The Big Pivot: Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open World Hardcover – April 15, 2014

This review makes the assumption that the reader of the book is part of upper or middle corporate management.I have to admit that having read the promotion of the book and the many quotes on the back cover, at the beginning of the book (18 endorsements of Who's Who in the sustainability world! All of them read the book?), and several websites my expectations about this book were very high. Even this site if full of endorsements. Lots of hype.But no, this an average book with very little new material, with a great promotional job behind and a title that is supposed to make the book different, unique: Big Pivot. The impression is that it will make your (sustainability?) strategy change direction, pivoting on your current position. But barely anything that it proposes represents a radical change in directions, at most some adjustments.It is a very typical, light, management consultant book: Graphs with concentric circles, divided into sections, which are supposed to unify new concepts or present new theories. Then quotes after quotes: almost every page has a "I spoke with ..............and s(he) told me that......". Full of anecdotal evidence, very little research on the current state of the art (the notes are mostly references to "personal conversation). Not that there is anything wrong with the quotes, all are supportive of the points the author is trying to make and according with generally accepted opinions. The point is that it makes it look very light, with little rigor.But such are management books for a general, beginners, audience. If you are relatively new to the field of sustainability and like light reading, then this is your book.The examples used are mostly from the largest of corporations: Dow, Unilever, Shell, Nike, P/G, PepsiCo, DuPont, Coca Cola, FedEx, etc. and many of their strategies are not suitable for a "normal" corporation, which are not members of sustainability indices or quote in the major stock exchanges. Most of these companies do have an impact on Climate Change or on resource consumption, but not the other 99% of companies (over 98% of companies are classified and Small and Medium). There many proposals for action which are only suitable for the largest of corporations, acting in concert in some international organization like the WBCSD or the World Economic Forum. It is very hard for your regular corporation to influence international policy on climate change or water management.And in making his point that large firms have big impacts (agree) the author makes the (common) mistake of comparing company's sales with country GDP. No, Walmart is not the size of Austria. GDP measures only A PART OF VALUE ADDED in the economy and it cannot be compared with revenue. Walmart's value added may be something like 20-30% of sales.In a sense the book is incomplete, although the subtitle is very clear about it: It is only concerned with resource scarcity (mostly water and energy) and climate change. But I would question that the strategies presented are "Radically practical". Not radical and in some cases not practical. The rest of the sustainability agenda is ignored (except in the Appendix, that goes beyond the concepts discussed in the text). Social issues are not mentioned, except in passing when discussing the supply chain. The community is not even mentioned as a stakeholder. It has a narrow view of sustainability.Also the book is very US-focused. Ignores the rest of the world, except when discussing large multinational companies.But it is a fine book for those looking to know about the issues for the first time and want to develop a general idea of the problems and strategies. In particular the potential impact on large companies of some resources scarcity and climate change. Easy to read and flows nicely.BUT I always wonder if those reviewers with more STARS than LINES in the review did read the book...............and dislike this review.

"Picture the Mediterranean Sea, extending 2,300 miles from the strait of Gibraltar in the west to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel in the east. Now imagine that every two years the global apparel industry uses that much water just to dye the world's clothes supply."In a hotter, scarcer world the author of the Big Pivot ponders the question: How long could this continue and could clothes dyeing be processed with no water? The surprising answer is yes as found in the Dry Dye process used successfully by a small company in Thailand, Yeh Group.The above is an example of the kind of innovation that author Andrew Winston is convinced must reflect a more imaginative use and implementation of declining resources if humanity is to survive a landscape of evolving scarcity.The book's theme is not to curtail productivity but to be more efficient and profitable in negotiations with suppliers, in product acquisitions and manufacture. Idealism and wishful thinking no doubt are encapsulated and entrenched on the end runs of corporate enterprises' self-disciplines that appear more feasible in print than in practice, at least in large scale perimetersThe Big Pivot contains many worthwhile examples and attitudes worthy of note in both entrepreneurial and established enterprises. Before the Last Hurrah, however, it is important to consider the rapid pace of demographic changes globally as religious, cultural, social, and political entreaties forcibly contain the virtues of capitalism while socialist and related encumbrances prevail throughout.Author Winston's manuscript was copyrighted in 2014 and many of the chapters likely precede this by a number of years. Political, societal, environmental and economic conditions globally reflect radical changes outside of historical analysis and in defiance of any calculus that might illuminate the immutable path before us.The Big Pivot is a well written treatise about how individuals and corporate investors can elevate their pecuniary rewards alongside concurrent reductions in hoary business practices. The burnished concrete results, with many examples provided by the author, may fuel investment strategies for a minority but the plastic plague haunting our oceans, the hundreds of miles of oceanic dead zones, the immutable toxins in our skies, rivers, streams and soils is and will continue unabated; no Big Pivot can change humanity's quest for more of everything as population of 7.4 billion currently remains on a trajectory of 9 billion by 2050.Nature has nurtured planet earth for five billion years but mankind has destroyed the forests, polluted every waterway, poisoned our skies, replaced our mineral rich topsoil with artificial fertilizers and pesticides, and handed the unabashed invoices to our progeny. The Big Pivot: too little to late.

Another great book that looks at alternative approaches for business to give future generations a chance of the same kind of quality life we have had in the past 50 years.

Everyone should read this book! It really opened my eyes to our environmental vices as consumers and will make me think twice of consuming too much.