Survival Is Not Enough: Zooming, Evolution, and the Future of Your Company

Like all of Seth Godin's books, "Survival Is Not Enough" does a great job at helping his readers think outside the box (sounds cliche but its very true!). Much of the advice is practical and can be applied to your own business or job. Any motivational speaker or business author can easily recommend for you to embrace change or innovate or do this or do that. But Seth has a special way to tell a story (or in this case) present a theory that cuts to the bone and leaves you with a mouth watering idea that you can take with you and apply to your business or company. You might even wonder later how you survived all along without reading this book (And That's just it....you simply survived all this time, rather than evolve aka "zoom" and gain major marketshare in your respective industry or field.

As another reviewer indicated, this is Godin's most thought provoking book. His relates to businesses to Darwin's evolution theory, from their birth to possible extinction. Like the species, we evolve, or ignore necessary changes. That can lead to missed trends, anxiety and possible extinction. Its amazingly simple, and I have mulled this book over several times in the past few days. Seth's feedback loops are crucial to understanding what and where the company needs to evolve. In Holland, in companies of 50 or more, a work council is required by law. It is loosely translated as our unions. I am a student of Dynamic Governance (DG), a way of managing as it provides equivalence in decision making. It also provides double linking-- which I'd equate to feedback loops. Two representatives from the level below is in the group above. One is the person accountable for the group's goals, the other, elected by the group. They buy in because they are represented, and when a decision is handed down-- implementation feedback gets to the top. It is so powerful that in Holland if a company adopts DG-- a work council is not required. Imagine in the US, the Auto Workers Union deciding they are so "heard" that they feel comfortable disbanding. Another DG premise is almost right out of Seth's mouth-- the engagement of all available intelligence within a group is used. I think combining this book and DG would give a company the power to ZOOM!

Godin has authored a number of best-selling business books, notably Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus, and most recently Purple Cow. He introduces and then develops a few core concepts in each, illustrating them with dozens of examples drawn from his extensive experience in marketing. Much as I admire his other books, I think this one is his most thoughtful and most thought-provoking, and therefore his most valuable thus far. True, he anchors his material within the framework of Charles Darwin's scientific research on natural selection. To his credit, Godin does not claim to be a scientist although his curiosity about scientific phenomena is immediately obvious. He allows Darwin to collaborate with him on the formulation of this book's Foreword. Then in the Introduction, Godin observes that he has been fascinated with Darwin's work for a long time and eventually realized that "companies are very much like species." However, unlike animals, many business executives "fret" about all the chaos which surrounds them. They sign with relief when surviving the latest major crisis. Here is one of Godin's key points: "I believe that there's a goal beyond survival, that we can actually thrive and find joy in working with all the chaos that surrounds us. That we can look forward to change and turbulence as an opportunity to increase our success." Godin believes that there is a new paradigm developing, "a pretty radical way of thinking about business, but one that's nothing new to an evolutionary biologist." Godin wrote this book to explain the paradigm, and, to convince his reader on why her or his enterprise should seize (not merely pursue) all of the new opportunities which that paradigm creates. "Transformative success" awaits those which do.As I read this book, I was reminded of what Shira White asserts in New Ideas About New Ideas: To generate new ideas, it is first necessary to generate new ideas about how to do that. Otherwise, the results will probably be the same. I have yet to encounter anyone who denies the importance of "creative" or "innovative" thinking. We all realize that Edisons are few and far between. However, as White, Godin, and countless others have correctly pointed out, all of us can develop new perspectives and then the requisite skills by which to free ourselves from mindsets which preclude (and often denigrate) creative, innovative thinking. In Leading Change, Jim O'Toole characterizes these mindsets as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Godin wrote this book to challenge but also to encourage his reader to consider very carefully the reasons why survival is not enough...and never will be. He summarizes his key points in the Introduction (pages 6-8) and then examines each in the ten chapters which follow.One of the book's most valuable sections consists of what Godin characterizes as "The Important Questions." Each of the 37 is followed by a brief response and, when appropriate, a related question or

In this painstakingly researched book, the author goes way out on a limb but defends his point of view brilliantly.Unlike popular science books, which only educate, this book is filled with practical advice about things you can do right now. The stories are funny and it's a fast read.Recommended

I actually bought this book for my boss. My company is totally stuck, and hopefully this book will shake her up enough to realize that there's a way out for us... without requiring me to stay up all night three days a week.I can't imagine what would happen if everyone in my company read it. I thought the evolutionary biology stuff was pretty easy to understand, and as always, I laughed out loud reading his writing style. Well worth it.