Emory University’s Dr. Patrick Noonan leads a roundtable discussion focused on Decision Making. Professor Noonan came to Goizueta in 1993 from the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where he earned his Ph.D. in Decision Sciences. He served as Goizueta’s Assistant Dean and Director of MBA Programs from 1996-2000.
Patrick’s field is “decision analysis,” which draws on both the wisdom and the analytical methodologies of economics, psychology, statistics, sociology and engineering to provide prescriptions for improving decision making in business, in the professions, in health sciences, in politics and in life. The objective of decision analysis has been described as “facilitating a high-quality conversation about a decision situation,” thus marrying rigorous analytical thinking with the native human strengths of judgment and intuition, embedded in the interactivity of decision making in real world organizations.
Patrick’s research and teaching in the area of managerial decision making combines his academic training with his real-world experience as a management consultant. He learned the profession at McKinsey & Company in the 1980s, and later as a Director at Planning Technologies Group (which he co-founded in 1990 and sold to Knowledge Universe in 1998), and offers workshops in the “craft skills” of consulting and problem-solving. He also is an expert on teaching & learning, especially in the business school context, and is a frequent facilitator of workshops for B-school and engineering faculty in the techniques of case teaching and other active learning techniques.
