Customer Reviews

Shaping the Adaptive Organization: Landscapes, Learning, and Leadership in Volatile Times

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While the coverage of some topics is slightly more cursory than I might consider appropriate, I have found this book useful in prompting new thinking about how we fashion strategy in the new business environment. This is an excellent book for anyone who has interests in the new understandings we are gaining in the sciences, and is wondering about how to apply the new thinking to shaping organizations, old or new. While one may question some of the corporations selected as exemplars, among the real benefits of this book is that the author steps far out onto the limb to suggest practices in current organizations that illustrate key points in the development of an organization that can thrive in the tumult of our times. I believe that this book is a must read for people interested in the evolution of business strategy.

Author William E. Fulmer uses a biological analogy to discuss how organizations form and evolve in an environment that changes through co-evolution with other organizations. Organizations must be ready to learn, and need leaders who can help participants understand change and adapt to it. Though strategic planning can help, Fulmer emphasizes preparing for continual adaptation. His thoughtful, in-depth discussion draws on research from biologists, philosophers and various academic and business writers to create a biological model. He weaves in examples of businesses that have thrived or failed based on their ability or inability to adapt. When Fulmer veers away from his biological analogy, he starts to sound much like many of the other adapt-or-die prophets out there today, but nevertheless, we [...] recommend this solid presentation of a complex subject to executives, top managers and academics.