CHAPTER 11
Build, Dismantle, Repeat
“I give the talkies six months more.”
—CHARLIE CHAPLIN, 1931*
A defining critical characteristic for leaders in the Age of Complexity is being able to guide their organizations through the inevitable waves of change. Do new things, and stop doing the things you’ve always done. Sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly hard to do. The business that can do both at the same time is a rare beast. The dynamic has a name: creative destruction, a term coined by Austrian-American economist Joseph Schumpeter to describe the transient nature of competitive advantage. This cycle, as we’ve argued in this book, is accelerating.
Some companies respond to creative destruction by hunkering down behind Castle Walls. They’ve fallen ...
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