ABSTRACT
Situations demand that people adapt to new changes, new opportunities, and new challenges. Some people are better than others about recognizing and adjusting to them. Our central message in this book is that becoming adaptable through social means might seem daunting to some and opportunistic for others, but the necessity of it can’t be ignored. General advances in technology, in economics, and in culture bring new rewards and new risks. There are winners and losers in their wake; the adaptable survive, while those who aren’t become extinct. The once invincible Blockbuster, Lehman Brothers, Borders Group, Tribune Company, and Tower Records all went bankrupt because they could not adapt to changing market conditions or didn’t have the social software systems in place to understand and react to Black Swan events.
