What Are Heuristics? (Rules of Thumb)
Formal or Informal Decision Making: What Works?
How Do Business Executives Make Decisions? (Do Rules of Thumb Count?)
Vignette: The Doctor Knew Right Away
Theoretical, Vicarious, and Experience-based Decisions
When You Do Not Decide, You Have Decided (Do Not Procrastinate)
Why Technology Is Not Important—Or Is It? (Computers Are Dumb)
Vignette: The books are in German
Lessons Learned: Technology is Not the Only Solution
Lessons learned: Why IT matters
Experience Counts (What You Do Not Know Is Important)
Lessons Learned: Know thy Customer
Vignette: Volume is a Double-edged Sword
Lessons Learned: More Can Hurt
Learn from Your Failures (Do Not Reinvent the Wheel)
Vignette: The Wrong Estimate, Again
Lessons Learned: Whose Reality Counts?
Lessons Learned: When In Doubt, Do It Both Ways
Personal Presence Management (Your Time Is Not Yours)
Vignette: Daddy When Are You Coming Home?
Lessons Learned: Family Matters
Vignette: Who Works On Weekends?
Safety First (Without It Nothing Else Counts)
Lessons Learned: Check, Then Check Again
Lessons Learned: Top Down or Bottom Up?
Lessons Learned: Nobody can be a Prophet in His Own Land
Lessons Learned: Employees’ Input Counts
Quality Is Free (The Devil Is in the Detail)
Lessons Learned: Never Give Up
Believe in Numbers—But Not Too Much (What You Can Measure, You Might Manage)
Vignette: The Columbia disaster
Vignette: The Capital Investment Decision
Vignette: The Eternal Optimist
The Challenge of Knowledge Transfer
Lessons Learned: The Knowledge Sausage Slicing Method
The Customer Is Always Right (Most of the Time)
Vignette: The Customer Is Not Always Right
Vignette: Is the Customer “King”?
Lessons Learned: Value of a Demanding Customer
If It Ain’t Broken, Break It (Innovate)
Vignette: The Accounts Receivable Policy
Vignette: The President’s Office
Lessons Learned: Paradigm Shift
Vignette: Preparing for the Inconceivable
The Dog Ate My Shipment (The Inconceivable Is Not So)
Vignette: The Company Credit Card
Lessons Learned: Expect the Unexpected
Let Go of the Banana (Delegate) or (Delegation Pitfalls)
Vignette: How to Catch a Monkey
Everybody Knows the Future (Is Planning Overrated?)
Complexity Is Out—Simplicity Is In (Less Is More)
Vignette: It Is Too Complicated
Vignette: Every Software Function Is Not Needed
Lessons learned: Thinking Process Types
Meaningless Choices (Decisions That Do Not Matter)
Vignette: New Employee Benefits
Lessons Learned: Open Communications
Lessons Learned: Website Usability
The Bank Manager Is Not Your Friend (Do Not Go to the Bank with a Problem)
The Government Can Help (This Is Not a Joke)
Vignette: The Female Workforce
Lessons Learned: Working With the Government can Be Beneficial
Do Not Quit Your Day Job(Buying a Lottery Ticket Is Not Winning the Lottery)
Vignette: The Perfect Business Plan
Some Business Failure Statistics
Why Do Many Small Businesses Fail?
Top 10 Reasons Why Businesses Fail