Cambridge Business Association
Accelerate
A review of

Accelerate

Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World

John P. Kotter • Harvard Business Review Press • 2014

Accelerating Change

by David Meyer

Older structures and processes won’t do anymore. No matter how you tinker with your existing reality, change expert John P. Kotter insists it won’t be enough. If your current structure is flagging, the time for change is now.

Harvard Business School professor emeritus John P. Kotter, a noted leadership and change management expert, understands that intense, accelerating change defines today’s business world. While stable, clear hierarchies work in a steady environment of routine operations, he warns, they can’t perform the work that change requires. A hierarchy can’t identify emerging opportunities or threats. 

More than anything, both today and throughout history, leadership has been associated with change.John P. Kotter

Almost all businesses start with a “network-like structure” in which relationships follow a solar system model. The founders are at the core, and everyone revolves around them and their vision, continually seeking opportunities and taking risks. Over time, these vibrant, fluid networks grow and shift to rational, reliable hierarchies.

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