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Heads, You Win!

How the Best Companies Think--and How You Can Use Their Examples to Develop Critical Thinking Within Your Own Organization

About The Book

New Coke. The Walt Disney Company's aborted theme park near the Manassas battlefield. AT&T's acquisition of NCR Corp. Were these merely the gaffes of individual decision makers, or do they represent larger, organizational deficiencies in critical thinking?
How confident are you in the collective brainpower of your organization?
The most crucial task facing any business leader in today's brutally competitive economy is to sharpen his or her organization's ability to effectively solve problems, make decisions, and cut through the information clutter. In Heads, You Win!, Kepner-Tregoe's CEO, Quinn Spitzer, and executive Ron Evans cite the experiences and share the advice of the presidents and CEOs of some of the world's most innovative companies -- organizations like Johnson & Johnson, Chrysler Corporation, British Airways, and Harley-Davidson, Inc. -- that are successful because they capitalize on the brainpower of every employee.
Filled with practical tips and techniques, and lightened with amusing, real-life anecdotes, Heads, You Win! is an indispensable tool for sorting through the complexities of running a business today and identifying the essential skills that determine a company's success.

Reading Group Guide

P> Discussion Group Questions
1. By what process can an organization develop the critical thinking skills of their workforce?
2. Why is this important -- how commonly is it done and what have results been from companies who have done it?
3. What is the role of the top executive in this process?
4. How can it be built into the organization's mode of operation--meetings, business processes and systems--both domestically and worldwide?
5. How don't problems get solved and what can be done about it?
6. Why is their "drag" on decisions in organizations and what can be done about it?
7. How do you determine how much data is sufficient to make a judgement?
8. What is the difference between content and process questioning and when do you use each?

About The Authors

Product Details

  • Publisher: Touchstone (February 25, 1999)
  • Length: 304 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780684838755

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Raves and Reviews

Lewis E. Platt Chairman, President, and CEO, Hewlett-Packard Company Heads, You Win! is a new business masterpiece. The writing is clear and the liberal use of examples helps cement the concepts. Business leaders who want to learn the "secrets" of winning shouldn't miss it.

Fortune magazine The authors' stress throughout is on the practical, the sort of common sense that, being rarely heard, compels readers to smack themselves on the forehead and exclaim, "How true!"

Robert J. Eaton Chairman and CEO, Chrysler Corporation Pursuing a competitive advantage in business can be a time-consuming and fruitless search through the ever-expanding mountain of business trends, fads, and theories. Now, in Heads, You Win!, authors Spitzer and Evans cut through the clutter and show how critical-thinking skills can provide the competitive edge that leaders and their companies are seeking. This book will change the way business people think and manage.

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