University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Attacker’s Advantage
Book

The Attacker’s Advantage

Turning Uncertainty into Breakthrough Opportunities

Ram Charan
Public Affairs, 2015
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

To help leaders understand, react to and triumph in today’s fluid business universe, Ram Charan draws from interviews with effective living “catalysts” – people who are masters of recognizing and profiting from uncertainty. Sifting through their insights and experience, Charan presents practical advice rather than abstract theory. He moves smoothly from example to example, detailing and inspiring the mental preparation that will enable you to embrace and exploit new, upcoming paradigms. Put his advice about looking ahead into action to develop the “attacker’s advantage”: being able to benefit from coming change before anyone else does. getAbstract recommends Charan’s smart, accessible, pragmatic advice to investors, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders and to those focused on change, strategy, and personal or organizational growth.

Summary

Leadership and Uncertainty

The contemporary world is uncertain and threatening. The global financial system needs reform, new competitors are appearing from unprecedented places and the “algorithmic revolution” is changing how business works. Today’s constant radical change is “qualitatively different” than change in earlier times. Today, “structural uncertainty” affects forces that can reshape your entire market in a moment. These transformational forces are global, but the changes they produce are specific to particular locations. This makes it difficult to generalize about how such changes might affect you and your firm. The lack of specific situational guidelines means that developing an effective broad strategy for dealing with uncertainty is the most important task leaders face today.

See Uncertainty Coming

Leading in this new world requires new leadership, with fresh perspectives and innovative skills. In an earlier time, you might have waited to react when external uncertainties appeared. In the shifting contemporary landscape, you must anticipate change and see uncertainty coming. This anticipatory mind-set has five main components:

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About the Author

Author or co-author of numerous business bestsellers, including Execution, Ram Charan consults for GE and KLM, among other companies.

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