Strategic Decision Making: Multiobjective Decision Analysis with Spreadsheets by Craig W. Kirkwood

Summary

Strategic Decision Making: Multiobjective Decision Analysis with Spreadsheets by Craig W. Kirkwood provides a practical and accessible introduction to using decision analysis in complex, real-world scenarios. It focuses on the application of multiobjective decision-making methods, teaching readers to balance competing objectives and quantify trade-offs. The book excels at connecting theory to practice by utilizing spreadsheets, making advanced concepts approachable for both students and professionals. Through detailed case studies and example problems, Kirkwood offers tools and frameworks essential for structured strategic decision making.

Life-Changing Lessons

1. Effective decision making often involves dealing with multiple, conflicting objectives rather than optimizing a single outcome.

2. Quantifying qualitative factors and visualizing trade-offs can transform confusing choices into manageable, transparent analysis.

3. Building structured models with spreadsheets democratizes the discipline, letting anyone analyze strategic decisions with precision.

Publishing year and rating

The book was published in: 1997

AI Rating (from 0 to 100): 87

Practical Examples

1. Environmental Policy Selection

   A government agency uses multiobjective decision analysis to select among alternative environmental policies. The analysis involves balancing costs, social impact, and environmental benefits. Through a weighted scoring model in a spreadsheet, trade-offs between protecting wetlands and minimizing taxpayer burden are systematically compared.

2. Product Development Trade-offs

   A technology company needs to choose between multiple product prototypes. Objectives include maximizing consumer appeal, minimizing production costs, and reducing time-to-market. The firm employs spreadsheets to assign weights and scores to each objective, guiding the team to a consensus.

3. Facility Location Choice

   A logistics company is faced with choosing a new facility location. Objectives such as transportation cost, access to labor, and proximity to major markets are considered. Using spreadsheet-based sensitivity analysis, the team assesses how varying priorities can shift the preferred location.

4. Emergency Response Planning

   City administrators use multiobjective analysis to plan emergency response investments. They weigh the objectives of response speed, coverage area, cost, and readiness for rare events. Spreadsheet models allow exploration of different funding scenarios and risk priorities.

5. Investment Portfolio Selection

   An investor applies multiobjective decision analysis to construct a portfolio balancing return, risk, and ethical investing considerations. A spreadsheet is used to evaluate how changes in market outlook or ethical constraints alter the optimal portfolio allocation.

6. Supplier Evaluation and Selection

   A manufacturing company needs to select suppliers based on quality, cost, delivery time, and environmental standards. The spreadsheet-based model helps incorporate both numerical data and expert judgement, resulting in a defensible, transparent supplier choice.

7. Healthcare Resource Allocation

   A hospital administrator must decide how to allocate resources across departments. Objectives include patient throughput, staff satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, and service quality. By modeling these factors in a spreadsheet, administrators understand the impact of prioritizing one objective over others.