to topics within the book.
The authors make good and frequent use of charts, graphs, forms and other graphic techniques to illustrate their points. Each chapter concludes with a selected bibliography that the student may use for additional research, The book is printed entirely in black ink; the use of color for key concepts would have enhanced the book's value as a teaching text. Visually, the book is crowded without much white space for readers to make notes. Key concepts could also have been separated from supporting text in a more clear manner. While each chapter has a summary, they do not have an introduction or a listing of key words of concepts that the student should learn as a result of studying each chapter. Such aids would make the book more valuable and enhance the learning experience of readers.
Chapter 1 examines why some businesses fail and why others succeed. The first sentence in the book states exactly where the authors stand on the issue: "Businesses fail because managers fail" (p. 1). The authors present a chart that illustrates how businesses large and small can both have "relatively short successful life spans" (p. 1) Reasons for the ultimate failure are presented in this chart, and the authors go into greater detail in the text.
Fundamentally, the authors find that managers in business are unable to determine what action to take, or are unable to implement the necessary action once they have identified it. The reasons for these shortcomings are many, but the authors find that managers may be unable to differentiate between problems and symptoms. To help their readers overcome this problem and successfully manage one or more businesses, Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse identify five points that they address in the remaining 14 chapters.
One, they present the field of action in which managers must operate. Two, they describe common major problems that must be identified and solved in order for f...