The Upside: The 7 Strategies for Turning Big Threats Into Growth Breakthroughs

by Adrian J. Slywotzky and Karl Weber

Book Overview

Today, when your fortunes can literally change overnight, the new strategic imperative is making your moment of maximum risk your moment of maximum opportunity. In The Upside , Adrian Slywotzky... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307351017
• ISBN13: 9780307351012
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Crown Business
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Upside: A Broad systematic look at risk : CEOs, Boards must read

As a CEO, strategic advisor, and Board member for enterprises from emerging to Fortune 100, I continue to treasure the intellectual capital Adrian Slywotzky creates. This latest contribution, Upside, builds on his previous work as he challenges us to think and act differently about risk. He urges us to break out of the traditional thinking of risk ( disaster management- the computers blew up, compliance---someone broke the law( How did Jones afford that Mazaratti?) and put it in the framework of value creation, profitable growth, and the ultimate leadership challenge,...creating sustainability. He does so with a compelling combination of analysis, story telling, and framework building. Ever the pragmatist, Mr. Slywotzky gives the reader helpful tools to think through our own situation. There are attractive and proactive ideas throughout the book, ranging from the "7 types of risk", to `de-risking", and "risk shaping". In classic Slywotzky fashion, his analytics underscore the growing importance of risk management and engagement: "...during the last 12 years 170 of the Fortune 500 lost 50% or more of their value in a 12 month period" ...For those scoring at home, the odds of taking a BIG hit are more than one in 3!!!...Now you have my attention. Most useful was the focus on risk as an offensive as well as defensive concept. While the `defensive" posture has value, it is the offensive or "risking shaping" path that offers "game changing" possibilities, and significant "Upside' On the defensive side, Slywotzky highlights that avoiding the `big downside' matters. Recovering from one of those performance craters sets organizations back years. If one loses 50% of "market cap" in one year, it takes two and half times as long at a 50% recovery rate just to get back to even......A strong argument for " risk" management on the downside. But perhaps the true value of the work is a systematic way of looking through a multi-dimensional risk lens across critical strategic areas, (financial, brand, industry, competitor, customer etc.). This urges management thinking not only about the set of risks to consider, but also to become activists-- look at risk as "opportunity"......Its in this "think differently" vein that Slywotzky excels. Using systematic analysis, he continually challenges leaders to look at the foreboding or even "unthinkable" situation and ask what move(s) can be made to derive sustainable advantage. The simple concept of " risk shaping" underscores that successful leaders can, do, and have engaged ` risk' in a successful search for advantage . The work is rich with examples and simple tools, questions and frameworks to use in thinking and working through these issues. It's economic as well. He covers a great deal of ground in less than 250 pages, (with helpful footnotes for the curious among us). He goes beyond the Toyota, Apple, Coach, and IBM examples, and finds "risk shapers" in unexpected places:Colonel Joshua Cha

Slywotzky Delivers Another Winner

According to Slywotzky, the success of any business comes down to a series of well-thought out and bold moves, which allow the company to seize an opportunity or neutralize some threat. Often, when successful, these moves are counter-intuitive and fly in the face of traditional business doctrine. Slywotzky challenges the widely-accepted doctrine that risk and reward are inextricably linked. According to this author, such unconventional and proactive moves are exactly why some of these companies have had the monumental successes they've had, while their peer companies have faltered. Slywotzky's Upside is a well-researched, well-written and easy read. Upside presents a small history of the companies that we grew up with, that are currently battling it out in the marketplace and with which we interact on a daily basis. We know these companies well and this book gives us an insider's view of what's happening with them before the products hit our store shelves. Battle plans exposed! Slywotzky also highlights some corporate, brand and product strategies that have failed, leading to the devaluation or extinction of other companies that we've known and loved over the generations. In the process, Upside takes a good look at the following questions, among others: 1. Which companies develop a diversified portfolio of products, frequently rolling out new ones and which companies put all of their eggs (and the very best of their resources) into one basket, launching one behemoth? 2. Which companies have survived and thrived through myriad iterations by gathering and using data better than others? What does that mean for how your company uses its data? 3. Which major retailer strategically chose to redefine its market, making itself the dominant player in the process? 4. Which competitors combine resources as a cost-saving, survival tactic? How can you turn a competitor into an ally? 5. What are the bold moves these companies make to de-risk each strategy? Slywotzky ends each chapter with a summary of each company's strategy and ends the book with a two-chapter workbook for readers to use to assess their own companies, industries and battle plans. I would stress that much of his work is also applicable to both small businesses and to individuals navigating their ways through their own strategic environments. Readers of his earlier works know that Slywotzky's books tend to have an innovative delivery, and this book doesn't disappoint. In addition to using sports analogies in Upside, Slywotzky keeps a running tally of each endeavor's odds of success. This is innovative because it allows him to quantify that success is really the sum of many small decisions, none of which alone guarantees success, but taken together can add up quickly to very strong odds of success. A great book, written by a management guru, student and teacher of business and corporate strategy, Upside makes a great addition to any business library.

