Oliver Wyman Director Adrian Slywotzky's nomination form for "Top 25" recognition easily could have been four words long: He did it again. Slywotzky, the author of several groundbreaking business books, including Value Migration and The Profit Zone, published another must-read last year in The Upside: The 7 Strategies for Turning Big Threats into Growth Breakthroughs (Crown, 2007). The book asks a daunting question from the perspective of executives at the world's leading companies: "What are the biggest risks that can kill all or part of our business?" By answering that question, Slywotzky discovers, companies can also identify the "upside"—opportunities for growth nestled in the same disturbances threatening to wreak havoc on their business.
The book reflects Slywotzky's keen sense for the next Big Business Issue as well as his ability to reach outside the business domain for useful and engaging insights. At its core, the book, Slywotzky notes, is about a "a new management discipline that's not only about protecting the value that you've created but also about an unconventional but highly effective way to find some of your biggest new growth opportunities." Just ask Toyota and Apple, whose success with the Prius and iPod, respectively, are presented as object lessons.
Another object lesson emerged even more recently: Goldman Sachs demonstrated that tough and proactive conversations about risk can help companies avoid disturbances that, quite literally, eliminate a competitor.
Yet, Slywotzky defers credit for the book's perfect timing. He says the entire research effort for this book, like his others, was triggered by a group of "very tough-minded and forward-looking clients" about four years ago. "You had large, stable blue chip companies who saw some of their peers—bang—lose 60 percent of their value in a 12-month period and then spend five years recovering that value rather than creating new growth," Slywotzky reports. "Their questions were: Is it becoming a riskier world? Why? And what can we do to protect ourselves?"
The fact that Slywotzky's clients confided these concerns to him attests to the trust he has cultivated among them: he has the ear of executive leaders of some of the world's best companies, and these leaders call him when they come across a potential problem or a bad feeling that 1) does not jibe with pervious patterns; and 2) causes major concern.
Slywotzky says that these trusting relationships "work in both directions"—that is, he also benefits from their foresight on looming business challenges—yet, he also seems to take the greatest pleasure from his research's positive influence on clients.
"The people who use and apply the research talk about the value of protecting their organization from the kind of collapse in morale and loss in productivity that occurs when half of a company's value disappears," says Slywotzky. "And then the payoff is that there are very specific and workable solutions that can create a tremendous advantage for companies. These benefits are the most exciting part of the research."
The fact that clients adapt and customize the research when applying it to their unique circumstances also excites Slywotzky. "Doing so forces people to think differently," he adds, "and very often this thinking helps triggers the next set of ideas." Not to mention much more research, and writing, for Slywotzky.
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