A BookPal Best Business Book of 2015
“Danger! Opportunity! In this snack from the business-class galley, three McKinsey Global Institute researchers serve up a view of a future that ‘presents difficult, often existential challenges to leaders of companies, organizations, cities, and countries.'
Libertarians may squall, but investors just beginning to look at emerging market trends may find value in this book.” Kirkus Reviews
“An intriguing work for those interested in the business impacts of globalization.” Library Journal
“What's unique is how the book ties these four major forces together in a book that's packed with insights and anecdotes while remaining free of management-speak
What this book excels at is quickly summarizing these forces and the challenges they pose to businesses and policy makers. And using real-world examples to illustrate these forces.” Global by Design
“Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel offer a stimulating analysis of the major trends that might make or break nations. By combining data from disparate fields, they make a compelling argument about the disruptive forces that are re-shaping the world before our eyes.” BusinessWorld
"No Ordinary Disruption is no ordinary management book. Everyone in and around business and technology has heard about disruption for awhile now, but the way Dobbs, Manyika and Woetzel dissect the phenomenon and give it meaning is truly new and exciting. They not only provide a prescient diagnosis of what's to come, but also offer compelling thoughts on how we succeed in a world that's moving faster and faster every day. The massive changes they describe can be overwhelming, but they do a remarkable job of inspiring us to confront them with intellect, humanity, and a profound optimism about our future." Eric Schmidt,Google Executive Chairman
"A compelling and rigorous illustration of how the pace of change in the last two decades has grown by orders of magnitude. Leaders from all spheres must now face up to these developments, and change their old models and processes for decision-making to handle the massive increase in shorter term volatility -- while still keeping their eyes on the longer term. Important reading for policy-makers, financiers, industrialists and NGOs interested in updating their worldview and making it fit for modern purpose." Andrew Mackenzie,CEO of BHP Billiton
“A timely and important analysis of how we need to reset our intuition as a result of four forces colliding and transforming the global economy...What sets No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends apart is depth of analysis combined with lively writing informed by surprising, memorable insights that enable us to quickly grasp the disruptive forces at work.” ValueWalk
“As a new book, titled No Ordinary Disruption, based on research by the directors of the McKinsey Global Institute, notes: ‘A radically different world is forming. The operating system of the world is being rewritten even as we speak. It doesn't come in a splashy new release. It evolves, unfolds, and often explodes.' Authors Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel add: ‘Technologyfrom the printing press to the steam engine and the Internethas always been a great force in overturning the status quo. The difference today is the sheer ubiquity of the technology in our lives and the speed of the change.'” Singapore Straits Times
04/01/2015
Technology and extreme growth in developing countries is changing the marketplace and challenging years of conventional market wisdom, with emerging-market companies able to challenge world markets faster then ever. Coauthors Dobbs, James Manyika, and Jonathan Woetzel, directors of the McKinsey Global Institute, identify four disruptive forces creating a dramatic transition in the world economy, a transition they argue will have a greater impact than the industrial revolution. The forces include the shifting of economic activity from the developed to the developing world, the speed and economic impact of technological advancement, changing world demographics as birth rates decrease, and global interconnectivity—allowing for competition from every corner of the world. The authors state that this work is not intended as a business self-help guide with steps to follow. Instead, they defend their claims while utilizing a multitude of examples from Facebook and WeChat to textile companies, thereby illustrating unexpected market challenges and the impact of technology. VERDICT While, as the authors acknowledge, this is not a how-to resource, it is nonetheless an intriguing work for those interested in the business impacts of globalization.—Casey Watters, Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ.
2015-03-15
Danger! Opportunity! In this snack from the business-class galley, three McKinsey Global Institute researchers serve up a view of a future that "presents difficult, often existential challenges to leaders of companies, organizations, cities, and countries." Creative destruction is one thing. Plain old destruction is quite another, and in the modern marketplace, it's not always easy to tell the two apart. "Ours is a world of near-constant discontinuity," write Dobbs, Manyika, and Woetzel, which will come as little comfort to those seeking peace and quiet. It's a world of interrupted development, disequilibrium, and a thorough overhaul of whatever once passed for normal. The United States is now exporting oil, India is emerging as a leader in space exploration, and China is developing a large consumer class with new holidays such as Singles Day, a kind of antidote to Valentine's Day. Trend watchers who read the Financial Times and the Economist will know all this, but readers who don't bother to look far beyond our shores may be a little disquieted to learn that part of the disruption is a remaking of the world's emerging markets, especially in unexpected places and to unexpected ends. "Seven emerging markets," write the authors, "will be fueling almost half of all global GDP growth over the coming decade," the news there being that Indonesia and Turkey now figure on the list. Other pieces of the authors' puzzle should surprise no one: the world, for instance, is getting grayer, they observe. Some of the authors' closing recommendations are standard business dictums: get more agile, get smarter. But some go deeper, such as the idea that government regulation, so often the bugaboo of the financier class, can actually be put to advantage to "set standards and define the rules of conduct and markets." Libertarians may squall, but investors just beginning to look at emerging market trends may find value in this book.