Traditional thinking habits of businesses need to be greatly improved. Analysis and judgement are no longer enough to make important corporate decisions; you can analyse the past but you have to design the future. Corporate decisions depend on values. Disputes and conflicts often arise because of a clash of those values; each party in the dispute wants to pursue its own values, often at the expense of the other party. It is therefore essential that companies, managers and employees have a full understanding of the values of everyone involved to design a way forward that benefits all parties.

From the bestselling author of How to Have a Beautiful Mind and Six Thinking Hats, this groundbreaking business book provides a basis for value assessment, an essential tool in decision-making for 21st century corporations. De Bono demonstrates that values come into all areas of thinking, behaviour and decision-making and outlines a framework to focus employees' attention on a variety of values including human values, organisational values, cultural values and perceptual values. By introducing a scoring system to rate different values as strong, sound, weak or remote de Bono helps readers to prioritise and make executive decisions that count.

Edward de Bono studied at Christ Church, Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar). He also holds a Ph.D from Cambridge and an MD from the University of Malta. He has held appointments at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard. In 1967, de Bono invented the now commonly used term 'lateral thinking' and, for many thousands, indeed millions, of people worldwide, his name has since become a symbol of creativity and new thinking. He has written numerous books, which have been translated into 34 languages, and his advice is sought by Nobel laureates and world leaders alike. www.edwarddebono.com.