When managers and analysts make key decisions about an organization, they need to analyze the entire breadth of basic management functions--planning, organizing, directing, and controlling--and relate them to all the management areas, such as marketing, production, and finance.

When managers and analysts make key decisions about an organization, they need to analyze the entire breadth of basic management functions--planning, organizing, directing, and controlling--and relate them to all the management areas, such as marketing, production, and finance. Jerry W. Anderson, Jr. and John B. Camealy provide a tested model that leads the user through a diagnostic review of the entire organization and results in action recommendations. This model is unique in its capacity to pinpoint problems easily overlooked in the typical operational analysis and in its consideration of new advances in logistics. It compensates for the tendency of managers to introduce functional bias, based on their own experience or individual priorities, into the evaluation process. In the manner of a preflight checklist, this procedure guides even the most experienced management team through the analytic steps necessary for making sound business decisions.

The core framework of the book is a three-phase, problem-finding procedure. The authors provide details of each step in the process in appropriate chapters and suggest ways to use quantitative and qualitative analyses for each area. The corporate operational analysis they present has been used and proven effective by Fortune 500 companies and smaller companies over the last eight to ten years. Following their discussion of all inputs to the analysis, Anderson and Camealy demonstrate its application in a detailed case study, which offers conclusions and recommendations. Anyone involved with acquisitions, takeovers or the overall vitality of one's own firm will find this book a valuable tool, as will senior corporate executives and corporate consultants.