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The Irresistible Growth Enterprise: Breakthrough Gains from Unstoppable Change

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Fritz Leiber's "Lankhmar" stories tell of a fail-safe system available to the citizens of Lankmar in case they were in grave danger of defeat: They could summon the Gods of Lankhmar, who would lay waste their enemies - and them, too. (Naturally, one does not summon them too often.)
Many leaders, thinking like managers, wait until drastic action is mandatory to save their organization - risking possible destruction in the process. Mitchell and Coles outline a series of steps, somewhat reminicent of Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" system, for recognizing danger (read: opportunity), planning for riding the crest of said opportunity, and for overcoming the organizational inertia that most large systems possess to make it happen.
Part of the change process is accepting risk: The "Gods of Lankhmar Effect" might do to describe the process they envision, as the change device carries the potential to expose the organization to collateral damage, or "creative destruction," as Shumpeter termed it. Knowledge of the risks involved contributes to the "stalls" many cohorts will use to block change. Much of the book is devoted to strategizing ways to overcome the more common ones.
Some of the stalls ("But that's not the way I thought it would be!") remind one of the reactions of individuals to personal loss - the grieving process is often described as a five-step one, including denial as an early reaction. Facing change of major magnitude, when the action called on for survival and the chance to prosper, may involve the preceived loss of what one holds dear. Like Themistocles, the innovative leader may have to sell his people on letting the Persians burn Athens, by offering a compelling vision of the marbled splendor awaiting the victors, as opposed to hoping that a conventional response to overwhelming force will somehow do the trick - magical thinking, if you will.
Tactics described by the authors start out with measurement concepts - an essential part of a rational decision-making process. Collecting relevant data, and knowing what that is, constitutes the first line of defense in directing organizational change. After all, what good is a thermometer when what is needed is a Geiger counter?
The essential quality of the book is this: Accept the need for overcoming a majority in your organization who will not see or accept change, and who may not accept the best alternative for meeting it, along with the consequent resourcing demands. Be prepared to identify and ally with those who come to share your vision. Anticipate dealing with stalling tactics, or be just another Cassandra - right on your predictions, but ignored by those you warn.
-Lloyd A. Conway

Nimbleness and strategic thinking can go hand-in-hand. The power is in understanding the forces around you that can inhibit progress or send you careening off in the wrong direction. With that understanding, and the ability to act in a timely manner, you can achieve considerably greater success in the corporate world.

The first ten chapters of this insightful book address the factors that can stall progress. This portion will be quite educational for executives who haven't realized how many things could get in their way-many without even appearing to be blockages. Consider these stalls: lack of direction, wishful thinking, helplessness, defensiveness, independence, overoptimism, cover-up, and underestimation. Getting a little uncomfortable? Welcome to the club. These inhibitions are more common than you might think. However, knowledge is power; so understanding what's happening to you will give you the capacity to break through.

The stalls, thinking habits that get in our way, can be overcome. And the authors show readers how to get past the stalls with solutions and challenging questions. A liberal supply of anecdotes from the authors' consulting experiences illustrate the messages to help readers "get" what's happening and what they must do. With a deeper understanding of the company's conditions, you'll be motivated to really dig in and make some things happen.

The next eight chapters of the book will give you the tools you need, enhanced by lots of examples to help you understand the applications. The authors describe how measurement, environmental awareness, studying of best practices, and working differently with your people can make a substantial difference in your success. The epilogue chapter emphasizes why it's important to begin this work now, and not procrastinate. The velocity of change in the world has increased significantly, with more competition and other companies whose executives have read books like these and are striving to apply the principles.

A valuable touch from the authors is an appendix that applies their concepts to personal and family life. This section is a gift. Another appendix focuses on the internet and the unique challenges and opportunities presented by this vehicle.

The book is enhanced by summary introductions to each chapter (like executive summaries), a bibliography, and index. It's a work that will engage your thinking and stimulate some interesting-and productive-discussions among your leadership team.

robertlowe@mindspring.com from Atlanta , 5 July, 2000

The Irresistible Growth Enterprise is a breakthrough work and a millennium message from one of the truly gifted business minds of our times.

