The Escher Cycle: Creating Self-Reinforcing Business Advantage

by Finn Jackson

This book shows how to achieve virtuoso performance in business. Strategic and practical, the author starts by identifying the key minimum activities that make any business successful. He then shows how becoming better than rivals at carrying out those activities is what provides a business with four distinct layers of strategic competitive The first layer of advantage comes from carrying out the basic activities better than rivals. This is Operations. The second layer comes from balancing and aligning the different parts to optimize the business as a whole. This is Leadership. The third layer comes from fine-tuning the way the activities are carried out to match the particular area of the economy where the business is operating. This is Strategy. And the fourth and ultimate layer of strategic advantage comes when the business connects all its different activities together in a way that generates higher levels of performance at them all. This is the Escher Cycle. The Escher Cycle describes how to create self-reinforcing business advantage, by leveraging the forces of progress that created the successful companies we have today, and which are already forming the successful companies of tomorrow. Virtuoso performance in business, as in any field of human activity, comes from focusing on exactly what is needed-no more and no less-and then co-ordinating those different activities perfectly. This book explains how to achieve that in business.

Genres: Business

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2004

Reviews

[Bewhy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously I'm going to say something like: "this is the best business book I've ever read." And it's true, but you need to know why.

The reason I like this book so much is that it shows you the forest (business as an integrated whole) and the trees (the purpose and function of each department-sales, finance, ops, etc) in a simple but not simplifying way. Jackson says a business has three main functions: to satisfy customer values (sales), make money (finance) and produce goods/services (operations).

He then explores each of these in turn, maybe not enough detail to create step-by-step plans for the budding entrepreneur/start-up, but he does explore them in a way that lets you understand each of them (and their sub-part/steps) in isolation as well as how they fit with the other main functions of the business. What I love about it is that it shows you the breadth and integration of a business in contrast to many other business books which specialize in management, sales, etc.

Not that it is a replacement for business school, but I would say that the conceptual structure that you learn earning a MBA or an undegraduate BA is replicated and distilled here, without the coursework/homework of an online degree and without the schmoozing/networking of an in-person degree.