Practice of Business Statistics: Using Data for Decisions

Rating:
Summary: I would adopt it if the course focused on business
Review: While the authors of texts in basic statistics always claim to the contrary, there is a repetitive sameness to the books. Decades ago, general agreement was reached as to what topics should be covered in the class. Although the advances in technology have made performing computations much easier, that has not led to significant differences in content. Therefore, the only factor that differentiates texts is the style of writing and the focus and quality of the applications.
This book is advertised as being focused on how statistics is used in business, and the authors are effectively consistent in using examples applied to business. Their worked examples are almost exclusively taken from business settings and are appropriate for the current topic. The exercises follow the same pattern, they are numerous and answers to the odd-numbered ones are included in an appendix. The style of writing is at the right level for the introductory student.
Another unique feature of the book is that it is the core for a total package that has seven additional supplementary chapters. These chapters are:

*) Statistics for Quality: Control and Capability.
*) Time Series Forecasting.
*) One-Way Analysis of Variance.
*) Two-Way Analysis of Variance.
*) Nonparametric Tests.
*) Logistic Regression.
*) Bootstrapping Methods and Permutation Tests.

The supplements are separate from the core book, if you are interested in using one of the supplementary chapters, you need buy only the ones you need. This is very sensible, as the core material is generally enough to fill any semester class.
Since the statistics course that I teach is for students from all backgrounds, I will not be adopting this text for the class. However, if it was focused on the business student, I would.

Rating:
Summary: It got the job done
Review: I thought this book sufficed, but wasn't fabulous. I strongly preferred Moore and McCabe's "Introduction to the Practice of Statistics" better than this book, although it didn't have a business slant to it. Moore and McCabe are certainly the way to go, though, for stats, if you have a choice at all.