Cambridge Business Association
Plan B
Book

Plan B

How to Hatch a Second Plan That's Always Better Than Your First

David Kord Murray
Free Press, 2011
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

In business, as in war, you can expect the unexpected, but how do you react when it happens? Can your company seamlessly pivot to confront new realities? Can it move from “Plan A” to “Plan B”? If not, you haven’t hardwired your business plan to evolve. But never fear: In this entertaining, easily understandable and highly applicable guide to “adaptive management,” business consultant David Kord Murray tells you how to prepare and execute your plans – or an alternate set of plans, if circumstances demand a switch. Murray uses compelling examples from the real world of business – Sam Walton at Walmart, Steve Jobs at Apple and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook – to illustrate his points. He draws handy tips from Dwight Eisenhower’s performance on D-Day and General Robert E. Lee’s work for the Confederacy at the Battle of Chancellorsville. To join these legends in the pantheon of great business strategists, follow Murray’s 11 principles and nine processes of adaptive management. getAbstract recommends his book to any entrepreneur or corporate titan looking to achieve the next level of excellence.

Summary

Things Change: Adapt!

Many businesspeople are not ready for change. Companies that hit rough waters often can’t navigate well because their leaders cling to outmoded ways of doing business. They never learn that they can move away from “Plan A” and activate a “Plan B.” Having an entrenched, top-down administrative structure makes it hard to switch to new tactics when circumstances take a turn.

Instead, govern your company according to “adaptive management” – being nimble enough to alter your business plans as shifts occur to ensure that your organization can outlast change and profit from it.

To practice effective adaptive management, follow these 11 principles:

1. “The Principle of Problems”

To establish the basis of your business plan, first identify your challenges. For example, General Dwight Eisenhower had to devise a “grand strategy” for D-Day; invading Normandy presented a series of “cascading problems” he had to solve. Mark Zuckerberg determined that Facebook, unlike MySpace, would be a tool to augment users’ existing connections, not to develop new ones. Sam Walton believed Walmart had to offer the best bargains, always, on everything.

About the Author

David Kord Murray is an engineer, businessman and consultant. He also wrote Borrowing Brilliance.

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