The Power of Pull
Book

The Power of Pull

How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion

John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison
Basic Books, 2010
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

“Pull” is the latest business dynamic that soon will be sweeping through an institution near you. At least, that’s what business consultants John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison predict. The authors, all members of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, make a solid, well-researched case for their strategic analysis, using detailed, candid accounts from active participants in a world where people use connections, knowledge and resources to solve problems. This is where the book sings: Its numerous colorful examples illuminate the benefits of pull. While this scholarly work provides some useful suggestions, the authors are more successful at defining and breaking down their theoretical information than at offering a how-to guide for using pull at your next business meeting. getAbstract recommends this volume to executives who want to move their companies ahead in the digital age and to unite young technology rats and traditional workers.

Summary

The End of an Era

“Push” has been a dominant business strategy since the start of the industrial revolution. Push relies on the belief that people and institutions can predict their constituents’ demands and design effective systems to fulfill them. Examples include school curricula planners who attempt to foresee what skills students will require later in life, church leaders who try to prophesy their disciples’ paths to “salvation” and even weight-loss plan gurus who promise a trim body to anyone who follows their directions explicitly. Push is a restrictive, zero-sum model that treats “people as passive consumers” and assumes that “centralized decision makers” can anticipate and shape their needs. Company leaders who use a push strategy believe that the more they sow, the more they reap. This small “elite” minority makes decisions on behalf of the majority, and watches as managers try to shape people’s tastes and desires. However, the very systems and routines that the push tactic cherishes actually restrain companies’ flexibility and adaptability – two values that are becoming increasingly indispensable. Push can’t survive much longer in the face of the “Big Shift,” ...

About the Authors

John Hagel III is co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. He wrote Out of the Box and The Only Sustainable Edge, among other bestsellers. John Seely Brown is the co-author of The Social Life of Information. He is the independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center, where Lang Davison is executive director.

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