Lead, Follow, or Fail: The Human Struggle for Productivity, and how Nations, Organizations, and People will Prosper in our Changing World

A THOUGHT-PROVOKING EXPLORATION OF OUR WORLD'S ECONOMIC PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

In a journey over centuries only recently marked by prosperity, Lead, Follow, or Fail captures the socio-economic forces that have shaped our world.

Dividing economic history into three eras—Pre-Industrial, Industrial, and Post-Industrial—Peter Brews chronicles the evolution of productivity and how nations, organizations, and individuals fall into the roles of Failures, Followers, or Leaders. Failures in the Pre-Industrial Era are plagued by scarcity, Followers are on their way to abundance through industrialization, and Leaders maintain Post-Industrial competitiveness through unrelenting innovation at the leading edge of global commerce.

Understanding the transition across these eras and how Leading, Following, and Failing differ also offers insights into what our economic future will hold. After considering the implications of a world more economically diverse than ever before, three future scenarios—Balanced Global Growth, Unbalanced Global Growth, and Global Meltdown—conclude the book.

Armed with the knowledge of what it takes to build and sustain competitiveness whether Leader, Follower, or Failure, readers also learn what we all must do so Balanced Global Growth prevails, and the 21st century is a triumph for us all.

Winner of 9 Book Awards!
2025 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARDS BRONZE MEDAL WINNER
2025 INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARDS WINNER
2024 AMERICAN BOOKFEST BEST BOOK AWARD WINNER

PROFESSOR PETER J. BREWS stepped down as Dean of the Darla Moore School of Business (DMSB) in December 2022 after 9 years in office, and left academic life as dean emeritus in December 2023. Brews’ professional career started in investment banking and then moved into higher education, where after earning graduate degrees in both law and business and two PhDs in business he taught business law, economics, finance, corporate strategy/strategic management and international business while conducting research at three leading universities, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill in the United States.

His accomplishments range from world class researcher/teacher as individual contributor—he holds multiple awards for both activities—to academic entrepreneur in the proposal and leadership of innovative high value academic programs, to transformational leader of DMSB, the 6,400-student strong premier academic brand of the University of South Carolina. 

Brews has published in Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Business Strategy Review, Long Range Planning, The South African Journal of Business Management, The South African Company Law Journal, The Investment Analysts’ Journal, The Financial Times, and other journals and publications.

Companies have often invited Brews to share his views on topics that range from nation building and the structure and evolution of the global economy, to the human struggle for productivity worldwide—focusing on how nations, firms, and individuals maintain global competitiveness in the fast changing, complex global economy—to how the internet/IT and the networking of business operations are altering business and global competitiveness.

He has also taught widely and consulted internationally in these fields.  Firms he has worked with include Barclays Bank, Boeing, Caterpillar, Eastman Chemical, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Grant Thornton, Lucent Technologies Asia/Pacific (H.K.) Ltd., Merrill Lynch, Progress Energy, Siemens AG, The Mandarin Hotel Group of Hong Kong, LG of South Korea, and Standard Bank and Telkom in South Africa.