paperback
POWER LAWS OF BUSINESS
THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS
RICHARD KOCH
"Intriguing and very unusual. Koch is saying things that really need saying, but that you don't hear said elsewhere. Both intellectual and practical, the book is above all highly readable and thought provoking."
Dr Jules Goddard, Fellow, London Business School
In this fascinating sequel to the bestselling The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch explores the sciences to reveal the powerful patterns and universal principles that can be successfully applied to business today: The Power Laws. This book shows that we must turn to science not simply to understand today's world, but to thrive in it.
In The 80/20 Principle, Koch provided a practical reinterpretation of a single power law drawn from economics. In The Power Laws of Business he captures many more fresh and exciting insights from biology, physics and non-linear systems that transcend scientific boundaries and cast business in a whole new light.
Koch presents the seventeen key scientific principles that underlie the way the world works, including the famous - Newton's Laws, Darwin's Evolution by Natural Selection and Einstein's Theory of Relativity - as well as such lesser known but key ideas as Gause's Principle of Survival by Differentiation and the Law of Unintended Consequences. Yet in a distinct departure from other writers who extol the virtues of chaos, quantum physics or 'Darwinian competition' as a guide to life, Koch treats the science seriously, in its own terms, before applying it to business.
By understanding and applying the Power Laws, we can successfully pilot our way through life in general and business affairs in particular. Without this knowledge we're sitting ducks, bound to pull levers that don't work, and to do things that may lead precisely to the outcomes we want to avoid. Richard Koch demonstrates that by acting to exploit the Power Laws, we can multiply our effectiveness; better identify and exploit business opportunities; and please the right customers. Further, he sheds eye-opening light on the true nature of competition, revealing the counter-intuitive but indisputable fact that it is cooperation with rather than efforts against competitors that leads to the most success.
In one of many new slants, he revises the traditional cosmology of business by placing ideas and technologies at the centre of business evolution, concluding that business corporations function as disposable vehicles for business genes. We see that a struggle for existence is at the heart of business, but that the struggle is primarily between ideas, not between corporations; that corporate competition is marginal to our economies and to our personal success. The Power Laws tell us that innovation is mandatory, but also predictable, following a seamless process of variation, frequent failure, infrequent success, and further variation - a process eerily reminiscent of natural selection.
Writing in a compelling, accessible style, Richard Koch maximizes the special insights the Power Laws give us into markets, competition, organizations, and human behaviour. In this rich and kaleidoscopic synthesis of science and business, Richard Koch has given us a fresh, powerful and unique accomplishment - he has provided something never before codified, the actual science of success.
Richard Koch is unusual in that he combines thinking about business with practising it successfully. Besides being the author of acclaimed books including the bestselling The 80/20 Principle, Managing Without Management, The 80/20 Individual and Living the 80/20 Way, he is also a 'serial entrepreneur', having made large returns from businesses as diverse as consulting, hotels, personal organisers, restaurants, gin, and high technology investments.
"This book boils down the insights from science, from Newton to now, to compile a practical manual for success in business and life. It's a terrific tour-de-force."
James A Lawrence, Executive Vice-President, General Mills
"Richard Koch delivers some sharp cross-disciplinary comparisons and knows his onions on both sides of the business/science fence. Koch's feet are firmly on the ground."
Book of the Week, The Sunday Times