Publisher's Synopsis
Welcome to "The Sigmoid Rider," an open-source journey not just through the pages of a book but through the winding paths of innovation, strategy, and leadership.
I am C. Firat Caliskan, as you read through this book, please understand that I am not a typical academic or business guru. Instead, I am a seasoned commercial leader with over 25 years of experience designing and implementing commercial strategies across diverse industries including close to 20 years at Procter & Gamble across Europe, Middle East and Africa. My professional background has equipped me with a wealth of insights and knowledge in areas such as sales, marketing, product development, customer (e/retail) experience, and integrating technology into business. This allows me to provide a unique perspective on how businesses thrive in today's fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace. Furthermore, I am an engineer at heart and passionate about exploring the intersection between nature, science, technology, business strategy, and leadership. My fascination with these diverse fields and my nerdy learning methods have enabled me to develop a deep understanding of the underlying principles and concepts that drive success in these areas. I am eager to share my thoughts with you. I am also a lifelong learner and a sustainability enthusiast who constantly learns and thinks about empowering humanity with emerging technologies like Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and finding solutions to our most significant economic, social and environmental challenges. In this book (my first), "The Sigmoid Rider" I test my ability to connect the dots of science, technology, strategy and leadership and validate it with a broader audience. Divided into three parts, this book aims to provide you with the Business philosophy, Strategy and Leadership theory, and execution toolbox for managing the change you need to succeed in today's challenging, ever-evolving business and sustainability landscape. The book's first part focuses on the business philosophy around performance cycles of entities, transformative inputs like technology (particularly GenAI for today) and the unintended consequences of shareholder capitalism like the climate crisis to set the tone for a more holistic and meaningful management theory. You will better understand GenAI technology and how it can be used as a force for good to reverse the climate crisis and drive the democratization of creativity and productivity. In the second part, I delved into the imperatives of a great strategy, exploring more than ten business books and their teachings to find those imperatives and update them for today's needs with a new strategy framework. I also explored various leadership concepts to argue and propose a new leadership model catering to today's business and social landscape needs. I gave practical advice on developing leadership skills that enable you to adapt to changing circumstances and lead your organization effectively through periods of uncertainty. I supported my arguments with data-based case studies, real-life examples, and experiences. The third part of my book provides a toolbox for execution with strategy questions to assess your existing strategy vs what I propose, a change management framework to design and execute organizational adoption and templates for crafting and deploying new strategies with excellence to create a line of sight across your organization. There is also an appendix at the end where I will place the articles covering my interviews with exemplary leaders from companies (which I mention throughout the book) that I admire regarding their sustainable growth stories. I sincerely wish to help you succeed and thrive in your endeavors. Best,C. Firat Caliskan
March 2024, Geneva
