What Is Missing From Shelves
April 09, 2007
I want to add one more point to Rebecca's post on the Carol Hymowitz column. Hymowitz ends her piece with: What's missing from bookstores, it seems, are more titles that show how executives have reshaped businesses so they don't become obsolete in the digital landscape, and one that explain the new rules of the corner office, where CEOs must cater to an array of constituents. To the first question of fighting technological irrelevance, Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma plays directly to that point.
I want to add one more point to Rebecca's post on the Carol Hymowitz column. Hymowitz ends her piece with:
What's missing from bookstores, it seems, are more titles that show how executives have reshaped businesses so they don't become obsolete in the digital landscape, and one that explain the new rules of the corner office, where CEOs must cater to an array of constituents.
To the first question of fighting technological irrelevance, Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma plays directly to that point. It is now 10 years old and his argument that disruptive technologies are what cause great companies to fall continues to be just as relevant. Read it.
I don't have as strong an answer to the second question. I think Jossey-Bass had a good book in The Triple Bottom Line by Andrew Savitz. The three aspects Savitz says should be measured are the traditional economic concerns, the growing environmental concerns , and the ever-present social concerns. It is a good starting point as the dynamics of leading a company continue to evolve.
PS There is a discussion going on in the WSJ forums about today's column.
