Insurgence: How Established Incumbents Can Operate Like Nimble Insurgents in Fast Changing and Volatile Markets

Insurgence is  designed  to  help  business  leaders  apply  new  methods  to  the most important
business problem they face in the world today: namely, how to overcome their incumbent mentality to
maintain relevance and discover new sources  of  growth.  At  the  convergence  of  lean,  business
 model  innovation, agile,  and  design thinking,  insurgence  is  a  methodology  and
business philosophy that will help leaders in incumbent businesses rediscover how to operate like
small and nimble insurgents whilst maintaining many of their incumbent advantages.
Incumbent businesses, often having enjoyed a long period of relative historical market stability, are
increasingly unprepared for nimble insurgents coming on to the field of play and applying different
assumptions and business models at speed and scale. These incumbent businesses find that the
business models that  fuelled  their  success  are  no  longer  robust  to  the  change 
surrounding their   business,   and   they   are   becoming   increasingly   obsolete,   weighed
down by a high degree of internal focus, inflexible internal controls, and an inability to
innovate. Meanwhile, nimble insurgents strike at the heart of these weaknesses  by  formulating 
alternative  core  assumptions,  building  adaptive business models, and innovating in close
proximity to customers and market needs.
This book enables business leaders to characterise the difference between incumbents  and 
insurgents,  develop  new  ways  of  thinking  about  how  to compete  in  this  age  of 
accelerating  change,  and  provide  a  new  framework for  strategy  and  innovation  that  helps 
leaders  to  discover  the  essence  of insurgence  for  their  businesses.  It  uses  rich  case 
studies  that  illustrate  both successful  and  unsuccessful  efforts  to  help  leaders  move 
from  theory  to action at speed and at scale.