Traditionally, leadership has been equated with vision. We look to leaders in business and government to have the genius to know the future and lead the rest of us to where that vision becomes a reality. We look for goals to beckon us and rely on strategic plans to guide us, all the while knowing how unreliable and unpredictable the future might be. Emerging realities (the financial crisis of 2008, the rise and fall of oil prices, the creative destruction of the Internet, for instance) often distort and destroy established maps. How do we plan when plans become irrelevant?
Through his celebrated career as a professor of business and a medicine man to companies big and small, Donald Sull has studied how best to reconcile this paradox. The essence of leadership, in the deep logic that underpins this book, relies on a leader's flexible tenacity to plot a course that can withstand and even be propelled by the complexity and dynamism that the modern business terrain contains.
Based on a decade of research, historical case studies, and intensive work with established enterprises and start-ups, this book lays out the fundamental logic of opportunity and provides a series of practical steps to translate insight into action.
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“Like the agile organizations he describes in The Upside of Turbulence, Donald Sull leaps deftly among ideas and examples... Will help senior executives act and succeed in a world where the future is always foggy, plans are inherently unreliable, and opportunities and threats come seemingly out of nowhere.”
— Tom Stewart, author of Intellectual Capital
“It is a ‘must read’ for all those that wish to understand the dynamics of managing through turbulence in order to capture the opportunities and limit the threats.”
— Mohamed El-Erian, author of When Markets Collide“Along with lucid writing, the genius in this compelling business book is the way the author varies his material…Loren Lester’s alert, nuanced reading is a treat to hear. His performance, consistent and flawless in every regard, helps make this one of the most enlightening audios available on organizational strategy.”
— AudioFile" Improvization is the key. A nice book to read during these stressful times. "
— Jared, 4/13/2013" Improvization is the key. A nice book to read during these stressful times. "
— Jared, 3/12/2011Donald Sull is a professor of strategy and the faculty director of executive education at the London Business School. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from Harvard University, where he taught entrepreneurship. Prior to his academic career, professor Sull worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company and as a management investor with a leveraged buyout firm.