A mind-stretching book for business leaders who are tired of being victims of uncertainty.
In his debut, business psychologist Chitta says that change can be a competitive advantage for the nimble-minded.
This nonfiction book focuses on helping people and organizations harness the power of change. The author says that we all live in a “VUCA” world, in which “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity” are part of global transformation. How do leaders navigate such an environment? Chitta sums it up with one word: agility. Businesses that go from “fragile to agile,” he says, can seize growth opportunities that often come with market upheaval. However, his model is more robust than conventional change management; instead of simply minimizing disruption, Chitta suggests removing fragility by building an organization’s capacity for change. His holistic, purpose-driven approach taps four dimensions of human performance: behavioral, rational, emotional and spiritual. Its goal is to foster a culture that prizes curiosity, experimentation and active learning. He underscores the importance of change with brief case studies, many featuring high-profile corporations: The evolution of Netflix from a DVD-by-mail service to a streaming-media provider acutely illustrates how a change-agile mindset can mean the difference between survival and extinction; one of Netflix’s rivals, Blockbuster Entertainment, failed to adapt and went bankrupt. The case studies bring a real-world feel to a book that’s otherwise heavy with abstract ideas. The prose is stiff and verbose (“Our experience suggests that many more employees are naturally open to being agents of change than are change resisters if they are treated with the respect they deserve”), but the book’s explanatory diagrams make the concepts easier to grasp. Indeed, the book contains many stimulating, forward-thinking ideas, which can be overwhelming at times. Fortunately, the sections are methodically organized, smoothly transitioning from theory to practical tips. Chitta also makes it a point to include examples from emerging markets, such as China, Singapore and the Middle East, which are expected to be major contributors to future global economic growth; there, change agility may yield its greatest rewards. To thrive in these dynamic, risk-laden markets, Chitta, says, mastering change isn’t merely a virtue—it’s a necessity.
A mind-stretching book for business leaders who are tired of being victims of uncertainty.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1497505476
Page Count: 242
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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