Only the Paranoid Survive

NOTE

I heard about this book from John Matlik who said Candice Bineyard was discussing one of it's key points in a leadership meeting. I grabbed it and read through it quickly. H/T to them for the recommendation!

This was a short book with one powerful message:

Strategic Inflection Points represent danger and opportunities for businesses.

According to the author, strategic inflection points are periods when "massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside--in a new way."

This is a simple idea that can have big consequences to businesses of all kinds. These moments are always very clear in hindsight or during a review of the history of an industry. The hard part is to both:

Recognize an inflection point is occuring and
Have the organizational maturity, flexibility, and courage to react in a way that takes advantage of it

Overall, I liked the book. It is certainly dated, and the sections that were questioning the future of the internet were a little silly. It is worth quickly reading through or at least finding some nice cliff notes.

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