The Escher Cycle is about finding focus in a changing world.
It’s about working smarter, not harder. It’s about focusing on what truly matters, so that we get more done, better, with less resources, and less stress.
But what is it that ‘truly matters’?
The book starts out with one simple, scientific, powerful question:
“What is the least my business needs to do to be successful?”
If we can answer that then we know where to focus for maximum results.
The book finds that initial answer has three parts: making money, using resources, and satisfying customers needs. Step by step, the first three chapters show clearly and simply how to achieve each of these priorities.
The next step is to make sure there is a good balance between the three basic activities. This is the task of management, and a fourth chapter describes the focus needed to manage the business well.
Maintaining the balance over time is what we call leadership. The next chapter reveals a set of focused tools that enable you to choose a direction for your business and lead it forward to adapt and evolve in a changing world.
Having decided where to take the business, you will need to think about how to strategically position and diversify it within its industry. The next chapter defines powerful, simple tools that help you do this.
Finally the book shows that within an economy made up of millions of such businesses, there is a never-ending flow of information and learning: from luxury products and services to mass market and back again; from property developer to architect, to builder, to maintenance company; from movie producer to screenwriter, to director, to distributor, and so on.
I call this never-ending flow “The Escher Cycle” and it is this is flow that drives what we call ‘progress’. Understanding how it works, and how to leverage it to improve your business, is final source of advantage for your business, and forms the focus of the final chapter.
In this way The Escher Cycle reveals the seven key activities your organisation needs to focus on in order to succeed and evolve.
It provides clear tools and frameworks for focusing on and achieving each one.
As one reviewer put it:
“The Escher Cycle is a guide to winning
any game your business chooses to play.”