Product details

This chapter is excerpted from 'Business Decision Making: Streamlining the Process for More Effective Results'. In this second edition of my book Business Decision Making, besides updating the material presented in the first edition to ensure both the references and the websites remain relevant to our fast-changing online environment, I have added a new chapter covering the topic of interest to most business leaders: retirement. How does one plan the often-difficult decision of 'letting go' after more than 40 years in business? I have summarized my 40-year experience as a business executive and professor of business in a book on business decision making based on my professional experience and complemented by academic research. Rather than approaching this topic from an academic or a theoretical point of view, I have described a series of real-life business events that most executives encounter during their professional career. These events are written in the form of 'vignettes' - scripts or sketch stories that illustrate the problems the executive (me or some of my colleagues in this case) faced, the decisions that were ensued, and the business consequences that followed (lessons learned). Each chapter contains some vignettes in the form of anecdotal events that emphasize the decision-making process taking place and lessons learned. This is not a book on theories or techniques - it is a hands-on description of what happens when one encounters various 'common' challenging business situations involving customers, employees, bankers, and so forth. I wrote this book over a period of about 3 years, hesitating to publish it because it relates to real-life events. Once modified to protect the 'guilty', its material could be shared with others. Since its first edition some 5 years ago, I deemed that it was time to revisit this book's content in order to update it and complement it with some information relevant to those who would want to go beyond business-only issues. Therefore, I have added one chapter on retirement from business - a challenge for most executives. This chapter covers the following topics: 1) Freedom 55: myth or reality?, 2) Vignette: when I turned 55, 3) Finance legacy expectations, 4) Are there other options?, 5) Lessons learned: when planning needs to change, 6) Will I ever retire?, 7) Vignette: I have retired several times already, 8) Working or not, this is the question, and 9) Lessons learned: life goes on.