Rogue Waves Book Summary - Rogue Waves Book explained in key points
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Rogue Waves summary

Jonathan Brill

Future-Proof Your Business to Survive and Profit from Radical Change

4.1 (37 ratings)
21 mins

What is Rogue Waves about?

Rogue Waves (2021) is a playbook for steering your company through stormy seas. Drawing from real-world business cases, it shares actionable tips for staying afloat amid drastic change.

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    Rogue Waves
    summarized in 6 key ideas

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    Rogue waves can sink any business that fails to build resilience.

    Picture yourself on a boat in the middle of the open ocean. The sun is shining, the sky a brilliant blue. The sea is calm. And then, out of nowhere, a hundred-foot wave appears on the horizon.

    Yes, you heard right: A hundred-foot wave. And no, this isn’t a scene from The Perfect Storm. While rogue waves may seem like a sensational Hollywood invention, they’re actually a frighteningly real feature of the deep sea. In the North Sea alone, rogue waves are estimated to occur every ten hours, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting sailors and leaving serious wreckage in their wake. When you see a rogue wave in person, one thing is clear: there’s going to be a tremendous impact.

    But this scenario doesn’t only occur in sailing; rogue waves also happen in business. Over the course of history, unexpected events have caused the demise of countless companies across industries and around the world.

    The key message here is: Rogue waves can sink any business that fails to build resilience.

    In a business landscape rife with major economic, sociopolitical, and technological shifts, rogue waves are rising quicker than ever. One day, you’re doing just swimmingly. Then, a rogue wave strikes: a cryptocurrency crash that renders shares worthless overnight, for example, or artificial intelligence that threatens traditional ways of working. Or maybe a pandemic that shutters millions of brick and mortar businesses in one fell swoop.

    Now, businesspeople don’t sign up to be deep-sea fishers. But facing rogue waves is part of their job description all the same, and without the right strategies in place, the organizations they represent are bound for the bottom of the ocean. You see, far too many modern enterprises rely on outdated processes that were built for a different, calmer era. These processes assume that the best way to deliver reliable year-after-year growth is by reducing risk. But a rise in rogue waves demands a different kind of thinking. 

    Troubled seas are inevitable in this day and age. To survive and thrive in the modern ocean, businesses must embrace risk with an eye for building resilience – proactively future-proofing against unknown threats through constant innovation. By doing so, they can brave the stormiest of seas and even profit from the chaos. 

    Ready to ride some rogue waves? Let’s dive in.

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    About the Author

    Jonathan Brill draws from decades of experience as an entrepreneur, Fortune 50 tech executive, and managing partner of innovation consultancies that developed over 350 products for clients including Samsung, Microsoft, and Verizon. Today, he is the managing director of Resilient Growth Partners and a contributor to leading publications including Forbes and Harvard Business Review.

    Who should read Rogue Waves?

    • Business leaders who don’t want to leave their future up to chance
    • Executives looking to instill a culture of innovation
    • Anyone seeking to understand the undercurrents of modern civilization

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