Winning in Turbulence (Memo to the CEO) by Darrell Rigby

by Darrell Rigby

The current downturn may prove more brutal than most previous recessions. It's already hammering companies in markets around the globe. It will test businesses to their fullest-many won't survive. But downturns present strategic opportunities, too. In fact, many more companies achieve dramatic gains during recessions than in normal times. How to ensure your company emerges successful? In Winning in Turbulence , a new volume in the Memo to the CEO series, Bain & Company downturn strategist Darrell Rigby provides the playbook. He presents a powerful framework and diagnostic tool (available in the book and online) for assessing three dimensions of your

Hardcover

First published August 17, 2009

Reviews

[Ravenskya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well… I was hoping for enlightenment or knowledge… what I ended up with was just another blah book of generalizations and business 101. If your CEO doesn’t already know this then you’d better be looking for a new job ASAP. I’ll tell you exactly what this book is for – it was written in the hopes that large businesses will buy several hundred copies to hand out to their front line managers. The idea is that the front line managers will read this highly generalized garbage and “read into it” that their company is moving in the right direction based off of the book.

Example – You are a CEO and you run a company that is about to acquire a competitor. You hand out this little book at the next corp. meeting, tell your middle managers to pass out copies to their front line guy and voila! As long as you use a few key terms from the book about then panic is decreased amongst your current workforce. This book is simply a tool for businesses to get buy-in from their folks to do whatever they want. You’ll notice that with the sweeping generalizations anything can be derived from the information contained within.

There are no hard facts, no real eye opening ideas – just genius ideas like “If you company has money in a recession, buy up the competitors”, and true business secrets like “Customer Loyalty is important” or “If you don’t have a lot of money, don’t spend a lot during a recession.”

Sorry, but I just cannot recommend this book to anyone other then a middle school Intro to Business Class.

[Ankur Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written keeping downturn in mind. However I would recommend that everyone who would want to have a peek on all the aspects of a business should read this, since Turbulence are abound - downturn or no downturn!

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay, but it wasn't very ground-breaking. Lots of common sense stuff, with a few interesting insights mixed in. Fast read though.

[Raj Shankar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Contains number of leading thoughts. If you want to implement any of them, it will require further reading on specific aspects.