Iconic: How to Create a Virtuous Circle of Success

This book is about icons - exceptional organizations (orchestras, restaurants, sports teams or companies) with an aspiration to make or do something special, and to go on doing so, year in, year out for decades. This is what gives these organizations their undeniably iconic status. By selecting 14 iconic organizations (including ElBulli, McKinsey, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Procter & Gamble, the All Blacks) and researching what characteristics make them different from others, the authors discovered a "competency spiral" which these organizations exhibit in their success. Attracting and retaining the right people; forging individuals into a team; and achieving outstanding results, time after time, through continuous improvement and adjustment - these are the key competencies required to achieve iconic status.

Xavier Bekaert, co-founder of the strategic consultancy Benthurst & Co specializes in Management Consulting in strategy, organization and transformation, concentrating on financial institutions and consumer industries, having previously worked with AT Kearney and Bain & Company. Gillis Jonk is a strategy consultant and business innovator-helping companies turn major shifts and emerging practices into practical value today. His specialties are Business Strategy, Competitive Strategy, Exponential Technologies, Industry Reconfiguration, Business Innovation, Business Models, Organization & Governance, Organizational Motivation, Inclusive Strategy Development. He currently works with A.T Kearney having also worked with Benthurst & Co. Phebo Wibbens is a PhD in Strategy from the Wharton School. He previously worked with Bain & Company. Jan Raes has held the position of managing director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam since December 2008. On the occasion of its 125th anniversary, and on Raes's initiative and under his leadership, the orchestra embarked in 2013 on a world tour of six continents-the first orchestra ever to do so.