Outstanding business insights in a work brimming with energy and vitality.
An entrepreneur argues for business reinvention in this guide.
Zhexembayeva habitually writes about edgy business issues. In Overfished Ocean Strategy (2014), she urged business leaders to use the scarcity of resources to strategic advantage. Here, she makes a solid case for pursuing reinvention as a business strategy. While “change” is almost a cliché in business books, the author believes it can be a valuable motivational force for reinventing processes. Indeed, this is the premise of her visionary work: “The challenge we face isn’t about trying to survive until things stabilize, but rather about learning to thrive in constant chaos. That happens only when we accept that change is no longer a project and build a well-thought-out reinvention system that works.” That system is driven by a senior executive she terms “Chief Reinvention Officer” to ensure that this strategy is viewed as a top corporate priority. Zhexembayeva says she tested reinvention via workshops, surveys, and implementation of the tools described in this volume with “over 3,000 practitioners from more than 40 countries,” an impressive validation of the concept. The book itself follows a seemingly traditional, logical course in revealing the aspects of reinvention in three parts. It begins with an exploration of why businesses get into trouble, transitions to what they need to do to survive, and concludes with how to thrive. But the manner in which the material is presented is unconventional, bold, and exhilarating. A unique table of contents organized as a flow chart and meticulously designed and illustrated pages with exceptional attention to readability and ample room to write answers to engaging questions put this guide visually in a class by itself.
The content is as compelling as the manual’s design. The author relies on the central theme of comparing a business to a ship—far from unique but a powerful thread that maintains continuity through all three brilliantly executed sections. Zhexembayeva starts Part 1 with a provocative claim, “What Really Sank the Titanic,” which is likely to surprise many readers. She then seamlessly transitions to “Titanics of the Twenty-first Century”—companies in the Fortune 500—pointing out that only 60 of them from 1955 have survived today, “a sinking rate of 88%.” She labels this “a corporate disease.” The author then shares the results of original research suggesting why reinvention is the way forward for most companies. Part 2 focuses on what companies can do to “stay afloat.” Here, Zhexembayeva shares five intriguing “flips”—“crucial shifts in the way we think about, design, and implement change.” Three relevant case studies follow, with the opportunity for readers to write down their own reactions. Part 3 offers several interactive, valuable tools to help leaders reinvent their businesses. A “Bonus” section includes “Business Model Reinvention Cards,” detailing 25 models to help “structure, discuss, and develop projects.” These cards are just the creative icing on the cake. The author adds a wealth of outside resources, including volumes and articles (cleverly illustrated on bookshelves), to supplement the text.
Outstanding business insights in a work brimming with energy and vitality.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64687-032-5
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Ideapress Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Even if they're pie-in-the-sky exercises, Sanders’ pitched arguments bear consideration by nonbillionaires.
Everyone’s favorite avuncular socialist sends up a rousing call to remake the American way of doing business.
“In the twenty-first century we can end the vicious dog-eat-dog economy in which the vast majority struggle to survive,” writes Sanders, “while a handful of billionaires have more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes.” With that statement, the author updates an argument as old as Marx and Proudhon. In a nice play on words, he condemns “the uber-capitalist system under which we live,” showing how it benefits only the slimmest slice of the few while imposing undue burdens on everyone else. Along the way, Sanders notes that resentment over this inequality was powerful fuel for the disastrous Trump administration, since the Democratic Party thoughtlessly largely abandoned underprivileged voters in favor of “wealthy campaign contributors and the ‘beautiful people.’ ” The author looks squarely at Jeff Bezos, whose company “paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018.” Indeed, writes Sanders, “Bezos is the embodiment of the extreme corporate greed that shapes our times.” Aside from a few passages putting a face to avarice, Sanders lays forth a well-reasoned platform of programs to retool the American economy for greater equity, including investment in education and taking seriously a progressive (in all senses) corporate and personal taxation system to make the rich pay their fair share. In the end, he urges, “We must stop being afraid to call out capitalism and demand fundamental change to a corrupt and rigged system.” One wonders if this firebrand of a manifesto is the opening gambit in still another Sanders run for the presidency. If it is, well, the plutocrats might want to take cover for the duration.
Even if they're pie-in-the-sky exercises, Sanders’ pitched arguments bear consideration by nonbillionaires.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593238714
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The workplace (primarily the office) is the setting for this third volume of Tannen's Linguistics Lite trilogy. Tannen (Sociolinguistics/Georgetown) sticks close to the main idea she popularized almost a decade ago in That's Not What I Meant (1985): Men and women have different conversational styles that are equally valid (though unequally valued). Here, she describes women's disadvantages in the workplace: They are paid less than men for the same work and face ``sexism'' (a term Tannen keeps dubiously between quotation marks), a glass ceiling, and sexual harassment. Why do such problems persist? Tannen considers the difference in male and female conversational style as a primary cause. Women are likely to have an indirect manner, to apologize more, and to offer softer criticism; they're problem preventers instead of heroic crisis solvers; they generally strive for the appearance of equality with, not superiority to, their co-workers. Many (male) bosses overlook the value of this style. Tannen concludes that women should go with their own approach, but they should also try to be assertive and worry less about being liked than about being competent. Yet in the next breath, she acknowledges that women who act assertive may bring unpleasant consequences on themselves. In the end, she reaches for platitudes, blithely recommending that workers adopt a mix of styles and that managers learn to recognize and appreciate quality in diverse forms. She says ``on that happy day, the glass ceiling will become a looking glass through which a fair percentage of Alices will be able to step.'' Readers of her earlier books will find much that is familiar, from the research to the conclusions. Women facing a hostile work environment and seeking substantive improvements in their situation are likely to find that Tannen's recourse to ``stylistic differences'' ultimately offers little help. (First printing of 200,000; first serial to New York Times Magazine and Redbook; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection; Quality Paperback Book Club main selection; Fortune Book Club main selection; author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11243-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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