Executive Decision Synthesis: A Sociotechnical Systems Paradigm (Contributions to Management Science)

This book provides a practice-driven, yet rigorous approach to executive management decision-making that performs well even under unpredictable conditions. It explains how executives can employ prescribed engineering design methods to arrive at robust outcomes even when faced with uncontrollable uncertainty. The book presents the paradigm and its main principles in Part I; in Part II it illustrates how to frame a decision situation and how to design the decision so that it will produce its intended behavior. In turn, Part III discusses in detail in situ case studies on executive management decisions. Lastly, Part IV summarizes the book and formulates the key lessons learned.

Victor Tang was VP of IBM China and Secretary General of the IBM-China Technology Cooperation Committee. He has held executive positions in IBM corporate strategy, forecasting, and has led many advanced systems design and development initiatives. He was also research scientist at MIT. He has advised F100 high technology companies and organizations such as the United Nations, China, and the Taiwan government, He has co-authored three books in technology management and product development. One has been translated into Chinese, Russian, and Korean. He holds a PhD from MIT.

Kevin N. Otto is professor in the Engineering Systems Design pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He was in the faculty at MIT. He is also founder of a technology consultancy. He is an expert in the design, verification and validation of complex systems. He has 160 journal papers to his credit, on risk management in new product development, design of low energy buildings, and public policy of low carbon systems. He is co-author the widely adopted textbook Product Design. His PhD is from the California Institute of Technology.

Warren P. Seering is the Weber-Shaughness Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Systems at MIT where he holds the position of co–Director of the MIT System Design and Management program. He has served as Division Head of the Design and Systems Division of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, co-Director of the Nissan Cambridge Basic Research Laboratory, and co-Director of the MIT Center for Innovation in Product Development. He is a founding member of the International Design Society and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His research interests are in machine dynamics, engineering system design, and product development. He has served as thesis supervisor to 150 undergraduate and graduate students. He holds the PhD degree from Stanford University.