We live in a complex and fast-changing world.
The old rules that we once took for granted are breaking down, and we need new ways of running our businesses and other organisations.
These new ways need to be lean, so that we can focus on the priorities. And they need to be ‘joined-up’, so that the whole organisation is pulling in the same direction.
The Escher Cycle shows how, by identifying and focusing on the priorities and then linking them together to form a system, we can create an organisation that is both robust and resilient.
The book builds, step by step to define the seven key activities that drive results. It then explains how to carry them out. And it shows how link them together to form a self-reinforcing cycle of improving business performance.
Solid Intellectual Foundation:
The book starts out from one basic question, “What does it take for a business to be successful?”
As the answers unfold, the book builds into what has been called “A unified theory of business.” It thus provides a sound theoretical footing — a wholistic, integrated view of the key activities that any business needs to succeed.
Practical Focus on Results:
The book it is also very practical. It shows how to carry out each activity. As one retired strategy professor from Harvard Business School put it, this book “brings strategy into the very heartland of business operations.”
In turbulent times this focus is even more important, and brings increased efficiency, effectiveness and speed of response.
One ex-McKinsey consultant called the result: “A blueprint for winning any game your business chooses to play.”
A Model for Sustainability:
Sustainable business is all the rage nowadays. The Escher Cycle adds to the debate by showing how to bring together the key business activities to form an integrated, aligned and also highly adaptive organisation.
The starting point for the book was success and not sustainability, but as one reviewer pointed out, The Escher Cycle “describes business as a living organism.”
A living organism is one that can adapt and survive, evolve and prosper. If that is not a blueprint for sustainable management, I don’t know what is.
The Escher Cycle shows how to run a business in a way that is sustainably successful.