Preface: Only the Paranoid Survive

“Sooner or later, something fundamental in your business world will change.”

Chapter 1: Something Changed

“New rules prevailed now-and they were powerful enough to cost us nearly half a billion dollars.”

What Happened to Us

“That Guy Is Always the Last to Know”

Chapter 2: A “10X” Change

“What such a transition does to a business is profound, and how the business manages this transition determines its future.”

The Six Forces Affecting a Business

A “10X” Force

The Strategic Inflection Point

Chapter 3: The Morphing of the Computer Industry

“Not only has the basis of computing changed, the basis of competition has changed too.”

Before the Strategic Inflection Point

After the Strategic Inflection Point

Winners and Losers

The New Rules of the Horizontal Industry

Chapter 4: They’re Everywhere

“Strategic inflection points are not a phenomenon of the high-tech industry, nor are they something that only happens to the other guy.”

“10X” Change: Competition

Wal-Mart: An overwhelming force in town

Next: The software company

“10X” Change: Technology

Sound takes over silent movies

Upheaval in the shipping industry

The PC revolution: A tale of denial

“10X” Change: Customers

Changing tastes in cars

Attitude shifts

The double whammy in supercomputers

“10X” Change: Suppliers

Airlines flex their muscles

The end of second sourcing

“10X” Change: Complementors

“10X” Change: Regulation

The demise of patent medicines

The reordering of telecommunications

Privatization

Chapter 5: “Why Not Do It Ourselves?”

“The memory business crisis—and how we dealt with it-is how I learned the meaning of a strategic inflection point.”

Entering Our Strategic Inflection Point

The Route to Survival

Looking Back

Chapter 6: “Signal” or “Noise”?

“How do we know whether a change signals a strategic inflection point? The only way is through the process of clarification that comes from broad and intensive debate.”

Is X-ray Technology a “10X” Force?

RISC versus CISC

Is It or Isn’t It?

Helpful Cassandras

Avoiding the Trap of the First Version

Debate

Arguing with the Data

Fear

Chapter 7: Let Chaos Reign

“Resolution comes through experimentation. Only stepping out of the old ruts will bring new insights.”

The Touchy-Feely Issues

The Inertia of Success

Strategic Dissonance

Experimentation

The Business Bubble

A New Industry Map

Chapter 8: Rein in Chaos

“Clarity of direction, which includes describing what we are going after as well as describing what we will not be going after, is exceedingly important at the late stage of a strategic transformation.”

Traversing the Valley of Death

Redeploying Resources

Leading Via Strategic Actions

The Clarity Imperative

Adjusting to the New

Dynamic Dialectic

The Other Side of the Valley

Chapter 9: The Internet: Signal or Noise? Threat or Promise?

“Anything that can affect industries whose total revenue base is many hundreds of billions of dollars is a big deal.”

What Is the Internet Anyway?

Bits and Stolen Eyeballs

What About Us?

Threat or Promise?

What Do We Do?

Chapter 10: Career Inflection Points

“Career inflection points caused by a change in the environment do not distinguish between the qualities of the people that they dislodge by their force.”

Your Career Is Your Business

The Mental Fire Drill

Timing Is Everything

Get in Shape for Change

A New World

Notes