Adaptability: The Art of Winning In An Age of Uncertainty Paperback – April 3, 2012

If the essence of "Good Strategy" vs. "Bad Strategy" is about a diagnosis, and a coherent guiding policy that is followed up by action, then this is the book for you. No one else took to heart and mind what Dr. Rumelt, the one who defined Good vs. Bad strategy, except this author. Max McKeown is in my un-humble opinion the newest (and best) star author in the field of strategy, and he comes w/ a track record of some excellent tome's that help to establish that foundation.The principles that Max has outlined here have practical application, which might seem like quite a statement to make, unless this was coming from someone who has actually applied the principles in this book in the context that Max has outlined / suggested, and as he intended.You see I am a consultant, but not your typical one in the domain of innovation management, a part of my business is to assert into the marketplace to make things happen, for our clients and ourselves that is after we've made a diagnosis of where the weak points in what the opposition is doing or not doing. We actively act and operate as Innovation Activists / Market Insurgents & Challengers when the status quo is choking the innovation in a given market, then we will on our own, or working on behalf of a client, assert into the marketplace and shake things up, and unhinge the players, w/ new business models and new technologies and products that are new to market.To do this effectively an innovation manager like myself, needs tools and guidelines to help direct traffic for me and my teams, I demand that my teams operate from principles, not random personality driven approaches or what any one person thinks is a good idea, I have responsibility and accountability to my teams and my clients to execute and do it right the 1st time. I am expected to hit, when and where I say I can hit, it is what we are paid to do, we don't have the luxury of hiding behind our decisions, we have to adapt to market conditions as they unfold, much like a fighter pilot locked in a dog fight has to. These principles give us additional insight and thoughtful points to stop, consider and ponder next steps &/or consequences that could be fatal to a project. An equivalent meaning is to NOT do the stupid move.Max has done his homework, the principles are intended for all kinds of strategists, whether you are an Monday morning arm-chair quarterback, to the IP attorney, to the hungry M&A focused executive, to the Innovation Manager trying to figure out how to enable his firm to be adaptive in the marketplace. I am reminded of Colonel John Boyd - OODA Loop fame, and his last remaining acolyte, Chet Richard's and his book "Certain To Win" , if the Colonel and Chet are the architects of the blueprint of the future adaptable organization, then Max's book on "Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty" is the teeth that gives you the reader the principles to help drive your business, your processes and most importantly your people to help guide them on what you expect,and what the organization needs.We all have operated by values in our respective firms, but in my experience principles trump values and beliefs every time, I've seen a lot of people die for what they believe in, their values that they've staunchly defended beliefs, however I see a lot less dead bodies of those who operate from a principled standpoint, particularly the one's focused on winning in business and technology.Read this, read it again, put it on the shelf, and refer to it often.Richard PlattManaging Partner - The Strategy + Innovation Group(former)Intel Global Innovation Program Manager for Innovation

Most poorly written book ever

'All failure is a failure to adapt', says McKeown in his introduction to this book.In the living world, if a species doesn't adapt to its environment, it dies and its precise genetic make-up leaves the gene pool. Organisms that evolve through chance mutation or through the evolutionary selection of existing advantageous adaptations manage to survive to reproduce another day. But, as McKeown points out, human beings have managed to add another layer of adaptation to the brute business of genetic inheritance. McKeown characterises these mechanisms as culture, science and technology: we learn and pass on tricks that help to us adapt to changing circumstances, regardless of our genetic make-up.McKeown's introduction to 'Rule 1' (Play your own Game) says it all: 'If you are getting whipped playing by the existing rules, get used to losing or change the game. If you can't win by standing and fighting then run and hide. If you can't win by being big, be small. If you can't win by being small, be big. The first rule of winning is that there is no one way to win.' Organisations - especially corporations - need to remind themselves of this vital need for constant adaptation, argues McKeown. As another of his proposed rules for survival nicely puts it, `Stability is a dangerous illusion.' Or, as he quotes IBM CEO Virginia Rometty as saying: 'You may be only one mistake away from irrelevance.'The problem is that most organisations are inherently conservative; they don't just resist change, they actively fight against it. McKeown offers three fundamental steps for survival that form the structure of this book: recognise the need for adaptation; understand what adaption is required; do what is necessary to adapt. Adaptability is stuffed full of examples, some familiar, some new, of organisations which failed to notice that they needed to adapt until it was too late, or nearly too late: the American car industry in the face of nimbler Japanese competition; the banking group UBS in the face of what had become an institutionalised pattern of irresponsible trading that led, apparently suddenly, to the loss of $2.5 billion by one employee. To quote another of McKeown's rules: 'Stupid survives until smart succeeds.' I also liked his comment - in the context of the US car industry thinking of a dozen reasons why Japanese car manufacturers might be selling more cars other than the simple fact that they were making cars that people preferred to buy: 'enthusiastic ignorance is the most dangerous behaviour to enlightened adaptation.'There are four possible outcomes of adaptation, or failure to adapt, according to McKeown: collapse; survival; thriving; transcendence. Sometimes, he argues, we survive but continue in a pretty miserable existence. Sometimes we get it right and thrive. Sometimes, which is even better, we 'transcend' the situation: we escape the constraints of the existing situation and rise above it; we move from one way of living or working to a better way. This is what corporations should seek to achieve.McKeown's aim is laudable: 'My interest is in understanding more about how social groups can move beyond the existing rules to find games that allow more people to win more often.' This is a thoroughly enjoyable book that expands intelligently on its premise, and which ranges impressively across all the fields of human endeavour in the search for illustrations of the essential need for adaptation: from the war in Iraq to making Levis with less water; from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to game theory; from the National Football League to Easter Islanders. McKeown may in fact, have been a little too generous in the illustrations of his central argument - at times the sheer profusion of examples makes the head spin a little - but this is a well-developed book with a consistent and well-argued theme. I agree wholeheartedly with McKeown that adaptability is one of the key blind spots of modern business: when organisations are successful, they tend to fight tooth and nail to maintain the circumstances that have made them successful. But circumstances change.

