I found "Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure" by Tim Harford a delightful read. It was given to me as a present by a friend. I initially looked at it a bit askew, imagining it to be a pure business management book. But found the material very engaging, covering a wide variety of topics from Iraq war to Broadway plays with hardly anything specifically preachy about running a business.
I think the drab title does a bit of disservice to the book. I remember reading as to how "What they don't teach you at Harvard" wouldn't have been such a best seller if it had been correctly titled as "Few useful management principles" reflecting its true content. This is a case in reverse that could have used a more creative title. :-)
The opening chapter lays out the thesis arguing that nothing turns up perfect and spectacular right on the first time and so we should be ready to experiment while being fully aware that many of the experiments will fail. Then when failures occur, recognize and get out before the loses mount and try again. He points out that even biological evolution is perfecting life only through enormous number of trial and error where most of the trials end in errors that get purged out. Next chapter talks in depth about the Iraq war, how the then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld refused to learn from failures on the ground and how couple of specific commanders in field that ignored directions from the top and implemented their own local strategies that finally turned the war around. He then moves on to discuss how such skunk-work efforts eventually turn out to be game changers by citing the example of Spitfire plane design in Briton that affected the outcome of WWII by being lot more nimble compared to humongous bombers that were considered the main reason a side will win the war. I am sure there are lot of other books out there that will exclaim how Spitfire like projects became so effective and successful. But they usually argue that those that were behind them were extraordinary geniuses that could see the clear path to victory that others couldn't. I am always skeptical of such books/views since they ignore the fact that 95 out of 100 such efforts will end in failure. In Homer Simpson's words, "Trying is the first step to failure". :-) What I liked about this book is its recognition that while most will be failures, as long as we structure the system such that the failures won't result in any catastrophe, we can learn to ignore them and move on to try something else without feeling emotionally spent.
In subsequent chapters author covers the recent financial meltdown, climate change, micro financing, etc. The prose is pleasant and the analysis is not pedantic that makes it an easy but engaging read. Towards the end there are discussions about Google (where employees are allowed to try their pet projects most of which fail while very few turnout to be spectacularly successful), Wholefoods, Timpson retail chains, W. L. Gore (that developed Goretex) and other such organizations that employ different types of localized, flexible strategies that seem to work for them, of course with the right level/kind of oversight so that employees are not swindling the company without doing any work. Last chapter talks about Twyla Tharp & Billy Joel's collaboration that produced the Broadway musical "Movin' Out" that was a total failure when it launched in Chicago first. Tharp being a reputed dancer/producer was willing to take in the criticism (instead of claiming how her genius is not understood by those silly critiques), worked on fixing all the issues and turned it around to create a hugely successful show by the time it came to Broadway. Some of these points could be easily acceptable in abstract. But on a daily basis I do see how people are not willing to accept criticism and change themselves or their work. I try hard not to belong to that club. :-)
Book is an academic lite type since it is a fun read. Still packs in lot of interesting material and analysis, while not sounding like a cliched management book. Give it a shot.
-sundar.