The perspective and information in this book is of equal importance to the CEO, CFO, Corporate Director, executive, manager, supervisor, sole practitioner, first time entrepreneur, or student at any level.

This is more than a 'how to' book yet you may use it to work through what you must do to grow, thrive, change, and survive into the new century. It is more than a management technique book, yet the techniques introduced and developed here may be used as a guide for any who must manage to manage into the turbulent and exciting times ahead. Among the 'irresistible forces' with which we must deal are such events as globalization, market fluctuations, economic surges and reversals, new technologies and their economic impacts, natural events - weather and catastrophes, demographic changes, and the myriad aspects of human unpredictability. Don Mitchell tells us that 'Most people see irresistible forces as random factors or inconveniences, but The Irresistible Growth Enterprise will instead show you how to use all those forces instead of trying to avoid them.' This principle, at once ancient and modern, is essential to both business health and personal development.

The principles and practices in this book are more than mere ideas. They are the culmination of practical gleanings, over decades, in close business and interpersonal relationships with an astounding number of the nation's top executives dealing with real-time irresistible forces.

The Irresistible Growth Enterprise is required reading if you wish to deal effectively with the geometrically increasing velocity of change and development facing all of us today. As Don Mitchell says, 'This multiplier effect will increasingly happen with all irresistible forces, and this is the key insight upon which you must act now.'

Robert Lowe - Author Improvisation, Inc.: Harnessing Spontaneity to Engage People and Groups Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer (2000)

Donald Mitchell provides truly invaluable insight into how to prepare for the only guaranteed constant of the future - the change. He teaches not only how to prepare for it but how to welcome it, how to nurture it and how to spot the irresistible forces than can be used effectively to maximise our own success, instead of letting them work against us.

This book is different from any other that I have read in a way that it guides us to think far ahead beyond the scope of our own imagination. Put Mitchell's suggestions in actual practice in the workplace or your personal life and you potentially hold the keys of control of your success for the decades ahead.

This book is filled with such a vast amount of substantial information that reading it just once is not enough. To make a full use of it, it should be read repeatedly and reviewed time and time again. This is what I am going to do. If I would have a choice of having only 25 business books in my library, this would be one of them.

History is replete with companies done in by forces beyond their control. History also celebrates the rare examples of executives who turned these "irresistible" forces to their great advantage.

Can executives of companies see the wave soon enough, catch and ride (read manage) it to sustained growth, rewarding themselves, employees, customers and shareholders along the way?

In their new book, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise: Breakthrough Gains from Unstoppable Change, authors Donald W. Mitchell and Carol Coles lay out a road map for managers that, if followed, will allow them to take advantage of forces beyond their control. Authors of the popular The 2,000 Percent Solution, Mitchell and Coles show how CEOs can benefit from flexibility when they confront irresistible forces and provide a set of principles for shaping vision, strategy, tactics, management process and organizational structure.

The book identifies external factors and obsolete ways of thinking. For example, "companies that strategize only to optimize the forces when they are positive, will face grave difficulties when the forces shift directions," say Mitchell and Coles. A lack of understanding can lead to "inappropriate action or no action," the authors suggest in their book.

In separate chapters, they describe a wide range of stalls commonly faced by companies in a section called, Overcoming Stalls and Taking Actions.

These stalls include:

A lack of direction;

Wishful thinking that favorable conditions will return;

A sense of helplessness about actions to take;

A defensive reaction and denial of the seriousness of the forces;

Relying only on the company's resources to handle the situation;

Covering up problems and "throwing in the towel";

Being too independent and believing they can succeed;

Being overly optimistic about succeeding; and

Underestimating the impact.

Mitchell and Coles set out eight steps that will allow companies to manage these irresistible forces successfully:

1) Recognize how measurements can help your company identify and understand more about irresistible forces;

2) use your own leading indicators to anticipate shifts in irresistible forces;

3) identify the future best practices for locating, anticipating and adapting to change in irresistible forces;

4) extend your vision to accomplish best practices beyond anyone else in the future;

5) identify the ideal best practices for benefiting from irresistible forces;

6) determine how to operate close to ideal best practices for locating, anticipating and adapting to your irresistible forces;

7) enhance your people's ability to achieve the benefits of irresistible force management; and

8) repeat steps one through seven for improved effectiveness in using the management process.

