Escalation in Decision-Making: The Tragedy of Taurus.

The book 'Escalation in Decision-Making: The Tragedy of Taurus,' by Helga Drummond, chronicles the London Stock Exchange's attempt to develop an electronic share settlement process that would greatly facilitate the speed of settlement by eliminating the need for matching paper documentation from buyers and sellers. When the project, named Taurus, was announced in May 1986, it was expected to take three years to implement and would cost #6 million. Drummond tells the story of how the information technology venture was conceived, the numerous obstacles encountered, and the staggering costs involved (by the time the project was terminated in March 1993, the Stock Exchange had spent almost #80 million, and the total expenses, including costs absorbed by the securities industry, reached almost half a billion pounds). The book is both a case study and a theoretical analysis of escalation. Its fourteen chapters are evenly divided between description (telling the story of Taurus, based on interviews, documentary analyses, and media accounts) and analysis (linking the events and decisions to the escalation literature). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]