Cambridge Business Association
Chaotics
Book

Chaotics

The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence

Philip Kotler and John A. Caslione
AMACOM, 2009
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Editorial Rating

8

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

The world is uncertain and growing more so. Businesses must react to new and constant fluidity. Remaining calm and clear-eyed in the face of chaos takes nerve and perception. Marketing guru Philip Kotler and business adviser John A. Caslione offer a rock of judgment to stand on amid these tossing seas. Their knowledgeable, organized approach proves scholarly enough to offer illuminating historical background and forward-looking enough to present a clear – if general – set of guidelines for managing, marketing and selling in a future where change is constant. They identify obstacles and offer strategies to help leaders cope with the unknown and stay flexible when the going is chaotic. getAbstract recommends this readable prescription for thriving in troubled times to anyone who intends to earn a living today, next week or 10 years hence.

Summary

Turbulence and Chaos

When the pilot turns on the seat belt sign and the plane shakes and shudders, you grip the armrests and wait for the turbulence to end. You can’t control what the pilot does. Patience is your only recourse. The opposite is true in today’s turbulent business climate. Patience and passivity will kill your profits and your firm. Uncertainty is, and will continue to be, the enduring market condition. The usual knee-jerk response to heightened uncertainty is to cut back in every area. That’s as unproductive and thoughtless as doing nothing. New times demand new strategies. To find them, embrace the unknown. Don’t move blindly, but know that with discipline and common sense, you can guard against chaos and find a route to profitability when others founder.

Technology and global markets interconnect in today’s business world. This integration generates an unknown level of “interlocking fragility”; that is, the actions of one firm, market or nation affect many, many others. Leaders cannot predict how their actions will influence every other market participant, but the executives of sound companies should at least know how their actions are going to affect...

About the Authors

The “father of modern marketing,” Philip Kotler teaches at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. His books include Marketing Management. Strategist John A. Caslione is the CEO of GCS Business Capital LLC, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.

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