Executive Decision

About this board game

Executive Decision is a 1971 board game for 2–6 players with a 90-minute play time, centered on planning production, bidding, and selling finished goods.

Your decisions begin with your available capital. First, choose which finished goods you want to sell and determine how much to make. Then purchase the raw materials required for that plan, combine those materials to create finished goods, and sell what you have produced.

1. Decide which finished goods to sell and how much to make.
2. Bid on the raw materials needed for production.
3. Combine raw materials to create finished goods.
4. Bid on sales prices and sell the finished goods.

Both purchasing and selling require careful bidding. When supply exceeds demand, prices drop; when demand exceeds supply, prices rise. A bid below the going price gets you nothing, so choosing when and how much to bid is central to the game.

This changing relationship between supply, demand, and price creates room for interesting strategies while keeping the rules easy to learn. You must connect your production plans with the materials you can obtain and the prices available for finished goods.

Executive Decision is somewhat mechanical in its approach, but it offers a focused challenge built around business decisions and price movement. Designed by Sid Sackson, it is part of the 3M Bookshelf Series.