Thinking Backwards: The Art of Problem Solving in Business

by Rob Van Haastrecht, Martin Scheepbouwer

Companies are lousy problem solvers. There are fundamental flaws in the way managers and their advisers make crucial decisions, including: unclear or missing objectives; spending too much time on the problem rather than on the solution; lack of real facts and evidence; giving direction without recommending concrete interventions; misalignment with key stakeholders; or simply missing good alternatives. This succinct but powerful guide aims to make you at least twice as effective a problem solver than before. Moreover, it will help you to make better decisions in less time and with less effort. The authors bring home four key principles in addressing business problems: Think backwards ; Get to the bottom of it ; Decisions are nothing, interventions are everything ; and Challenge the status quo and current thinking . After reading this book, you will make less mistakes and completely rethink the way you make business trade-offs.

Genres: Business

177 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2011

Reviews

[Marius Ciuzelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical, full of real life examples and case studies.
Problem solving is less about problems and more about ambitions and solutions. Authors suggest going beyond reasonable doubt: mind shifts come from logic, facts and challenged assumptions; they claim decission are nothing, intervention is everything which is exactly what do move people.

[Ajay Kalyankar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book puts across a nice and very relevant framework for problem solving in business. Though I felt same framework may not be applicable in most e-commerce business today. The examples are relevant but old, more recent case studies and examples could be have helped.
Overall a good read with high practical applicability.

[Artem · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book truly worth reading

There are many books out there. Most of them lengthily repetition of a one page idea to just the book’s price.

This is different. It is a complete guide to plan and implement big change management project in organization.

Must read for any middle management professional.

[Effendy Yahaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading this book, remember myself of previous career of involving large/big project that closely mapped the pros and cons as highlighted in it. Yes, top management does support it but there are concerns from senior management of managing to ensure the project deliverable match to his or her KPIs, so, it is biased. Engaging with consultant to streamline what we have in organization to what we should achieve has brought perception to project team member another level that it is hard to achieve. Guideline, standard practices had been applied, instead, the organization itself determine the rules however, it is not at the beginning of the project. THus, project delays.

[hemlet kiai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept in problem solving.