Product Description
If you cut off a spider?s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish?s leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but now starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world.

What?s the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and women?s rights movements? What fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths?

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom have discovered some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of unlikely connections. The Starfish and the Spider explores what happens when starfish take on spiders and reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the U.S. government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success.

Introduction     1
MGM's Mistake and the Apache Mystery     9
The Spider, the Starfish, and the President of the Interent     29
A Sea of Starfish     57
Standing on Five Legs     83
The Hidden Power of the Catalyst     107
Taking on Decentralization     133
The Combo Special: The Hybrid Organization     159
In Search of the Sweet Spot     179
The New World     197
Epilogue     209
Sources     215
Acknowledgments     222
Index     225