Bulletproof Decisions
How Executives Can Get It Right, Every Time
The thorough business book Bulletproof Decisions empowers executives to be successful decision-makers.
Ruben Ugarte’s reasonable business book Bulletproof Decisions suggests a strong decision-making framework.
The mental toll of decision-making can be heavy, the book says––especially for executives who face multiple high-stakes decisions each day. To counter the weight that piles up when decisions have unintended consequences, this book equips executives to make thoughtful decisions that will produce the desired results. It identifies the traits and factors that effective decision-makers exemplify; some are a matter of experience, while others are owed to intuition. Those who replicate these traits, Ugarte suggests, will grow in their ability to make decisions that meet their goals. And while the growth process may be slow, the book reassures its audience that strong foundations matter.
The book starts by exploring the forces that guide people’s decisions, including emotional, social, personal, intuitive, and moral forces. Then it lists practical strategies and tactics, like running a decision through a moral lens or double checking the validity of assumptions, to put its principles into practice. Its insights will prove valuable to those who lead teams—including when it comes to deciding which decisions a person should make themselves, which they should delegate to others, and how they might delegate in a way that equips their team to succeed.
Despite its considerable focus on data, the book also demonstrates the limits of a data-driven approach. It casts a critical eye on current trends and myths regarding data and decision-making—such as the excess of importance that’s placed on individual data-providing organizations. It bridges the gap between decisions that are driven by the extremes of data versus one’s gut, suggesting ways of “train[ing] your gut with data.”
The book’s real-world examples help to illustrate what kind of decisions are effective, and what kind are ineffective, in a variety of scales and situations. These include Sweden’s response to Covid-19, examples from sports, and Amazon’s decision to launch Amazon Web Services. While most of the examples are beyond the daily realities of average executives, they are inspirational and cautionary in turn, and clear, actionable principles can be drawn from them.
With its friendly but authoritative tone and steady pace, the book ensures that all of its work contributes to the holistic understanding of its principles. Its illustrations, flow charts, and tables are clarifying forces, too.
The thorough business book Bulletproof Decisions empowers executives to be successful decision-makers.
Reviewed by
Melissa Wuske
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
