Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen

The first prescriptive, innovative guide to seeing inflection points before they happen—and how to harness these disruptive influences to give your company a strategic advantage.

Paradigmatic shifts in the business landscape, known as inflection points, can either create new, entrepreneurial opportunities (see Amazon and Netflix) or they can lead to devastating consequences (e.g., Blockbuster and Toys R Us). Only those leaders who can “see around corners”–that is, spot the disruptive inflection points developing before they hit–are poised to succeed in this market.

Columbia Business School Professor and corporate consultant Rita McGrath contends that inflection points, though they may seem sudden, are not random. Every seemingly overnight shift is the final stage of a process that has been subtly building for some time. Armed with the right strategies and tools, smart businesses can see these inflection points coming and use them to gain a competitive advantage. Seeing Around Corners is the first hands-on guide to anticipating, understanding, and capitalizing on the inflection points shaping the marketplace. 

RITA McGRATH is a globally recognized expert on strategy, innovation, and growth with an emphasis on corporate entrepreneurship. A long-time member of the Columbia Business School faculty, she is recognized consistently as one of the top 10 management thinkers by Thinkers50 and is a highly sought-after speaker at corporate events such as the Yale CEO Summit, the Innosight CEO Summit and at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. McGrath has also been inducted into the Strategic Management Society "Fellows" in recognition of her impact on the field.

McGrath is often cited in the press, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, and NPR's Marketplace. She has been rated one of the 25 smartest women to follow on Twitter by Fast Company and consistently appears in the rankings of the top business school professors to follow on Twitter. McGrath writes regularly for Fortune, is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and blogs regularly at HBR.org.

McGrath's best-selling book The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business was recognized by Strategy+Business as the #1 business book of 2013. She is also a co-author of MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth (2005) and The Entrepreneurial Mindset (2000).

McGrath joined the faculty of Columbia Business School in 1993. She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has degrees with honors from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is married and is proud to be the mother of two delightful grownups.

CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the author of eight critically acclaimed books, including the bestsellers How Will You Measure Your Life?, The Innovator's Dilemma, and Disrupting Class. Christensen is the cofounder of Innosight, a management consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank.