Publisher's Synopsis
A completely rational human being is analogous to a computer; it is the irrationality in human beings, which makes them human. There is more to human irrationality, as so brightly and rationally espoused by an Israeli-American professor Dan Ariely, the author of the three New York Times best sellers Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth about Dishonesty.Wisdom is the rationality of anticipating, comprehending and dealing with irrationality. Telling and teaching Wisdom and Acumen is not possible. Educators, coaches, psychotherapists and mentors can play a significant role, by assisting with the dissemination of knowledge and helping those searching for wisdom and acumen through challenging experiences and encouraging them to work on emotional awareness, emotional self-regulation, relational skills and mindfulness. Becoming wise is a very personal quest. It is only through our own experiences, learning how to cope with the major tragedies and dilemmas embedded within life's journey, that we would discover our own capacities and learn how to create wisdom. Business education has to deliver 'business literacy' and enable acquisition of 'business acumen' and 'wisdom.' An ideal tool would be to put learners into an ambiguous situation and guide them find the underlying cause of it. Repeatedly dealing with dissimilarities of ambiguity and diversity of situations would facilitate the purpose of business education. Hence the method of cases.The method of cases continues to be the best pedagogic for business education. Other pedagogical tools including computer based simulation can be good complements but even when put together, they cannot substitute the case-method. The first edition of this book with the title "Simulating Business through Cases: Creating and Using Cases for Business Education" appeared in 2000. Twenty-one years later, I am dusting the manuscript, reinvigorating the illustration, republishing it, as the popularity of method of cases is emerging again, and its credibility, as the finest tool for business management education, is getting re-established. "Wisdom of Business, Simulating Business through Cases: Pedagogics for Wisdom, Acumen and Literacy of Business" is the new title coined to reflect the revival of the method of cases with increased understanding of its usefulness.This book marks the launch of the "Nutshell" series of books, which are packages of intriguing and contrarian knowledge in very few words. I hope the reader would acquire wisdom by reading them, reflecting upon them and putting them to test.With this hope, that the readers would like to crack open more "Nutshells" in their pursuit for wisdom, I present to them this very first "Nutshell" as I welcome them to the to the third decade of the Millennium.
