More Critique than Praise

1. "Integrative Thinking" is Roger Martin's favourite touting phrase. It tried to be as comprehensive as possible, covering the essence of what's behind succesful business decision making. To its credit, it followed an approach as logical as possible, digging up common traits, then find out how the traits came into being.

2. However, just like the business books that it critiqued in early part (books such as Good to Great, etc), it inevitably has its own fallacies:

-Retrospectively looking for catalysts for success is like data mining in mutual fund analysis - you are biased. The narrators themselves are biased to (de)emphasize part of their thinking, and the recorder (author) is biased to select some of what was spoken. Further, the fact that those key traits are present in successful cases does not preclude the fact that in failure cases, those same traits might have been in place too. Without a lookout for not-so-great scenarios, how can it be validated that these are indeed all that has made the difference?

-For that matter, the sample selected is small.

-The book is about thinking process of past successful entrepreneurs. However, thinking is only the first necessary step to bear fruit. Execution and how to execute, only slightly touched (if at all), are as important, albeit admittedly guided by the high-level thinking.

-The book goes back to "stance", which is another world for how one views the world (and his/her own position in it), which is not something taught in a course, in a year, or with a degree. To some extent, it is influenced by one's family and/or nurtured by oneself, the rest is innate (are the great leaders born as so? with unyielding characteristics, charming chrisma and high intelligence?).

This is why reading books written by the business leaders first hand provides fresher insight into those people's thinking process, for any reader that want to discover a formula for their own rather than to be given a checklist. This book, on the other hand, does provide a nice framework/guidance when reading the former type of business books, as the reader can now ponder if, and to what extent, is the leader (author) manifesting an opposable mind, and what other traits seem to be at play for their success.

Finally, the opposable mind is not only practised by successful businessmen. I dare to propose that it is practised by every working mom who manages her household well, who has to prioritize every day and who has to constantly strike a balance between the needs of others and her own needs. I write this as part of birthday wishes I'd like to extend to my mom.

中文翻译版是果断将integrative thinking置换opposable mind作标题了吗？英文的商业图书利用创新的,refreshing lingo来引人注目，中文的商业图书翻译则倚赖于professional sounding标题；若是写“灵活的大脑”，将会被无情地放入自我提升而非商业策略了吧。

PPS. 为alma mater行将离任的领袖提升一下人气。