Strategic Risk Shaping Drivers Superior Performance

I have been reading and applying Adrian Slywotzky's works on the broad topic of profitable growth for over fourteen years. What I find striking about all of his work is that the concepts presented are always clear, accessible, and market-hardened. I find reassurance knowing that as a management consultant, the insights or "business truths" that Slywotzky presents are distilled out of observing and analyzing a multitude of clients and their fiercest competitors in a global theater. In The Upside, the concept of a "strategic risk management system" brings the topic of risk back into the strategy conversation in a positive and opportunistic way. Being prepared and turning threats into growth opportunities is the heart of this book. The notion that active and ongoing "risk-shaping" as a source of advantage and superior performance is missing concept in most corporate strategy conversations and a needed one. Private equity and other financial market leaders are masters of re-shaping risk to maximize returns and have been quietly doing so for years. The application of risk management to corporate strategy is a new and important dimension. My sense is that the merger of Mercer Management Consulting and Oliver Wyman provided the stimulus for deeper thought about the intersection of growth strategy and risk management. As a corporate practitioner of growth acceleration I find Slywotzky to be core reading along with Harvard Business Review, and Sloan Management Review. These are the three best sources of distilled, market tested, high impact growth strategies that can be customized and deployed tomorrow. If you haven't read Value Migration, The Profit Zone, Profit Patterns, The Art of Profitability, and How To Grow When Market's Don't, you should absolutely add them to your reading list and business library. The Upside stands by itself, but the collection as a whole is an overwhelming arsenal of competitive moves that I have applied over and over again with striking results. Perhaps the most important act you can perform is not just to read The Upside, but to use it, experiment with it, adapt it to your business situation, and put it into practice. Dayton Semerjian Senior Vice President, Strategy and Development Operations CA, Inc.

Dimensions of "a new strategic imperative"

I have read all of Adrian Slywotzky's previously published books and reviewed most of them. In my opinion, he is one of the most important business thinkers of the last several decades. What we have in Upside is a continuation of Slywotzky's emphasis on the importance of measuring what really matters, especially insofar as value migration during paradigm shifts within competitive markets are concerned, but I think there are some intriguing differences between this book and those which precede it. For example, Slywotzky establishes and then sustains throughout his narrative a conversational, at times almost (not quite) playful tone...certainly his tone is much less formal than in earlier works. Also, and more to the point, he devotes less attention to the "what" (i.e. seven strategies), preferring to focus primarily on the "why" and "how" of strategic risk management which enables just about any organization (regardless of size or nature) to "turn big threats into growth breakthroughs." More specifically, a major initiative fails or at least falls far short of high hopes and great expectations; there is a significant loss of customer revenue; there is an paradigm, shift within the given industry; a seeming unbeatable competitor appears; loss of brand power and leverage; the given industry has become a no-profit zone; zero or insignificant organizational growth. "The first two jobs of strategic management are to sidestep the unnecessary blows [i.e. self-inflicted wounds] and mitigate the blows you can't avoid. You can avoid the biggest hits to your company's value through as strategic risk management system that uses the principles and techniques described in the rest of this book." Slywotzky then goes on to suggest: "Remember Warren Buffett's first rule: Preserve your capital. And also his second rule: See the first rule." According to Slywotzky, "The first step in de-risking your product is to recognize the true odds of success; the second is to change them." He explains how in the first chapter, citing Toyota as an exemplary company and its development of the Prius as a case in point. I especially appreciate that, on page 32 and throughout the book, Slywotzky includes a checklist of key points within the given context. These are action steps for his reader to consider. "How many of these types of moves can you adapt for your next big project?" (The key words are "moves" and "adapt.") In fact, later in the same chapter and throughout his subsequent narrative, Slywotzky makes brilliant use of a reader-friendly device, "[name of company's] Moves to [name of initiative]."H e uses a variation of it (e.g. "Toyota's Further Moves to Change the Odds") to indicate that effective strategic risk management, responding effectively to "big threats," is an on-going process. At least for me, some of Slywotzky's most valuable material is provided in Chapter Seven, "When Your Business Stops Growing." Although the first two jobs of a strategic management syst