Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-making in a Confused and Troubled World

Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-making in a Confused and Troubled World

Released October 2012
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118347119

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Book description

The Answer to Global Overload

Contending with the 24/7 news cycle and an endless barrage of choices and information has stymied leadership and decision-making strategies among those at the top. But we all know, this is not a just a problem for the elite. The broad-based reaction to this chaotic, unmanageable assault has been to retrench, and to focus on immediate, controllable decisions. In the process, we lose sight of the horizon. More dangerous still, is the shift we've seen from value creation to wealth creation, where information technology 1.0 has enabled a transaction-based society in which the "deal" is more important than the value it drives or the relationships it is based on. On our current path, the odds of a better future are slim.

What we need is a new value proposition.

Beating the Global Odds is the answer to the dangers of too much of a good thing. There's no going back, but there is the opportunity to set things right. In this book, Paul A. Laudicina, Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board of global consulting firm A.T. Kearney, provides a fast-paced and engaging tour of how we got to this point and what we can do about it.

Drawing on examples from everything from world history and current media to anecdotes from his vast network of CEOs and the world's most innovative thinkers, Laudicina helps bring our world of seemingly fuzzy and disconnected pixels into sharp focus.

The result is a compelling case for change and call to action—not only for global leaders but also for everyone who struggles with the question of how we can inspire and seize a better future... how we can beat the global odds.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Wiley Global Finance
  3. Praise for Beating the Global Odds
  4. Title page
  5. Copyright page
  6. Dedication
  7. Foreword
  8. Introduction
    1. Coalface Credentials
    2. A Quick Tour of This Book (and Why I’m Emphasizing the Renaissance of Scenario Planning)
    3. What’s Different, What Never Changes, and a Tale of Two Cities
  9. Chapter 1 Global Brain Freeze
    1. More Has Become (Much) Less
    2. Think Pinball, Not Roulette
    3. Disorientation and Decision Analysis
  10. Chapter 2 Fast and Fickle
    1. Lumbering Giants
    2. Watch Out for Those Tuning Out and Checking Out
  11. Chapter 3 Rudderless World
    1. Tea Party, Occupy Movements: Birds of a Feather?
    2. Privatizing the Gains, Socializing the Losses
    3. The Three Deficits
    4. Inescapable Trilemma?
    5. The Case for Values-Based Leadership
  12. Chapter 4 Lighten the Load and Make It Sesame Street Simple
    1. Sesame Street Simple
    2. Cockpit Confusion
  13. Chapter 5 Repair Your Social Fabric
    1. The Three-Line Whip
    2. The Pause Principle
    3. All in the Family
  14. Chapter 6 Don’t Wait for the Next Big Thing
    1. Innovation: Slowing Down or Speeding Up? (I Think the Latter)
    2. Knowledge Hatcheries
    3. Offer a Prize
    4. Fighting Complexity with Complexity
    5. Coming Soon: Information Overload, Tamed and Ready to Serve You?
  15. Chapter 7 Open the Aperture
    1. Vary Your Information Diet
    2. Be Wary of Conventional Wisdom and the Usual Experts
    3. The Problem of Being Right Too Early
    4. Tap into Remarkable People and Places
  16. Chapter 8 Turning Pixels into a Clearer Picture
    1. Powerfully Imagined and Rigorously Researched: The Structure of Scenario Thinking
    2. Counterfactuals and Other Futures Thinking
    3. Envisioning the Future to Inform the Present
    4. The Coming Chinese Commonwealth?
    5. Pulling It All Together and Getting Ready to Beat the Global Odds
  17. Epilogue
  18. Afterword
  19. Selected Bibliography
  20. Acknowledgments
  21. About the Author
  22. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-making in a Confused and Troubled World
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: October 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118347119