Failure. This humorous, ground-breaking "how-to" book will help all to see clearer that the simpler things in like are not that bad. And to achieve it one must fail, but fail in style.

The Value TRAI is a four part classification which has been developed to enable any business entity, process, project or job to be broken down into its component value elements. This then provides a framework for the identification, prioritisation, evaluation and management of business risks. In addition to the value TRAI this book introduces a series of simple tools which address business risks: both threats and opportunities.The Author, Chris Duggleby, has spent over thirty years managing chemicals businesses around the world working with several internationally respected partners. His recent work focused on the management of Joint Ventures and the design of Management of Change processes for transformation projects. His first-hand knowledge of managing industrial business risks has been used in the design of the tools and processes described in this book.Using a standardised set of easy to apply risk management tools is fundamental to the introduction of an enterprise wide risk management system. This book, supported by the www.bizchangers.com website, describes these tools and how to apply them.

While many social, economic, and political changes have occurred recently in internet public procurement and its decision support systems, there is still a lot of opportunity for improvement. Public Sector Transformation Processes and Internet Public Procurement: Decision Support Systems brings together research on different perspectives from academics and practitioners on the methods, theories, and practices involved in the growth and expansion of decision support systems as it relates to the public sector transformation process and internet public procurement.

In this indispensable book, a widely experienced business consultant provides a complete set of analytical tools essential to successful trouble-shooting, effective planning, and making better decisions faster, more confidently, and more often.

In clear, readable language, consultant and researcher Kevin Desouza accomplishes an unlikely feat: explaining artificial intelligence to nonspecialists, in a way that experts will recognize and accept as correct and immediately applicable. Workers in knowledge management are relatively isolated from each other, businesspeople are still unconvinced that artificial intelligence has much to offer, and engineers creating the latest algorithm or device seldom consider its value for businesspeople--Desouza seeks to change all that.

He maintains that knowledge will be traded like physical goods, and that businesses must leverage knowledge resources within its organizations to survive in a highly competitive marketplace. Introducing us the concepts and significance of knowledge management, he shows that incorporating artificial intelligence computer-based techniques into business settings can provide truly significant gains in productivity. This book is among the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive one-stop guide to the basics of knowledge management, plus a lucid explanation of A.I., and how to use it in almost all types of organizational settings.

The third edition of this handbook is designed to provide a broad coverage of the concepts, implementations, and applications in metaheuristics. The book's chapters serve as stand-alone presentations giving both the necessary underpinnings as well as practical guides for implementation. The nature of metaheuristics invites an analyst to modify basic methods in response to problem characteristics, past experiences, and personal preferences, and the chapters in this handbook are designed to facilitate this process as well. This new edition has been fully revised and features new chapters on swarm intelligence and automated design of metaheuristics from flexible algorithm frameworks. The authors who have contributed to this volume represent leading figures from the metaheuristic community and are responsible for pioneering contributions to the fields they write about. Their collective work has significantly enriched the field of optimization in general and combinatorial optimization in particular.Metaheuristics are solution methods that orchestrate an interaction between local improvement procedures and higher level strategies to create a process capable of escaping from local optima and performing a robust search of a solution space. In addition, many new and exciting developments and extensions have been observed in the last few years. Hybrids of metaheuristics with other optimization techniques, like branch-and-bound, mathematical programming or constraint programming are also increasingly popular. On the front of applications, metaheuristics are now used to find high-quality solutions to an ever-growing number of complex, ill-defined real-world problems, in particular combinatorial ones. This handbook should continue to be a great reference for researchers, graduate students, as well as practitioners interested in metaheuristics.

As there is a vast amount of information to consider when offering quality services, organisations have developed techniques for identifying risk factors to be taken into consideration when constructing effective business strategies. Developing Business Strategies and Identifying Risk Factors in Modern Organizations presents new methodologies currently being utilised to formulate and solve strategic issues in order to escape the jeopardy of possible business risks. By highlighting a multitude of sciences and their influences on modern organisations; this book is an essential reference for decision makers and researchers in business, industry, government, and academia.

Decisionmaking literature, which has emphasized the act of solving problems, has long neglected the need to identify problems as precisely as possible. This book examines the nature of problems and decisionmaking and their impact on people who direct an organization. It further focuses on how executives respond to take action at the upper levels of their organizations.

The book stresses problem identification, which executives frequently ignore because of their preoccupation with problem solving. It looks at the need to avoid viewing solutions as remedies achieved at predetermined milestones. It examines options other than solutions, such as accommodation and coping, and it looks at the executive environment associated with outcomes along a spectrum ranging from perfection, to progress, to failure. The author argues that executives should abandon the attempt to predetermine objectives over time and adopt a Problem Exchange Ratio (PER) concept. The executive then compares the status of problems over time, creating a ratio. The PER approach considers the problems that solutions themselves trigger. It then allows executives to see where they stand and suggests ways of ameliorating unwanted conditions. The author provides illustrative cases and episodes from both the public and private sectors. Combining theory and practical aspects of executive decisionmaking, this book gives the reader a fuller understanding of the link between decisions and problems.

Intervals of high-activity alternating with long low-activity periods can be found in many areas of daily life, with researchers coining the phenomenon as bursts. As burstiness has become prevalent in many fields, understanding it and knowing how to manage it are crucial in order to be able to get all the benefits associated with it. Burstiness Management for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides innovative insights into burstiness's role in decision-making in business and its function as a predictor of performance. The content within this publication covers topics such as burstiness in business and e-business applications, as well as consumer behavior and sustainable development. It is a vital reference source for business managers, business professionals, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students interested in understanding how burstiness and its consequences are processed in diverse and dynamic environments.

