Here’s a new book by the noted consultant and professor – Mr. Ram Charan. It’s a great book on how leaders and companies need to develop a new mindset in the face of relentless change and structural uncertainities.

1. The Attackers Advantage
Ram Charan

2. Taking control of uncertainty is the
fundamental leadership challenge
of our time.

3. Structural uncertainty is global
and atomistic.

4. Every uncertainty is magnified by
quantum increases in the speed of
change, largely brought about by
communications and computing
technologies.

5. Steering a business through
uncertainty needs a distinctly
different type of leadership.

6. The following skills are needed in
leadership now :
1. Perceptual acuity
2.A mind set to see opportunity in uncertainty
3.The ability to see a new path forward and commit to
it.
4. Adeptness in managing the course to the new path
5.Skill in making the organization steerable and agile.

7. Few industries are exempt from
the threat of structural
uncertainty.

8. A structural uncertainty doesn’t
arrive overnight, there are
adequate signals ahead of time.

9. Nokia was a fantastic brand,
highly profitable with huge share
and strong geographic presence.
Nokia was challenged by a new
consumer experience based on a
new platform from Apple and
Android.

10. I consulted with the Nokia board
and signaled this to them in
20111. They didn’t take this
structural shift in their planning.

11. Many companies will need to
change the way they are
organized, managed and led.

12. Perceptual acuity is your human
radar to see through the fog of
uncertainty so that you can act
before others do.

13. Catalysts are doers who take risks
partly on facts and partly on their
imagination.

14. Blackrock CEO Larry Fink spends
twenty minutes everyday viewing
the news on his I pad and looks to
detect any oddity in the news that
will impact his business.

15. Change doesn’t wait for a
company’s annual planning cycle,
it is good for people to keep
preparing.

16. Two things that will greatly
improve your ability to find a path
through uncertainty : a sharp
focus on end to end value chain
and a working knowledge of
digitization and analytics.

17. As a mid level manager or a senior
manager, travel as much into the
market as possible, visit customers
and the field regularly. This will
help you fine tune the system to
keep reacting to change. It will
also help you fix the pain points.

18. In a digital world, be brave to
make the shift, vacillating doesn’t
help.

19. Never confuse patience with a
frustrating desire for certainty.

20. Many managers are well meaning
but5 become blockers due to their
behavior. They have trouble
adapting to a new perspective.

21. Managers who have been in an industry or a
company a long time have problems
readjusting to new change :
1. Attachment to old core competencies
2.Inability to build a new core competency
3.Fear
4.Avoiding opposition

22. According to Dean Stamoulis of Russell
Reynolds, a large head hunter, the biggest
derailer at senior levels is ‘ blaming and
rationalizing'. The best leaders do not whine,
which shows a level of accountability and
confidence in themselves to figure things out.
That’s what’s needed in ambiguous situations

23. Do you have the guts to make moves.
Intellectualizing is one thing, anyone can do it,
Pulling the trigger is a different thing. You have
top harden your inner core to see the world as
objectively as possible, think things through
carefully and act on what you see.

24. You can never completely eliminate
uncertainty. You have to keep judging each one
carefully.

25. An organization is steerable and agile when you
link its speed and character to the external
environment.
That means breaking silos and bureaucracy and
getting to the point quickly.

26. When Mullaly took over as CEO at Ford, he
made team working a priority and the basic
expected behaviors in the system.

27. Meetings should be used not to share
information but to drive accountability and
action steps to achieve goals.

28. Mullaly reinforced the importance of team
work through his demand for mutual respect
and collaborative problem solving in meetings.
He asked everyone to be a team player.

29. A key for turning around a company is to get a
group comfortable with information sharing
and joint decision making. If people have the
same information, there is less chance of them
derailing a decision.

30. Many times , in large companies, one individual
stalls progress because of his ego. The leader
needs to take this person out.
If a few simple habits change, every individual
will be far better.

31. A good team player with social skills is one who
will get seek external information, who will
play coach and umpire in a meeting, who will
work through the node to make a decision in a
team without the need for 100 % consensus.
Someone like this has to have candor, candor is
brave and is contagious in companies when the
leader is candid.