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November 27, 2009
50 in 50. #15: SUPERCORP
Yesterday at our Thanksgiving feast, my mother brought dessert. At my request, she made her famous apple pie with crumb crust. It was wholesome, fulfilling and delicious.
It was also unsurprising. Traditions are like that. They reinforce and reassure, but they certainly don’t shake you up or rock your world.
And that’s the problem with Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s latest book, SUPERCORP: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth and Social Good. Like the vanilla ice cream I put on my piece of apple pie, this book is bland, predictable and unmemorable.
Beyond the obvious awkwardness of the title (I can’t stop thinking: “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s SUPERCORP!”) is the fact that this book doesn’t have a unconventional thought in its 300-something pages.
As evidence, I quote from the premise: “Vanguard companies are ahead of the pack and potentially the wave of the future. The best of the breed aspire to be big but human, efficient but innovative, global but concerned about local communities. The best have business prowess and clout with partners and governments but try to use their power and influence to develop solutions to problems the public cares about. . . The leaders of a vanguard company espouse positive values and encourage their employees to embrace and act on them.”
Nothing to argue with there. Just like motherhood and apple pie. But nothing to sink your teeth into, either. I kept waiting for the book to tell me something I didn’t know, something that hasn’t been written a million times already in books and business magazines.
It never happened. SUPERCORP is deeply conventional and, ultimately, profoundly boring.
Time for a piece of leftover apple pie. It may not be exciting, but it tastes good.
Posted by Alison Davis at November 27, 2009 10:26 AM
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