Shockproof: How to Hardwire Your Business for Lasting Success

As the economy moves through its cycles of growth and contraction, many companies get stuck in periods of poor performance and turn to quick fixes such as EVA, Kaizen, or Six Sigma that either deliver only short-term positive impact or cause more pain than the preexisting condition.

With rapid developments and shifts in the economy, technology, and customer expectations, businesses – even those that are widely regarded as successful – are often only one shock away from failure.  Leaders spend countless hours trying to derive the perfect business strategy or organization design, only to be thrown off kilter by an unanticipated change. When faced with a crisis that puts a business in peril, some leaders make the mistake of turning to “quick fix” solutions, such as downsizing, divestiture, hiring a “savior” leader, or over-investing in the latest flavor-of-the month management consulting fad.

As leaders navigate the changes and challenges of the future, SHOCKPROOF: How to Hardwire Your Business for Lasting Success (Wiley; December 2010) by Debra Jacobs, Garrett Sheridan, and Juan Pablo Ganzalez of Axiom Consulting Partners provides a roadmap for their efforts to deliver lasting success in good times and bad.

From observing how some companies falter while others storm ahead, SHOCKPROOF tells the stories of how some businesses are hardwired to succeed. However, to gain competitive advantage and achieve profitable growth throughout downturns in the economic cycle, companies must assess market trends and opportunities then dynamically align their business and talent strategies as well as organization design to seize opportunities and deliver results. Based on years of research conducted by Axiom Consulting Partners, SHOCKPROOF assists managers in making and maintaining that necessary connection between strategies and organization to achieve sustainability. A SHOCKPROOF concept has the following important attributes:

- Agile and can rapidly reinvent itself as business conditions change

- Leadership knows how to mobilize people to execute and deliver results

- A workforce that  is adaptive, inherently innovative, and energized by the rewards of success due to its connection to the business

Long term success does not happen by accident.  It happens when leaders are able to see what is going on in their businesses with absolute clarity and act with courage to ensure alignment between their business strategy, organization and talent. These leaders realize that by balancing focus and flexibility they can better prepare their businesses to respond to - or better yet, anticipate - change. SHOCKPROOF will show you how.