This review is of the second edition of “Business Statistics in Practice” which was published in 2001 and is one of a series of titles under the publisher’s Operations and Decision Sciences series. The first edition was published under the title “Applied Statistics: Improving Business Processes”. The aims and objectives of the book as stated by the authors are “This is a modern and practical approach to the first course in business statistics”. The book is targeted primarily at undergraduate business students with no specific background in statistics: “The only prerequisite for this book is high school algebra” that is the book starts from first principles in statistics and probability and develops the material from there. Having said that the scope and range of the material especially the supplementary material on the CDROM would allow it to be used for more than just an introductory course and indeed for MBA students. However the main theme of the book is its focus on statistics within the context of business. In particular it is generously illustrated with business case studies and exercises. “The ultimate goal of statistical analysis in business is business improvement. This theme is the foundation for the case studies and examples in this text many of which are based on actual real world situations.”
