CHAPTER 2

LEADERSHIP THINKING IN FIRESTORM DISRUPTION

I wanted you to see what hubris looked like.

—EDWIN LAND, Polaroid founder, describing a warehouse full of unsold Polavision cameras in 19771

Disruptive changes are not new—we could look back to the printing press and the Industrial Revolution—but the firestorm that we witness now in the business world is different in terms of its scale, scope, and speed. There are reasons for this, and we will explore them in depth as we go along, but what is particularly striking about the current incarnation of firestorm disruption is that it is not a local phenomenon. It is happening within and across economies, sectors, organizations, continents, and peoples. It threatens all comers—legacy firms and ...

Get The Phoenix Encounter Method: Lead Like Your Business Is on Fire! now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial