Super-Flexibility for Knowledge Enterprises: A Toolkit for Dynamic Adaptation [Hardcover]

Homa Bahrami (Author), Stuart Evans (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 3642024467 | ISBN-13: 978-3642024467 | Publication Date: June 9, 2010 | Edition: 2nd ed.

Today, we live in a dynamic and inter-connected world. A multitude of "revision triggers" make it necessary to anticipate, prepare for, and continuously adapt to new realities. The key to dynamic adaptation we argue, is to become "super-flexible". Super-flexibility is defined as the ability to engage in a continuous balancing act: on the one hand, we need to withstand turbulence and create stable anchors, on the other hand, we have to transform and adapt to new realities. Our leadership "toolkit" should help us diagnose on the fly, and take rapid actions as new developments unfold. This book is about how business leaders can harness uncertainty and make their teams and enterprises "super-flexible". Based on 25 years of field research, advisory work, and professional experience in Silicon Valley's innovative ecosystem, the authors present a cross-functional, "general management" toolkit for strategizing, organizing, leading, and ultimately re-inventing knowledge enterprises for a dynamic world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Today, we live in a dynamic and inter-connected world. A multitude of "revision triggers" make it necessary to anticipate, prepare for, and continuously adapt to new realities. The key to dynamic adaptation we argue, is to become "super-flexible". Super-flexibility is defined as the ability to engage in a continuous balancing act: on the one hand, we need to withstand turbulence and create stable anchors, on the other hand, we have to transform and adapt to new realities. Our leadership "toolkit" should help us diagnose on the fly, and take rapid actions as new developments unfold. This book is about how business leaders  can harness uncertainty and make their teams and enterprises "super-flexible". Based on 25 years of field research, advisory work, and professional experience in Silicon Valley' s innovative ecosystem, the authors present a cross-functional, "general management" toolkit for strategizing, organizing, leading, and ultimately re-inventing knowledge enterprises for a dynamic world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 2nd ed. edition (June 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3642024467
• ISBN-13: 978-3642024467
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in both style and substance, May 17, 2005

By 

Denizen of the Valley (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Super-Flexibility for Knowledge Enterprises (Hardcover)

This is a crisply written, elegant book that analyses and describes the practices of silicon valley in a way that is at once readable, informative, and inspirational. In less than 200 pages, the authors describe (with entertaining and instructive examples interspersed) the silicon valley ecosystem. This ecosystem has been resiliant through the ups and downs of the past 20 years, and has been the engine behind the productivity of the US economy.

It is said that if you really know your stuff, you can describe it simply and clearly. Bahrami and Evans know their stuff. They have lived and breathed with the creators of silicon valley for 20+ years, and the book is peppered with insights and personal anecdotes, and quotes from personal conversations with some of the legends of silicon valley.

This is a book that would be equally applicable to the academic, the educator, and the entrepreneur. This is a must read for communities outside silicon valley that have wrestled over how to create entrepreneurial energy in their midst (European and Asian governments come to mind). The formula for success is spelled out (though how to get there is less clear).

I found the book to be particularly good at surfacing broadly applicable principles. The phrase they coin, super-flexibility, is expressive and right-on. The impressive bibliography shows they have done their homework.

This book is a good read: well-written, fast paced, analytical and anecdotally rich. It fills a real need. Though I have lived in silicon valley for almost 3 decades, I learned a lot by reading it, and would recommend it broadly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rigorous conceptualization, December 22, 2004

By 

Tan Chengxun "allen tan" (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Super-Flexibility for Knowledge Enterprises (Hardcover)

This is a mind-blowing book, bulit on the authors 20-years experience. I would recommend this book to those with a research orientation. Read it, and u will find it really offers an integrated view of flexibility better than any one else. The only drawback lies with weak applications of managerial mechanisms.