IB BOOKS
Issue No. 40 - April/ /
Does your business zig when the competition is zagging?
by Pamela Brombal
That is the question author Peter Sheahan is asking in his new title Flip - how counter-intuitive thinking is changing everything - from branding and strategy to technology and talent.
Peter has worked with some of the most powerful companies in the world, including Google, L’Oréal, BMW and Coca-Cola. In his new book, he shows how counter-intuition is changing the rules of business faster than any other current trend – and explains how you can learn from the ‘flipstars’ whose new approaches are leaving the old conventions behind.
Today’s complex business environment means there is no straight way forward. Business requires constant new perspectives on all things – strategy, operations, customers and staff.
Peter says most of all a change in business requires a level of mindset flexibility that has been considered a weakness in some organisations.
“To navigate in an increasingly complex environment and zig when the competition are all zagging, you must flip repeatedly between different perspectives and paradigms.
“And you must do so in real time, and on demand.”
Flip reveals what the superstars of modern business have in common – an ability to think counter-intuitively and act boldly with no regard for business-as-usual conventions.
Included are examples of lessons learned by Peter’s leading ‘flipsters’ - Richard Branson, Google, Toyota, Rupert Murdoch and Apple.
“There are many ways forward, and the most successful companies and leaders will try them all at one time or another,” says Peter.
“This is what Toyota is doing with the Scion and with hybrid technology, it’s what Apple is doing with the iPod, it is what Richard Branson does in virtually every industry he touches, and what Skype is doing in telecommunications.
“Flipping is what the world’s most effective organisations and individuals do to distinguish themselves from the competiti...
