Creative Destruction : Why Companies Built-To-Last Are Last to Change - Softcover

Richard N. Foster; Sarah Kaplan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0273656384 ISBN 13: 9780273656388

Publisher: Pearson Education Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

Book by Foster, Richard, Beneden, Pierre Ven, Kaplan, Sarah

About this title

Review

Striving for excellence or building to last is one thing. Sustaining superior performance over the long haul is another matter entirely, as longtime McKinsey & Company executives Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan persuasively point out in Creative Destruction. Based on a concept first advanced some 70 years ago by economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Foster and Kaplan propose that corporations can outperform capital markets and maintain their leadership positions only if they creatively and continuously reconstruct themselves. In doing so, they can stay ahead of the upstart challengers constantly waiting in the wings. The decidedly radical paradigm that they champion has been urged in one form or another by others since Schumpeter, but this effort is particularly convincing because of the massive research the authors cite to back it up: McKinsey studies of more than 1,000 corporations in 15 industries over 36 years.

Citing the specific reasons behind ups and downs at firms such as Storage Technology, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, and Corning, Foster and Kaplan claim that the process of creative destruction must become an integral part of today's corporations from top to bottom if they truly hope to attain lasting excellence (and beat Wall Street's primary indices for more than a few fleeting years). Firms that have mastered elements of this practice have done so by innovatively shedding detrimental processes and operations while cleverly spotting and appending those that add new value. The authors write that the "key to their success is the balance they have struck between creativity and destruction--between continuity and change." Their book offers impressive insight into the acts of both breaking down and building up. If its analyses of past performance mean anything, it should prove very interesting to savvy managers as well as long-term investors. --Howard Rothman

From the Back Cover

Advance acclaim for Creative Destruction:

"A thoroughly researched, masterfully written, and somewhat frightening explanation of how competitive advantage is built and inevitably erodes. Anyone who is interested in staying ahead of the competition should read this book. It's good."
—Clayton Christensen, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School, and author of The Innovator's Dilemma.

"[Offers] invaluable insight into business building and dealing with the challenge of dynamic growth. Foster and Kaplan get right to the heart of one of today's central themes. An instructive and insightful guide for managers to navigate the twenty-first century."—Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO, Nokia Corporation

"It was clear the game had changed, but until this book it was never clear by how much. Creative Destruction will reverberate in corporate boardrooms for some time to come, changing the basic premises of corporate success. There is no doubt that, in order to survive in the future, inspiration can be found in Foster's and Kaplan's book"—Antony Burgmans, Chairman, Unilever, N.V., the Netherlands

"Creative Destruction is a phenomenal book. It reveals what it takes for an enterprise to thrive in the age of discontinuities yet meet the pressures of continuous performance. Wise, sweeping, balanced, grounded in facts and yet highly imaginative, it is unquestionably the best business book I have ever read Countless numbers of CEOs will wish they could have read it sooner—and so will their shareholders."—John Seely Brown, President, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

"Creative Destruction has clarified for me the challenges of sustaining business success. It is the freshest view of the challenges before us that I have seen. It also shows where we have to change to be successful. Compelling."—Vernon Jordan, Lazard Frres.

"Creative Destruction is a sharp stick in the eye for corporate conventional wisdom and orthodoxy. Foster and Kaplan have captured the essence of market-driven counterinitiative thinking. A wake-up call for CEOs and investment strategists!"—Joe L. Roby, Chairman, Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson Education Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0273656384
• ISBN 13: 9780273656388
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288