Overcoming the illusion of control

Some things in life are predictable. Others are not. Some events are controllable but others are not. Three professors provide counsel on how to improve your decision-making by factoring in chance.
A heavy oeuvre, one freighted with graphs, charts and algorithms? Not at all.
Dance with Chance is an instructive, witty, cool, and possibly even a profound eulogy to something not ordinarily expectable in business school teachers: the chastening role of chance in the discipline of management… and other areas.

The trio – perhaps because of their years spent attempting to bash sense into MBA students’ heads – in this work develop and propose a simple yet logical procedure to help non-academics make important decisions.

Shall I shoot myself in the foot?...

How should Edipresse, the publisher of conventional newspapers and magazines, face the competition from free dailies for advertising revenues needed by its daily Lausanne newspaper Le Matin?

New low-cost competition is about as popular with managers as a stoned android knocking at the door. But at the end of the day, it has to be faced. Such was the situation of Theo Bouchat, the head of Le Matin, the leading paid-for daily newspaper in Lausanne. Le Matin is published by Edipresse, one of Switzerland’s top publishers, with activities in both newspapers and magazines. The challenge to it came in the form of the appearance on scene of a new breed of newspapers, ones that are not paid for but are distributed for free.

Callaway customizes, could you?

Professor John Haywood-Farmer of the Richard Ivey School of Business (University of Western Ontario) has studied the success of Callaway, a leader in the golf equipment sector. Now, faced with limited acquisition possibilities and restrictions on technological improvements, Callaway has to turn to customer service for growth. Haywood-Farmer looks at a club customization program that the Canadian division designed to attract higher-end buyers.