Sharp Objects

Management and leadership are facing serious headwinds. These headwinds are driven by the sea of change that is facing organizations today. This change, driven predominantly but not exclusively, by the rapid rate of technological advancement has resulted in major shifts in how organizations configure themselves. The world has also become increasingly polarized. Whilst the nouveau-rich and the upper-middle classes of Tasha’s meetings continue blissfully to enjoy their lot, just fifteen minutes away, two of the fastest growing townships, Alexandra and Diepsloot have weekly service delivery protests, alarming crime rates and unsustainable social infrastructure backlogs. The social problems of South Africa are manifesting at an exponential rate, yet leaders continue to think, plan, manage, coordinate and deliver at a linear rate. These leaders, and many others like them, don’t have the skills or framework to work differently. For business leaders in pursuit of generating results better than their competitors and their market average, working through the quagmire of strategy, culture, context, leadership and many other latter-day management concepts seems to be their default. All this in the hope that they can discover the scripture that teaches them how they can generate better returns than their competition. How they can generate exponential results in linear markets. In the book, we look at teams, leaders and organizations that have managed to deliver phenomenal market-beating results in the face of extreme uncertainty, severe resource constraints and socio-political instability. We study the foresight of managers who turned entrepreneurs who seized opportunities and built businesses to rival their old employers, seasoned managers who looked through the fog of marketplace war to see opportunity. We answer the questions: how did they do it, what they did and what you can learn from their ingenuity, luck and guts. Over the past decade, my team and I have spent copious periods of time, effort and resources seeking to answer the ultimate management question of the new age, "how do we drive exponential results in linear markets?” The old way is dead. Linear is the past. Leaders, managers and entrepreneurs today need to learn how to work differently. They need a new bible, - The Magna Carta of Exponentiality.