Key Business Solutions: Essential problem-solving tools and techniques that every manager needs to know (Financial Times Series) Paperback – August 25, 2011

Excellent framework with structured activities. I very much like it.

If you've ever been called into your boss's office - or are ever likely to be so summoned - and given a knotty business problem to solve (increase profitability in the Pacific Northwest, reduce the number of breakdowns on the production line, improve the conversion rate of the sales-team, offset the impact of raw material price rises on contribution, improve customer satisfaction levels ) then this book is for you. It's particularly for you if your reaction has been to smile reassuringly to your boss whilst inside you're screaming "OMG! Where do I start?""Key Business Solutions" will give you excellent ideas not only on exactly where to start but on how to manage the whole operation and solve the most intractable problem. With ineluctable logic, it proposes a range of simple yet powerful analytical tools for interrogating the data until it begs for mercy, processes for coming up with creative and relevant solutions for fixing the problem and ideas for selling those solutions to all of the key stakeholders.The peerless logic of the tools is matched by the peerless logic of the writing. The book takes you step by step through the whole problem-solving process. Your boss will wonder why last year he paid a top strategy consultancy 20 times your annual salary to solve a similar problem. He'll tell his boss what a great job you both did. You may even get a job offer from a top consultancy yourself at 3 times your current salary. That's not a bad return for an initial outlay of around $25! Do the math and buy the book.

Very useful in our day-to-day work. It contents rules of thumb for each área of your company in order to manage in a way "the simplest the best" !!!

Solving problems in business is an important aspect of running a successful company. It is a way to identify problems, potential growth areas, and manage employees. How do you go about this process? What is the best way to go about this? In this book Antonio Weiss explores the OBTAIN model. A problem solving model that is broken up in a variety of steps. Each step is part of the process to answer a specific question. Each step should be completed in order, and then at the end you should have an end product to show for your work. Mr. Weiss talks about a variety of issues. From keeping people in the organization informed. Managing group members. Each chapter is short, but it is full of a wealth of information. Each chapter has at least one example which shows how it would work.This is one of the better written business books. It is not as dry as many of the others. The chapters are informative, and do not waste your time. This is book written for managers and executives. But it should appeal to students who want to learn more about lean business practices.

Who wouldn’t want the tool to solve business problems? The British-Mexican Antonio Weiss has a varied and interesting history. With an academic background as an historian of the state and religion he moved on to become a management consultant doing work for the UK public sector. The author, also a contributing expert to Latin News and a Labor party activist, will soon publish an exploration of the religious beliefs of Margaret Thatcher funded by the Margaret Thatcher foundation.Weiss’ basic thesis is that business leaders - like most people – often lack a method to solve problems. This book is meant to deliver a proven methodology to guide the reader successfully through the problem solving process. The subtitle is “Essential business-solving tools and techniques that every manager needs to know”. I like what Weiss has written but I also think the book misses its mark with regards to the thesis. It does not deliver problem-solving tools for managers; it delivers project management techniques for management consultants or project managers trying to deliver a recommendation to solve a business problem. Hence, the author delivers a McKinsey-BCG-Bain-type of process answer to a more broad and general topic. With that said the so-called OBTAIN-model is among the better descriptions of this type of process that I’ve read.There are two parts to the book where the first by one chapter per letter describes the OBTAIN-project management process and the second part lists a number of business tools like the 4P’s of marketing, SWOT-analysis etc. In short the letters in OBTAIN stands for: Outline – frame the problem into a goal that you need to achieve; Break Down – separate the problem into manageable pieces that are easier to solve; Test –relatively early in the process a hypothetical solution should be developed and then this is tested, discarded or refined; Analyze – do the analysis to get to the root of the problem and verify your hypothesis; Imagine – come up with an innovative solution that is developed jointly with key stakeholders; Notify – have the right techniques to communicate the solution. In addition, there are the two steps (and chapters) on managing the stakeholders and managing the project team.For each process step one or two useful tools (like for example the Hypothesis Tree or the Prioritization Matrix) are presented. I also liked the chapter on how to communicate the solution (not surprisingly with a McKinsey-Barbara Minto type of presentation structure). Part two of the book feels more like an appendix even though some of the tools, like De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, perhaps can be said to be closer to the more generic theme of the subtitle.When I come in contact with the early-hypothesis driven management consultant model I’m always reminded of a quotation from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes that has become popular among investors ”The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession” – the point being that if you decide on a solution too early your research process will risk falling victim to confirmatory bias. On the other hand it is obviously equally true that more information has declining marginal utility and if you decide too late a lot of effort will have been a waste of time. The consultant leans towards an earlier decision than the investor with regards to this trade off.Further, I get the nagging feeling that such a strict process focus as in the OBTAIN-model could come in the way of solutions that really changes the playing field. The focus is to come up with “the right” solution that can be accepted by all stakeholders. This type of solution will probably lead to satisfied paying customers, but I’m not sure it goes further than that.If you work at a corporate strategy department or are an aspiring management consultant this is a very useful book to read.This is a review by investingbythebooks.com

All you need to put together solutions for projects or endeavours. Obviously crafted with great dedication and care. A very lucid and powerful book for any manager.

After years of avoiding reading business solutions style books, I finally decided to give this to try and I am glad that I did. I found it both concise and informative and easy to apply to the challenges that I face each day in my career. I would recommend this book to all people, from those who run their own business to those who work for bigger organisations.

The best collection of tools and described approach to problem solving in business I have read. And many have tried and failed...

Excellent book, very well written.