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The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations |  | Authors: Ori Brafman, Rod A. Beckstrom
Publisher: Portfolio Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $6.97
as of 11/27/2009 03:06 CST details
You Save: $8.03 (54%)
New (32) Used (25) from $6.46
Seller: GCCBooks
Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 8706
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1591841836
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9781591841838
ASIN: 1591841836
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
If you cut off a spiders head, it dies; if you cut off a starfishs 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.
Whats the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and womens 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.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 82
 This review is not a starfish... November 22, 2009
J. Patterson
I could just generally say that this book explores an issue not often a subject of focus: Leaderless Organizations
I must digress though. This book does effectively explain where decentralization and centralization are necessary, but at the same time, I feel it offers a crucial piece to what really drives people. In particular, it illustrates the applications of control through Ideology - an idea that also forms the backbone of charismatic leadership. While this type of control can exist in the centralized organization (for example, the Army and it's patriotic ideology), it's role in the decentralized organization makes it more of a structural support rather than a means to an end. In essence, a centralized organization can persist through other (although less effective) means of control, but a decentralized organization can fall apart without common ideology.
This book goes well beyond theory, however. Much of this text is focused on the elements of decentralization, and it provides good examples of how decentralization can occur in practice.
One should still be wary, however. As this book also takes caution to mention, decentralization is not always appropriate. I will leave much of this up to the reader to find out.
Decentralization was also the message of a great King October 27, 2009
Darren (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
From a philosophical perspective I think the books potential "lack of depth" serves as a benefit to the overall message. Had the authors thoroughly examined any one of the given examples the entire philosophical message would have been lost in the superfluity of facts.
In my eyes, the book serves to link communal endeavors to an age old principle of decentralization. The more an organization, army, or nation etc. becomes focused on a single person, on a single ideal, or on a singular vision the more that organization becomes susceptible to human ignorance. In that sense, this book has religion written into every page. Religion, that is, not according to a secular perspective, but, rather, that God is, accordingly, absolute truth of which man cannot obtain. Therefore, the Starfish is man's best effort to form an organization of diversity; reflecting the absolute diversity of God to its furthest worldly degree. Hence the success of such organizations, you see. Well that perspective may be true according to the vague perspective given in this book, however, that is why we have more than one book to read; diversity. If you want more "meat", go and read another book. I personally believe that this book deserves five stars.
THE BOOK TO READ September 14, 2009
Jay Jaboneta (Manila, Philippines)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If I ever was to write a game-changing book - It would be The Starfish and The Spider. It has clearly translated the history of the world into "everyday" language for us to better understand the world we live in today. I believe it is definitely a practical guide on how to build movements that change the world (hopefully always for the better).
It is a book that talks about things we believe we always knew but had a hard time actually writing or explaining to others. I believe this book will define the beginning of this new exciting era. An era that will usher in, the most advances in science, technology, culture, and education. This book is a must read not only for businessmen and entrepreneurs but also politicians and city planners trying to establish game-changing organizations around the world.
Kudos to Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom for writing such a wonderful perspective. It surely made my day! Thank you!
 A book with an important point, but one that needs more depth. September 12, 2009
J. Cammarano (Rumford, RI USA)
This book has an excellent argument, one that is worth the time and effort to read it. The basic premise is that organizations must come to terms with the inevitable movement away from hierarchical structures to organizations that are essentially decentralized networks. Rather than fearing this shift, companies and other groups should embrace it and instead take advantage of the strengths of decentralization and diffusion of knowledge. The title summarizes this important argument well: if we remove the head of a spider (traditional organizations, dependent on command and control from hierarchical authority), the creature dies. However, if a starfish (decentralized organizations) loses one or more of its points, it simply regenerates new ones and are thus harder to kill. Examples of starfish organizations strengthen the point that old line organizations can hardly destroy "starfish" structures, which regenerate in new and innovative ways that cannot be predicted.
The primary shortcoming of this interesting argument is that it falls victim to the common problem of business-related management and innovation books: it is too superficial. This lack of depth is understandable, since there is a tradeoff in accessibility to those who do not want detail, and detail that wold solidify the main argument from merely a marketing pitch to one that may shift our paradigm about the proper approach to organizations and leadership. The desire to reach a large audience is achieved here, but the cost is that this provocative argument will likely fail to shift the dominant view of organizations Brafman takes on in the book.
Excellent Treatise on Decentralism August 14, 2009
Prof. CJ (North FL, USA)
THE STARFISH AND THE SPIDER compares and contrasts decentralized, leaderless organizations (starfish) with centralized ones (spiders), and focuses especially on the often-hidden strengths of the former. Decentralized groups and organizations as disparate as the Apache Indians, Alcoholics Anonymous, Al Qaeda, Burning Man, and many more are discussed, as are "hybrids" (ie, part-starfish, part-spider) entities such as ebay and Toyota. The authors also briefly discuss ways to fight starfish when neccessary.
Though intended primarily as a business/networking book, STARFISH has profound implications for many fields, including politics, government, sociology, and even the military. This is a very thought-provoking, concise (only about 200 pages) and very readable book, with lots of interesting anecdotes. It can change the way you think about a lot of things. Though it's not exhaustive, it's a great primer that provides a starting point for understanding many different kinds of organizations and networks in a new way. If you're in business, politics, or the social sciences, you should check this book out.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 82
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