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by Robin Sharma
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The Soft Edge summary
Rich Karlgaard
Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success
16 mins
Brief summary
The Soft Edge by Rich Karlgaard highlights how combining and balancing the soft skills of empathy, creativity, teamwork, and adaptability with hard-edge technical skills leads to greater success. The book offers insights and stories about successful people and companies who have found the perfect balance and achieved excellence.
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The Soft Edge
Summary of 7 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 7
Successful companies are founded on three key elements: a strategy, a hard edge and a soft edge.
What do you think of when you think of successful businesses? Great leaders? Great management? Excellent products?
The foundation of all great businesses is their strategy. You can think of a business like an equilateral triangle. The strategy is the base: it’s knowing what market you’re in, who your customers are and what your competitors are doing. It supports the other two sides of the triangle.
The first of those two sides is the hard edge. The hard edge is how the business actually functions. You can’t just have a good strategy – you’ve got to execute it deftly, as well. You can measure the success of the hard edge with raw figures that compute production speed, capital efficiency or logistics, to name a few.
Harder to measure is the second side, the soft edge. The soft edge is the deeper meaning that a company communicates to its customers and employees. It’s that unquantifiable something that makes a company great.
Good businesses sit on a strong base and adhere to an effective hard-edge operation model. Great businesses, however, always do more than that, which is what gives them their soft edge.
So how do you measure your company’s soft edge? Values, innovation, culture, creativity – you can’t put these things on a graph and track whether they correlate with your investment returns. However, there is a model that’ll help you cultivate and keep track of your company’s developing soft edge.
Imagine that your soft edge is a platform supported by five pillars. Now label these pillars: there’s the trust you earn from your employees and customers, the smarts that facilitate learning and innovation, the teams that collaborate and share ideas, the taste that gives your product depth and the story that gives your brand its purpose.
Now let’s take a look at the five pillars that support the soft edge.
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What is The Soft Edge about?
This book (2014) is about the “soft edge” – that is, the human side – of business. If you don’t want to be left foundering in the wake of your competitors, your company needs something more – more creativity and flexibility, more passion. The soft edge is the wellspring of such attributes. Your company’s soft edge might seem elusive at first, but remember: finding it is absolutely critical for long-lasting success.
The Soft Edge Review
The Soft Edge by Rich Karlgaard (2014) explores the importance of soft skills in a fast-paced and technology-driven world. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- It offers a unique perspective on the role of soft skills in achieving success, emphasizing their significance in today's competitive landscape.
- Backed by extensive research and real-life examples, the book provides actionable insights on how to develop and leverage soft skills for personal and professional growth.
- With its engaging storytelling and thought-provoking ideas, this book manages to unravel complex topics in a way that captivates readers, making it far from boring.
Best quote from The Soft Edge
Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work. – Warren Bennis
—Rich Karlgaard
Who should read The Soft Edge?
- Entrepreneurs and people working in start-ups
- Managers, CEOs and other business leaders
- Anyone who wants to understand more about the human side of business
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The Soft Edge FAQs
What is the main message of The Soft Edge?
The main message of The Soft Edge is the importance of nurturing intangibles like trust, culture, and storytelling to achieve success.
How long does it take to read The Soft Edge?
The reading time for The Soft Edge varies, but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is The Soft Edge a good book? Is it worth reading?
The Soft Edge is worth reading for its insights on building a competitive advantage through intangible assets. It offers practical advice and examples.
Who is the author of The Soft Edge?
The author of The Soft Edge is Rich Karlgaard.
What to read after The Soft Edge?
If you're wondering what to read next after The Soft Edge, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky
- Free Agents by Kevin J. Mitchell
- The Creative Thinking Handbook by Chris Griffiths & Melina Costi
- Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
- The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma
- How Not to Age by Michael Greger
- Work the System by Sam Carpenter
- The Price You Pay for College by Ron Lieber
- Selling with Noble Purpose by Lisa Earle McLeod