An Excerpt from “Surfing the disturbance” by Leo Sadovy
The future of business is the martial arts CEO, the jujitsu strategist. Far too many organizations approach business with an American football mentality, complete with scripted plays, huddles and time outs, but the real world isn’t quite so convenient and accommodating. The real business world is 7×24 with no time outs and with multiple competitors simultaneously entering the playing field from all directions. There is no halftime to gather the team together and regroup. Rather, the real world is more like the marital arts, the action continuous, and after the initial bow towards your opponent, there are no set pieces.
Instead, you put together a series of moves from your practiced repertoire on the fly as to best take advantage of what the immediate situation offers you. You enter the arena with an objective and with a strategy against a particular opponent, perhaps to wear them down or to go with speed and feints so as to offset the power advantage you attribute to them through your advanced scouting and market research, but once the action starts, it looks more like dodgeball than football.
Mike Tyson probably said it best: “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”
Read the article: Surfing the disturbance