Very good illustrations and examples throughout of how adaptation was used through a broad range of time in history to not only survive, but move beyond this to at times transcend certain situations.Worth reading for sure if you want to know more about adapting & how this has been achieved in the past.

It is a Great Book. I am already familiar with Adaptability. I just went through the book cursorily. I think it is a very useful book in the Digital age.I am a sort Multidisciplinary Genius , working part time as a Visiting Consultant from Canada at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.I buy many books from Amazon, Flipkart and AA Husain in Hyderabad on N number of Topics.I would like to recommend this book on Adaptability to one and all in India.Thank you,,Khaja (KJ) M. Hashim,P.Eng.91-779-905-803291-984-905-172091-040-2473-0324

The concept behind it is very powerful and I agree on it. The book is too simplistic in my opinion, I'd have expected more from this author

Max McKeown writes: the point is not to learn to fail, but to learn what works from failure.I was really looking forward to this book as I feel the author has identifed what I regard as one of the key issues for innovation and creativity and have read his earlier readable introductions to innovation.I have a bad habit of folding over the corners of books I read to indicate where I have made notes. A great book sees nearly every page with its corner folded down, here sadly there were very few of its pages folded back.The book falls between the stools of telling its thesis through a number of core stories or being very process-led with numerous bullet point to do lists.In being somewhere in between, it just falls short of being exceptional. I really do hope Max uses the principles of 'Adaptability' and grows from this experience.An uncertain review I'm afraid for a book about uncertainty.

'All failure is a failure to adapt', says McKeown in his introduction to this book.In the living world, if a species doesn't adapt to its environment, it dies and its precise genetic make-up leaves the gene pool. Organisms that evolve through chance mutation or through the evolutionary selection of existing advantageous adaptations manage to survive to reproduce another day. But, as McKeown points out, human beings have managed to add another layer of adaptation to the brute business of genetic inheritance. McKeown characterises these mechanisms as culture, science and technology: we learn and pass on tricks that help to us adapt to changing circumstances, regardless of our genetic make-up.McKeown's introduction to 'Rule 1' (Play your own Game) says it all: 'If you are getting whipped playing by the existing rules, get used to losing or change the game. If you can't win by standing and fighting then run and hide. If you can't win by being big, be small. If you can't win by being small, be big. The first rule of winning is that there is no one way to win.' Organisations - especially corporations - need to remind themselves of this vital need for constant adaptation, argues McKeown. As another of his proposed rules for survival nicely puts it, `Stability is a dangerous illusion.' Or, as he quotes IBM CEO Virginia Rometty as saying: 'You may be only one mistake away from irrelevance.'The problem is that most organisations are inherently conservative; they don't just resist change, they actively fight against it. McKeown offers three fundamental steps for survival that form the structure of this book: recognise the need for adaptation; understand what adaption is required; do what is necessary to adapt. Adaptability is stuffed full of examples, some familiar, some new, of organisations which failed to notice that they needed to adapt until it was too late, or nearly too late: the American car industry in the face of nimbler Japanese competition; the banking group UBS in the face of what had become an institutionalised pattern of irresponsible trading that led, apparently suddenly, to the loss of $2.5 billion by one employee. To quote another of McKeown's rules: 'Stupid survives until smart succeeds.' I also liked his comment - in the context of the US car industry thinking of a dozen reasons why Japanese car manufacturers might be selling more cars other than the simple fact that they were making cars that people preferred to buy: 'enthusiastic ignorance is the most dangerous behaviour to enlightened adaptation.'There are four possible outcomes of adaptation, or failure to adapt, according to McKeown: collapse; survival; thriving; transcendence. Sometimes, he argues, we survive but continue in a pretty miserable existence. Sometimes we get it right and thrive. Sometimes, which is even better, we 'transcend' the situation: we escape the constraints of the existing situation and rise above it; we move from one way of living or working to a better way. This is what corporations should seek to achieve.McKeown's aim is laudable: 'My interest is in understanding more about how social groups can move beyond the existing rules to find games that allow more people to win more often.' This is a thoroughly enjoyable book that expands intelligently on its premise, and which ranges impressively across all the fields of human endeavour in the search for illustrations of the essential need for adaptation: from the war in Iraq to making Levis with less water; from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to game theory; from the National Football League to Easter Islanders. McKeown may in fact, have been a little too generous in the illustrations of his central argument - at times the sheer profusion of examples makes the head spin a little - but this is a well-developed book with a consistent and well-argued theme. I agree wholeheartedly with McKeown that adaptability is one of the key blind spots of modern business: when organisations are successful, they tend to fight tooth and nail to maintain the circumstances that have made them successful. But circumstances change.