Healthy companies are hard to mistake. Their managers have access to timely information, the authority to make decisions, and the incentives to act on behalf of the organization. The organization, in turn, carries out those decisions. We call these organizations "resilient," because they can react nimbly to challenges and respond quickly to those they can't dodge. Unfortunately, most companies are not resilient: Fewer than 20 percent of the 30,000 individuals who responded to a Booz Allen Hamilton survey describe their organizations that way. By contrast, more than a quarter of the companies in our survey suffer from a cluster of pathologies we place under the label "passive-aggressive." The passive-aggressive organization displays a quiet but tenacious resistance to corporate directives, even when they are aligned with obvious strategic or competitive advantage. People pay those directives lip service but put in only enough effort to appear compliant; and "nothing ever changes around here."

For businesses to thrive amid the formidable complexities of their new environment, an entirely new type of corporation is called for that is distanced from the excessive levels of command that companies have become comfortable with. That corporation must have a much stronger focus on the basics of what ultimately creates value: knowledge, people and coherence. It must evolve toward a new business model (the Centerless Corporation) that fosters the creation of value and insures that each piece of the business contributes to systemwide value. And it must take account of the fact that the milieu of success today necessarily extends beyond the workplace and the interface between government and business into the social climate itself.

"our research finds that the CEOs whose companies are best weathering the recent downturn are practicing old-fashioned, pragmatic management by the numbers - what we call yellow-light leadership. This conclusion is based on an onging Booz Allen Hamilton study of about 40 Fortune 500 companies, conducted with the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California and initiated in 2001.

This finding is significant because it casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that says there are only two models of leadership. One is visionary, or 'green-light,' leadership, appropriate to periods of economic growth. The other is crisis, or 'red-light,' leadership, best applied when companies, industries, and economies are tumbling. Our ongoing research suggests that while there is value in both the green-light and red-light models, neither extreme is effective in times of uncertainty."

strategy+business asked twelve opinionated, acclaimed strategists, scholars, and writers to identify and assess the most important business books in strategy, management, and various other categories.

Editor's Note: A few of these pieces offer more than just listings of recommended books. In particular, I recommend you read:

Strategy (by David K. Hurst)
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/14556

Leadership (by Bruce A. Pasternack)
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/14575

Corporate Governance by (Jay A. Conger and Edward E. Lawler III)
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/14639

Knowledge (by Jan Dyer and Chuck Lucier) http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/14690

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Also read s+b's Top 25 Business Books for 2000-2001 at:
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/14785?pg=0

Read the 2001-2002 edition at:
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/21254?pg=0

Read the 2003 edition at:
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/03408?pg=0

Authors contend that the current business model, which arose in the mills of Britain more than a century ago and has evolved ever since, is no longer sufficient for these times. They claim to propose a "new" business model (see comments).