Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/139946
bookshelf TH E E N D OF COM PETITIVE ADVANTAG E A AUTHOR: Rita Gunther McGrath PUBLISHER: Harvard Business Review Press, US$30 GONE ARE THE DAYS when stable, monolithic corporations dominated their industries for decades simply by staying the best at what they did. In today's fractured, volatile, global economy, companies can expect to enjoy only transient competitive advantage, says McGrath of Columbia Business School. Leaders must constantly look for the next big idea, develop plans for redeploying personnel and resources into new product lines, and figure out how to exit from their current markets when necessary. And they must do all these things simultaneously as they ride many individual waves of innovation from concept to dissolution. She emphasizes that, in this new model, "disengagement—the process of moving out of an exhausted opportunity—is as core to the business as innovation, growth, and exploitation are." McGrath has identified ten firms that have managed a steady rate of growth over the past ten years by following just this strategy, and she draws on their stories to illustrate points she makes throughout this intriguing look at the future. G LOBAL TI LT AUTHOR: Ram Charan PUBLISHER: Crown Business, US$28 THE WORLD'S WEALTH and power are undergoing a "global tilt" from north—above the thirtyfirst parallel—to south, and consultant Charan uses vivid, urgent prose to describe that headlong transfer of influence. He identifies key forces driving this change, including the interconnected global c financial system, c competition among c countries, mobile communications and their attendant innovations, changing demographics, and pressure on resources. His book is aimed directly at northern leaders who think they can rely on old tactics to survive in a new world. "If you are too impatient, intimidated, indifferent, or arrogant to build up this competence, your leadership is at risk of being obsolete. …You have 60 July/August 2013 BizEd to step back from the constraining details of your business and industry, view the world at large, and pick out the key trends or items that would upend the world you're accustomed to and create once-ina-lifetime opportunities." He paints a picture of a future that's chaotic, scary—and full of possibilities. LEAD E R S H I P SUSTAI NAB I LITY AUTHORS: Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood PUBLISHER: McGraw-Hill, US$30 IN THE U.S., up to $80 billion annually goes toward training, but barely 30 percent of leadership training sticks, estimate Ulrich of the University of Michigan and leadership expert Smallwood. So how can C-suite executives commit to the changes they need to make and develop sustainable leadership? "Today's biggest unmet challenge of leadership is not learning more about what to do, it is about learning how to make sure that what is known is done," the authors write. Sustainable leaders, they believe, live by seven disciplines: simplicity, time, account- ability, resources, tracking, melioration, and emotion (which spell START ME). For instance, leaders who master simplicity are able to focus on what matters most—defining problems, prioritizing assignments, and filtering out extraneous clutter. Leaders who master time actually spend their days doing the tasks they've identified as crucial, instead of being distracted by other demands. As Ulrich and Smallwood say, "Leaders matter. Leadership matters more. Leadership sustainability matters most." G LOBAL D EXTE R ITY AUTHOR: Andy Molinsky PUBLISHER: Harvard Business Review Press, US$25 LEARNING TO FUNCTION effectively in an unfamiliar country is not simply a matter of learning the