Last, the authors urge readers to "embrace the forces," encouraging managers to "seek out the irresistible forces" as a basis for early action. Survival, growth, and personal opportunity are at stake and at hand. They lay out a course of action for taking the lead inside your company and mobilizing people.

A chapter personalizes the entire process for each reader's overall life.

The authors lay out a pattern of all the ways companies choose to deal with "irrisistible forces and unstoppable events" in their businesses. As the phrase implies, these events happen in all businesses, and the authors explain how, if leveraged correctly, these can often be a catalyst to greater growth in your business.

They describe irrisistible force stalls and their causes - useful if your small business isn't performing as you'd hoped - they offer solid advice that will give you a plan of action and get you back on track.

They detail common stalls and how to deal with them - "stallbusting" they call it. The stalls they find most common (and certainly these sound like familiar "stalls" used by some of my small business marketing clients when they come to me for help) are:

The directionless stall

The wishful thinking stall

The helplessness stall

The defensiveness stall

The independence stall

The overoptimisim stall

The cover up stall

The underestimation stall

As a means to understanding what could be stopping your small business from achieving its full potential, and what actions to take - I highly recommend it. It's packed with information, so it's not a quick read, but well worth the time investment for the success of your small business.

As CEOs we face many problems that are caused by forces beyond our control. This is especially true for CEOs of companies smaller than the Fortune 500. In fact, we are often tempted to put such problems in a different pile -- the ones we can't do anything about -- and hope something else changes. Don Mitchell and Carol Coles have taken away that excuse with the ideas in this very readable book. They show us that the forces beyond our control, these irresistible forces, often are the key to irresistible growth. We need to learn to understand the new opportunities these forces present and to leverage them to our advantage.

I am recommending this book to all of the CEOs and other senior executives who are members of Renaissance Executive Forums. Every month we deal with the big topics and learning how to manage change in this time of new paradigms is always on the agenda. This book will add value to these discussions.

This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book that examines the nature of irresistible growth enterprises-those able to routinely employ the momentum of inexorable external forces, such as technology advances and shifts in markets. Such agile organizations can use these forces as tailwinds (sources of power or energizers) for creating and implementing 2.000 percent solutions-ones that produce 20 times or more the benefit or speed of the run-of-the-mill variety.

Mitchell and Coles, authors of "The 2,000 Percent Solution," explain that to benefit from irresistible forces an organization must ALIGN itself with them (like a pivoting windmill with the wind), break itself of bad thinking habits that block or evade action (discussed in considerable depth), and, using an eight-step process (a chapter is devoted to each step) replace these hobbling habits of the mind with desirable, action-oriented ones.

In a nutshell, the challenge is to (1) identify, anticipate, adapt to, and, in some instances, create irresistible forces; (2) learn to flexibly align to them; and (3) develop capabilities to strengthen the enterprises's power to act. Lively, highly readable, well constructed, insightful content make this a most valuable book. Highly recommended.

This book, with the significant stall busting tools and theories, enabled me to understand stall busting and develop new habits. It enabled me to understand the process of irresistible force management and importance of measuring performance to achieve exponential success. It helped me to develop 2000 percent solutions for the organization's future best practice to become the world's leading company in delivering its product at low cost.

Most businesses tend to grow for a while and then hit a point where they stall. "The Irresistible Growth Enterprise" focuses on how to get past a stall and use various growth enhancing techniques to get started again. The various things discussed in this book that cause a business to stall include Irresistible Force Stalls, the Directionless Stall (Where are we going and how do we get there?), the Wishful Thinking Stall (That's not the way I thought it would be), the Helplessness Stall (What do we do now?), the Defensiveness Stall, the Independence Stall (We can do it all), the Overoptimization Stall, the Cover-up Stall, and the Underestimation Stall.
The second part deals with Irresistible Force Management, how to determine the forces that affect your company, how to use them to develop a best practice scenario, and how to monitor results.
There are many good management books on the market today. Very few cover the problem of why a business enterprise stops growing and what to do about it to the extent that this one does. Because of this extended coverage of an often overlooked or marginalized area this is a recommended read for anyone wishing to jumpstart a stalled business or keep from getting into a business stall.