More than any other time in human history, it’s possible—even necessary—to be plugged into what’s going on 24/7. But while the widespread proliferation of information can yield great benefits, the overall result has been a drastic decrease in original thinking, fresh innovation, and much-needed leadership, and a move toward a more fragmented society. This book is here to help, showing you how to cut through the clutter and regain your focus as you confront the challenges of the future.

The ultimate road map to building a better, more cohesive, and more coherent tomorrow, for your business, your world, and yourself, Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-Making in a Confused and Troubled World, is designed to help business leaders and readers overcome the confusion of the 21st century and start working together with clear purpose.

Change is essential, and in this book Paul Laudicina takes a behind-the-scenes look at the people and institutions that are thinking big to repair the international social fabric and help pave the way for a better future so that you can follow in their footsteps. Showing you where to look for new insights and ideas, how to widen your lens, and why you need to master scenario planning in order to make sense of today’s world, Laudicina presents a comprehensive and insightful look into the information overload threatening businesses everywhere and how you can fight back.

In Beating the Global Odds, Paul Laudicina offers not only a provocative look at the major challenges of our time, but also the very real opportunities we have to convert headwinds into advantageous tailwinds. As countries, companies and individuals seek to solve the calculus for sustainable growth, this brisk and compelling volume by one of the world's foremost business strategists couldn't have come at a better time.

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Praise for Beating the Global Odds

• Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company

  • "With Beating the Global Odds, Paul Laudicina offers not only a provocative look at the major challenges of our time, but also the very real opportunities we have to convert headwinds into advantageous tailwinds. As countries, companies and individuals seek to solve the calculus for sustainable growth, this brisk and compelling volume by one of the world's foremost business strategists couldn't have come at a better time."

• Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP

  • "Diagnosing the causes of decline is relatively easy. Inventing and applying remedies is a great deal more difficult. By drawing on a huge diversity of sources, by encouraging us all to become ‘discerning omnivores,' and by applying the sum of his own peerless experience, Paul Laudicina helps us understand not just what needs to be done but also how to do it."

• Josef Joffe, Editor, Die Zeit, Hamburg; Senior Fellow, Stanford University

  • "Seminarian, scholar, Senate staffer, from Chicago to the top of A.T. Kearney, from whiz kid to wise man: Paul Laudicina has written a book as singular as his career. Beating the Global Odds shows how to turn complexity into promise, and pixels into the Big Picture. Don't wait for the Next Big Thing; here is how to do it. The book is a concise and gripping breviary for the knowledge economy of the 21st century—the distilled wisdom of a thinker and a doer, a rare breed in the boardrooms of the world."

• Sebastian Edwards, Henry Ford II Professor, UCLA Anderson School; Former Latin American Chief Economist, World Bank

  • "This book is sensational. It is a must read for anyone interested in the process of innovation, and in the future of the global economy. Paul Laudicina uses a direct and personal style to transmit difficult—and sometime iconoclastic—ideas about a myriad of subjects. You will learn about complex systems, the comeback of scenario-based strategic planning, the need for expanding managers' peripheral vision, charter cities, and many other new ideas. After finishing this book you will see the world through different (and more powerful) lenses. But that is not all: this is also a very entertaining book. Once you start reading it, you will not be able to put it down."

• Moisés Naím, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment; Author, The End of Power: Why It's Easier to Get, Harder to Use and Nearly Impossible to Keep.

  • "Business leaders often provide practical insights based on their experience. And thought leaders offer lessons based on their theories and analysis. Paul Laudicina is both a transformational business leader and a world-class thinker. With an engaging style, Laudicina blends in these pages the insights he gained from successfully turning around one of the most respected consulting firms with the best lessons management theorists and social scientists have to offer. This is an indispensable book—crisp, original, easy to read, practical and inspirational all at the same time."

• Kevin Cashman, Senior Partner, Korn/Ferry International; Author, The Pause Principle: Step Back to Lead Forward

  • "Today's volatile, hyper-kinetic world requires fresh approaches to step back to strategize, to connect and to innovate. Beating the Global Odds is an incredibly rich resource to navigate you and your organization through the ‘information smog' to new, clearer possibilities. Laudicina does a masterful job taking an extremely complex subject and making it accessible and useful. This book is a ‘must read' for leaders globally."

• Kishore Mahbubani, Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School, National University of Singapore; Author, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World

  • "The world is getting more complex. We know that. We want to master this complexity but we don't know how. Paul Laudicina has done us a great favour by sharing tools and ideas to help us understand and steer our way through an even more complex and challenging world. Mukesh Ambani's foreword is an additional gift."

• Jürgen Hambrecht, Former Chairman, BASF; Member of the Supervisory Boards, Daimler AG and Deutsche Lufthansa AG

  • "Top-class decision-making in our over-complex, unpredictable world is an art. Paul Laudicina's new book offers highly valuable advice for shaping the future towards sustainable value generation."

• Saj-nicole Joni, CEO, Cambridge International Group Ltd.; Author, The Right Fight

  • "If you aspire to lead and win, you need to get this book, read it, and give it to everyone on your team. Beating the Global Odds clearly and pragmatically shows you how to develop the mindset, passion, and relationships that drive our future—so that you can create what matters most in a world fraught with change and opportunity."

• Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman and Founder, World Economic Forum

  • "Paul Laudicina's latest book is a tour de force, and covers a wide array of subjects that are must reading for those who wish to anticipate what is ahead. Great leaders, and those who aspire to leadership, should focus on and absorb the important lessons of Beating the Global Odds."

• Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi

  • " 'Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.' Sage advice from the coach of the century Vince Lombardi. Beating the Global Odds shows us how to turn the desire to win into action—through concrete, pragmatic, realistic advice. Count me in."

• John Quelch, Dean, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Shanghai

  • "Beating the Global Odds is a timely wake-up call for today's CEOs, who must work harder than ever to seize the opportunities—and manage the acute risks—that our ever-more complex global business and policy environment has handed them."