The Optimization Edge: Reinventing Decision Making to Maximize All Your Company's Assets - Hardcover

Stephen Sashihara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071746579 ISBN 13: 9780071746571

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2011

Synopsis

Steve Sashihara's book offers a groundbreaking approach to decision making. Using the newest advances in mathematics and computer software, companies can fully maximize their assets at every decision point. The Optimization Edge quickly introduces readers to this strategy in clear, nontechnical terms, with examples from the trenches.

Based on Steve's extensive experience working with major corporations across the industrial landscape, the book analyzes a variety of companies that are working on the frontier of Optimization. These multi-national organizations employ Optimization--which is also known as Business Analytics, Advanced Analytics and Operations Research--to make time-sensitive, complex decisions that drive up market share and profitability.

"For executives who don't have an optimization strategy, this book is a must read," says Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. "There's a good chance that the competition already has an active optimization battle plan--and the bottom-line savings to prove it."

The Optimization Edge provides real-life examples of Optimization, drawn from some of the most successful corporations--and optimizers--in the world. Top executives share their insights into the tremendous production and profit benefits of Optimization, while telling readers how to avoid pitfalls along the way. 

The book is written for a nontechnical business audience interested in moving from cut-back management to value creation and from decision making "by ear" to data-driven strategies that combine high-end algorithms with human judgment.

About this title

From the Publisher

Steve Sashihara is president and CEO of Princeton Consultants Incorporated (www.princeton.com), which helps clients optimize their assets through a unique blend of information technology and management consulting. Steve is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Roundtable and a director of the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF), where he has served in various leadership roles, including cochairman. He is a graduate of Princeton University.

From the Author

Optimization can be an intimidating word, at least for business executives. I wanted to explain in language they could understand--and that language begins with the kind of bottom-line results you can achieve--what Optimization is, what it uniquely adds to an organization's decision-making capability, and how they can go about exploiting its potential.

How can executives improve their game using Optimization to make decisions? Since I write for an executive audience, my focus is on relating the experiences of a forward- thinking breed of executives who have begun to distance their companies from competitors by deploying Optimization to make complex judgments about the best way to deploy assets.

Biggest challenge facing executives who are considering acquiring Optimization capability?  For one, getting over Optimization fright--the notion that Optimization is too complicated and is strictly for software geeks. In fact, executives need not--and should not--immerse themselves in the technical details. A basic understanding of the principals of Optimization and the kinds of problems it can solve is what's important. One other challenge: to convince senior executives that Optimization is not a substitute for their decision-making responsibilities, but a way for them to harness their judgment and experience, along with massive amounts of data, to make better decisions.

Most significant challenge in writing The Optimization Edge?  Telling, accurately and fairly, the stories of both client and nonclient companies that appear in the book, such as Amazon, McDonald's, SAS, UPS, and many others, was a challenge. And I promised myself not to have a single formula in the book--a commitment I almost lived up to. There is one easy-to-understand formula. I guess I just couldn't resist temptation!

Greatest reward in helping clients to optimize?  You have to understand that Optimization is not merely a technology, but a set of principles and a way of thinking about the key issues of the business--the way assets are managed, the way problems get solved and decisions made, the way data is put to use, and the way human resources are deployed. There's no greater reward than watching executives experience, for the first time, the lightning bolt of results that come from Optimization. But equally satisfying is watching the change in culture that takes place. Optimizing organizations put highest value on staking out the best solutions to strategic and operational challenges. No question, both these keep me going!

Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0071746579
• ISBN 13: 9780071746571
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288