Summary: Heads Up - Kenneth McGee

This work offers a summary of the book “HEADS UP: How to Anticipate Business Surprises and Seize Opportunities First” by Kenneth McGee.
In Heads Up, Kenneth McGee argues that there is no such thing as a genuine “surprise” in business. Rather, every potential disaster-in-the-making has some advance warning signs. If these warning signs can be picked up on and acted on appropriately, the disaster itself can be avoided and may even turn out to be an opportunity to grow the business.
Research has shown that in any business, only about 5-percent of the available data needs to be tracked in order to end surprises and uncover opportunities. If this 5-percent slice of data – usually in the most mission-critical parts of the business – is tracked in real-time, managers will better understand what’s happening than if they attempt to monitor every conceivable piece of information. According to McGee, the key is to use real-time data advantageously rather than get swamped in masses of marginal-value data.
In this practical guide, the author explains how to drive out uncertainty and take control of your future destiny.