Competing on the Edge : Strategy as Structured Chaos

by Shona L. Brown, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

Unstable markets, fierce competition, and relentless change are the only certainties in today's chaotic business world. In their startling new book, authors Brown and Eisenhardt contend that to prosper in such volatile conditions, standard survival strategies must be tossed aside in favor of a revolutionary new paradigm—competing on the edge. To compete on the edge is to relentlessly reinvent, and it's the only way to navigate the treacherous waters of tumultuous markets. Competing on the edge is an unpredictable, sometimes even inefficient strategy, yet a singularly effective one in an era driven by change. It requires charting a course along the edge of chaos, where a delicate compromise is struck between anarchy and order, to the edge of time, where current business is the primary focus, but actions are shaped by past legacies and future opportunities. By adroitly maneuvering through chaos and time, managers can avoid constantly reacting to nonstop change and instead set a rhythmic pace that others must follow, thereby shaping the competitive landscape—and their own destiny. In the first book to translate leading edge concepts from complexity theory into management practice, each chapter focuses on a specific management dilemma and illustrates a solution. Linking where do you want to go? With how will you get there? Here's a bold and surprising strategy that works—when the name of the game is change.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Leadership

297 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1998

About the author

Shona L. Brown is a business executive and consultant to non-profits and corporations. She was an executive at Google from 2003 to 2012, where she was senior vice president of business operations

Shona Brown is currently serving as consultant/board member for a portfolio of corporate technology start-ups including Xperiel, Betterworks, ClearStoryData, Candor Inc, and Paperless Post

Reviews

[Anu]

I loved this book cuz of two reasons : 1/ It has an incredible breadth of case studies across industries, makes you think of interesting patterns of similarity and difference with tech. 2/ It is based on concepts rooted in evolution & ecology and I have personally been fascinated by the comparative study across ecology and business for a while now.
Key premise of the book is that growing businesses is less like assembling components in a factory and more like evolving an ecosystem - applying reductionistic thinking instead of holistic systems thinking constrains your ability to grow. Staying in the Goldilocks zone of evolution is key to getting strategy right for your org.
You can tell the authors have a broad variety of interests. Their breadth of expertise and curiosity shows up in the writing - the book is an engaging, smart and fun read 🐬

[Ravi · Rating 3 out of 5]

good principles. but case studies are made anonymous - which make them pretty boring and hard to connect to.

[Sergei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could be better if it wasn't for the made up anonymous case studies. Stories seem annoyingly made up.

[Lori Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

An optional-read book on strategy for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.