DSI leaders, including Chairman Paul Schoemaker, Ph.D. and Scott Snyder, Ph.D., have written numerous influential books on profiting from uncertainty, strategic decision-making and business technology. Each volume challenges the way executives think about business strategy.
Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure
Schoemaker, Paul J. H., Wharton Digital Press, November 2011.
Everyone makes mistakes, but very few of them lead to success. In Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure (Wharton Digital Press), Paul J. H. Schoemaker argues that missteps can lead to brilliant insights that result in game-changing innovations. In fact, not making mistakes may be the greatest mistake of all. The trick is to know when and how to make mistakes that can jumpstart success.
“A roadmap for using business failures to generate path-breaking innovations…. Schoemaker presents broad and deep perspectives on why mistakes remain underutilized portals of discovery in most organizations. Although it may disrupt your mental models, this engaging, wide-ranging, and innovative book is a must-read.”
—Clayton Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator’s Prescription, and The Innovator’s Solution Read more praise for Brilliant Mistakes
Chips, Clones, and Living Beyond 100: How Far Will The Biosciences Take Us?
Schoemaker, Paul J. H. and Schoemaker, Joyce A. FT Press, September 2009.
The key scientific discoveries of the 21st century will emerge from the biosciences. These discoveries will impact our lives in ways we can only now begin to imagine. In this book, two of the field’s leading experts help us imagine those impacts. Paul and Joyce A. Schoemaker tour the remarkable field of biosciences as it stands today, and preview the directions and innovations that are most likely to emerge in the coming years.
“As physics was to the twentieth century, the biomedical sciences will be to the 21st. The explosion of new knowledge in areas such as genetics, neuroscience, stem cell biology, artificial organs and regenerative medicine promises to improve our lives, create new business opportunities and permit us to control many diseases while raising important challenges for our social, ethical and economic thinking. The Schoemakers have given us an incredibly useful book to stimulate that thinking and to shed light on what the next two decades might and should hold in store. One could not ask for a better guidebook to an exciting if challenging future.”
–Professor Arthur L Caplan – Director of the Center for Bioethics and Hart Professor, University of Pennsylvania
The New World of Wireless
Snyder, Scott. Wharton School Publishing, July 2009.
Wireless is emerging as the core collaboration and decision-making platform for the distributed, self-organizing groups that will transform business. These “digital swarms” are already emerging; with tomorrow’s 4G wireless technology, they will truly come of age. Enterprises will need to understand wireless communications in a new way: not simply as an opportunity to improve productivity, but as a core driver of radical organizational change.
“Snyder’s book provides a thought-provoking look into the 4G future. While technical details abound, the importance of this work relates more to the social, business, and political implications of 4G technology. Snyder has provided us a glimpse of how different our lives will be in the not-so-distant future, and done so with amazing insight. It is truly a must-read.”
Stanton Sloane, Ph.D., – CEO, SRA International
Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That Will Make or Break Your Company
Day, George S. and Schoemaker, Paul J. H., Peripheral Vision, Harvard Business School Press, May 2006.*
Examples of the praise received for Peripheral Vision:
“In this very engaging book, Professors Day and Schoemaker tackle the principal reason for strategic failure – the inability to interpret weak signals. The dominant logic and inertia in organizations are so powerful that leaders must make a conscious effort to overcome the resultant ‘vigilance gap.’ This book provides a methodology for ‘seeing the future and acting on it.’ A must-read for managers and strategists.”
–C.K. Prahalad, Ph.D., Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
“Great growth opportunities and dangerous threats are rarely obvious at the beginning. ‘Peripheral Vision’ is a sound, practical guide that helps managers to determine which developments on the periphery of their corporate vision they can safely ignore, and which ones pack the disruptive potential to fundamentally change the world in which they compete.”
–Clayton M. Christensen, Ph.D., Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Busines School
Profiting From Uncertainty: Strategies For Succeeding No Matter What The Future Brings
Schoemaker, Paul J. H. Free Press, July 2002.
What manager is not anxious about the future? We live in a white-knuckled age of rapid technological change and global instability. But uncertainty is not the enemy.
“Paul Schoemaker describes a strategic process that will better prepare organizations for the future. This book is an invaluable guide for managers in both the public and private sectors.”
Henry Hatch – 47th Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Commanding General
Winning Decisions
Russo, J. Edward and Schoemaker, Paul J. H. Doubleday, Nov. 2001.
Business revolves around making decisions, often risky decisions, usually with incomplete information and too often in less time than we need. Executives at every level, in every industry, are confronted with information overload, less leeway for mistakes, and a business environment that changes rapidly.
“In Winning Decisions, Jay Russo and Paul Schoemaker shed much-needed light on one of the most complex processes we go through every day. Exhaustively researched yet written with clarity and verve, it offers tools, skills, lessons, and insights that you will not find in any other publication. This is a book that will benefit manager and executive, whatever their field.”
Ken Blanchard – coauthor, The One Minute Manager©
Decision Sciences
Kleindorfer, Paul, Kunreuther, Howard, and Schoemaker, Paul J. H. Cambridge University Press, 1993, 470pp.
This long-awaited textbook provides a unified perspective of a rich and varied field. Using a set of illustrative examples, Decision Sciences synthesizes current research.
“A wide-ranging, up-to-date and realistic analysis of the decision making process, from both descriptive and prescriptive points of view. Especially refreshing and valuable is the authors’ inclusion of problem formulation and generation of alternatives for choice as crucial elements in decision making, and their emphasis on how limits on information and ability to compute consequences shape the whole choice process.”
Herbert A. Simon – Nobel Laureate, Economics, Carnegie Mellon University
Decision Traps
Russo, J. Edward., and Schoemaker, Paul J. H., Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing Co., 1989, 280 pp. (Paperback, Simon and Schuster, 1990; published in British Commonwealth by Piatkus Books under the title: Confident Decision Making; Chinese, Spanish, Portugese, French and Dutch translations have appeared as well).
Executives rate decision-making ability as the most important business skill, but few people have the training they need to make good decisions consistently. Becoming a good decision-maker is like training to be a top athlete.
“Schoemaker and Russo’s ideas are highly praised by Shell managers for their practical value and applicability.”
Ron C. van Beaumont – Head of Senior Management Education, Royal Dutch/Shell Group