Why Decisions Fail

Paul C. Nutt examines the behind-the-scenes decisions that led to some of the best-known corporate and public-sector disasters. He reconstructs how choices were made in cases such as the Firestone tyre recall, the Millennium Dome, EuroDisney, Denver International Airport, Shell's handling of the Brent Spar oil platform and the collapse of Barings Bank.

Rather than treating these episodes as isolated bad luck, the book looks at the decision processes behind them and asks where those processes went wrong. It is aimed at managers, executives and anyone who makes or oversees important organisational choices.

The book's central purpose is to help readers recognise the blunders and traps that repeatedly lead to failed decisions, and to avoid them.