The Elastic Enterprise: The New Manifesto for Business Revolution

by Nicholas Vitalari, Haydn Shaughnessy

What is the future of the enterprise? In this groundbreaking book Vitalari and Shaughnessy explore that question and what it means for you. From 2007 onwards a small number of companies began to enjoy exceptional growth. They not only performed well, but also performed better and differently from companies before them and around them. These companies are elastic enterprises. Enabled by a new kind of elasticity, elastic enterprises scale and operate in a completely novel way. This same elasticity allows individuals around the world to find new roles in the fast evolving economy. For two hundred years enterprises worked off an operating model described by Adam Smith in the 18th century. It was based on the division of labor and the gradual elimination of individual creativity. Today's high performers have moved beyond Smith's craft-inspired model of scale. They grow in new ways. "While other companies were laying staff off, these were hiring and creating opportunity for vast ecosystems of creative people. We noticed these companies were not just good for employment opportunities; they were creating new markets as well. We are talking here about real change, along many dimensions, baked into one coherent model for how business should be done," explain the authors. The book describes the key dynamics of the elastic enterprise and how new leaders combine them. They also describe what it means to work in the new, high invention environment. And how Elastic Enterprises are transforming how we create wealth. We believe the techniques that the best performers have invented will spur a new era of growth and their lessons are applicable to companies of all sizes. A new manifesto for business revolution is emerging. Policy makers, executives, employees, small businesses around the world are asking how we create a different kind of engine for growth. What's next? Our shorthand answer to these pressing questions is to become an elastic enterprise. In the shortest possible space we will explain what that means and the difference it makes to executives, employees, partners and customers. Elastic Enterprises are the ones inventing the future. People adore them for it. For anybody who wants to build a better future, they are the best game in town.

Genres: Business

172 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 2012

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book. It describes "radical adjacencies", the art of going beyond a company's know core competence, and about scaling to be able to address micro-markets. Lots of new insights. Made a lot of notes.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors ask, how can a company react quickly enough -- and in the right ways -- in this era of hypercompetition, market-busting entrants from unseen directions, and bewildering speed? By adopting the 5 habits of the (successful) elastic enterprise: radical adjacency (which means being able to jump into related markets), mass differentiation, new scale economics, sapient leadership (which means, roughly, a leader able to be democratic and listen to his/her workers, marketplace, and the new world of ideas), and an active strategy. Good strategy stuff.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disruption and the rate of change challenge organizations to execute and simultaneously adapt to radical change.

The logistics and dynamics of pulling both off are complex. This book is a solid attempt to grapple with systematic approaches to wrestling with emergence.

[Jack Vinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Briefly mentioned in my blog with several other books. https://www.jackvinson.com/blog/2012/...

[Kristian Norling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, especially liked the chapters on sapient leaders and strategy transformed.

[Jose Papo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book that talk about how companies need to be Agile and Elastic in our hypercompetitive age.