Praise for The PSYCHOLOGY of RISK

"The Psychology of Risk is equally vital for everyone from the day trader to short-term online trader to long-term investor. A clear, enjoyable insight into what makes trading success."
–Alpesh B. Patel, Financial Times columnist and author of Trading Online

"Once again Dr. Kiev delivers a book that should be read cover to cover and kept as a reference. The Psychology of Risk explores the elements of risk taking as they relate to the human psyche."
–John Floyd, Director, Proprietary Trading, Deutsche Bank AG

"In 2000 and 2001, benchmark U.S. equity indices experienced the worst two-year performance since the bear market of 1973—74. Among the winners in this tumultuous market environment were those that invested with short time horizons rather than those that utilized a rigid buy-and-hold ‘one decision’ philosophy. Against this backdrop, Kiev, in his familiar pull-no-punches style, delivers an insightful, timely, and pragmatic thesis that focuses on the inner game of trading: psychology, discipline, and the holy grail–timing. A captivating read for those in search of a performance edge."
–Ciaran T. O’Kelly, Head of Equity Trading, Salomon Smith Barney

"Ari has proven himself to be a keen coach of world-class traders. The Psychology of Risk is a great read for those looking to better understand what it takes to put oneself at risk in the market."
–Kevin Becker, CIO, Claiborne Capital Management, LP

"Ari Kiev has done it again. One of Wall Street’s preeminent trading coaches, he explores some useful principles of risk taking which will help traders to take their game to the next level."
Jay Goldman, Hedge Fund Manager, Goldman & Co., LP

"Using Train Your Brain, in two years, I've gone from zero to a million dollars a year in my business and paid off $30,000 in debt " Sarah Thomas, Basehor, KS

When Dana Wilde began her direct-sales business, she realized that education for entrepreneurs typically consisted of endless "how-to" explanations: how to market, how to pick up the phone, how to manage your time, how to increase bookings or sales. There always seemed to be a new system to learn, a new surefire method or cutting-edge technique for entrepreneurs to master.

In an effort to teach her team members a better and easier way, Dana Wilde created Train Your Brain, a tested and proven system combining elements of both mindset and action ... or as Dana likes to call it, Intentional Action.

What Dana discovered by using Train Your Brain is that mindset can be "taught" and that learning simple mindset strategies not only allows you to understand how the brain works but also shows you how easy it is to change your thinking and, as a result, change your outcomes.

In Train Your Brain, Dana breaks down the Cycle of Perpetual Sameness--the number one reason why most people only experience incremental change in their lives. More importantly, she also provides the much-needed blueprint to help you get off this counterproductive cycle quickly.

Train Your Brain, with its twenty easy-to-implement "Mindware Experiments," gives you all the necessary tools needed to get off ... and stay off ... the Cycle of Perpetual Sameness, so you can transform your life and grow your business in record time

In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Advanced Topics in Global Information Management includes original material concerned with all aspects of global information management in three broad areas: Global Information Systems in Business Fuctions, Information Technology in Specific Regions of the World, Management of Global Information Resources and Applications. Both researchers and practitioners disseminate the evolving knowledge in these broad categories and the book examines a variety of aspects of global information management dealing with development, usage, failure, success, policies, strategies and applications of this valuable organizational resources.

Today's workplace demands skills for a knowledgeable, productive use of information. Success, both personal and organizational, comes from finding what is essential and optimizing its effectiveness. Goad teaches readers how to swim in a potentially overwhelming sea of data. Information literacy--the ability to recognize the need for information, to locate, access, select, and apply it--was once an academic matter. Nowadays, this critical array of skills concerns anyone working in a knowledge-based environment.

This easy-to-read, lucid guide attends to basic skills, thinking and decision-making, creativity enhancement, innovation and risk taking, computer literacy, subject matter literacy, learning how to learn, and securement of on-the-job help. As a special bonus, Goad discusses an unusual but highly relevant topic: how do we place work into the framework of our lives, and how can information literacy help? Both public and private sectors will find this an important resource for people at all organizational levels, making it a must have for anyone whose world is built on information.

Decision-Making Management: A Tutorial and Applications provides practical guidance for researchers seeking to optimizing business-critical decisions employing Logical Decision Trees thus saving time and money. The book focuses on decision-making and resource allocation across and between the manufacturing, product design and logistical functions. It demonstrates key results for each sector with diverse real-world case studies drawn primarily from EU projects. Theory is accompanied by relevant analysis techniques, with a progressional approach building from simple theory to complex and dynamic decisions with multiple data points, including big data and lot of data. Binary Decision Diagrams are presented as the operating approach for evaluating large Logical Decision Trees, helping readers identify Boolean equations for quantitative analysis of multifaceted problem sets. Computational techniques, dynamic analysis, probabilistic methods, and mathematical optimization techniques are expertly blended to support analysis of multi-criteria decision-making problems with defined constraints and requirements. The final objective is to optimize dynamic decisions with original approaches employing useful tools, including Big Data analysis. Extensive annexes provide useful supplementary information for readers to follow methods contained in the book.

Beyond Knowledge Management provides a balance of conceptual and practical aspects of Knowledge Management, offering the opportunity for students and practitioners to understand and effectively consider knowledge management approaches in their organizations. Everyday examples are used to lead the reader into the development of Knowledge Management, then further into a conceptual perspective, and finally to the practical application of Knowledge Management in organizations.