P A R T I DECISION-MAKING AND COMPUTERIZED SUPPORT DSS IN ACTION 2.2 THE 75 GREATEST MANAGEMENT DECISIONS EVER MADE
42 P A R T I DECISION-MAKING AND COMPUTERIZED SUPPORT DSS IN ACTION 2.2 THE 75 GREATEST MANAGEMENT DECISIONS EVER MADE
Management Review asked experts for their nomina- • In 1981 Bill Gates decided to license M S / D O S to tions of the 75 greatest management decisions ever
IBM, while IBM ceded control of the licenses for made. The resulting list is both eclectic and eccentric.
all n o n - I B M PCs. This laid the foundation for
All the decisions were successful and had major impact.
Microsoft's huge success and IBM's fall from grace. Here is a sample:
(IBM's decision here could be listed as one of the 75 worst management decisions ever made.)
• Walt Disney listened to his wife, Lillian, and named his cartoon m o u s e Mickey instead of Mortimer.
• The Chinese Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) produced Entertainment was never the same after Mickey
the Great Wall—a fantastic feat of m a n a g e m e n t and Minnie debuted in Steamboat Willie in 1928.
and engineering. The Chinese also developed what • As ambassador to France in the 1780s, Benjamin
is reputed to have been the first reliable system of Franklin, spent his time encouraging the emigra-
weights and measures, thereby aiding commercial development.
tion of skilled workers to the U n i t e d States—an early instance of poaching staff.
• In the nineteenth century, A n d r e w Carnegie • Around 59 B.C., Julius Caesar kept people up to
decided to import British steel and steelmaking date with handwritten sheets that were distributed
processes to A m e r i c a to build railway bridges in R o m e and, it is thought, with wall posters. The
made of steel instead of wood. The imported skills greatness of leaders has been partly measured ever
ignited the U.S. steel industry, and Carnegie since by their ability to communicate.
became a steel baron.
• Ignoring market research, Ted Turner launched the • Q u e e n Isabella of Spain decided to sponsor Cable N e w s Network in 1980. No one thought a
Columbus' voyage in 1492. This was a very risky sit- 24-hour news network would work.
uation that had a high payoff—the discovery of a N e w World.
• During World War II, Robert Woodruff, president of Coca-Cola, committed to selling bottles of Coke to members of the armed services for a nickel. Customer loyalty never came cheaper.
Source: Adapted from Stuart Crainer, The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made:... And 21 of the Worst,
• In 1924 Thomas Watson, Sr., changed the name of MJF Books, New York, 2002. Also see Anonymous, "Top 75: the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company to
The Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made," International Business Machines. The company
Management Review, Vol. 87, No. 10, November, 1998, pp. 20-23; and Stuart Crainer, "The 75 Greatest Management
had no international operations, but it was a bold Decisions Ever Made," Management Review, Vol. 87, No. 10, statement of ambitions.
November 1998, pp. 16-19.
in the design of a management support system (MSS). For example, the purpose of an air defense system is to protect ground targets, and not just to destroy attacking air- craft or missiles.
The notion of levels (i.e., a hierarchy) of systems reflects the fact that all systems are actually subsystems because every system is contained within some larger system. For example, a bank includes such subsystems as a commercial loan department, a con- sumer loan department, a savings department, and an operations department. The bank itself may also be a branch that is part of a collection of other banks, and these banks may collectively be a subsidiary of a holding corporation, such as the Bank of America, which is a subsystem of the California banking system, which is part of the national banking system, which is part of the national economy, and so on. The inter-
C H A P T E R 2 D E C I S I O N - M A K I N G SYSTEMS, MODELING, A N D SUPPORT
'qs.
System boundary
F I G U R E 2 . 1 T H E SYSTEM A N D ITS ENVIRONMENT