The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations,   ISBN:9781591841838

Customer Rating: 

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.

Customer Rating: 

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!

Customer Rating: 

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.

Customer Rating: 

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.

Customer Rating: 

This was a very special book for me because I am a member of the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN. We just hired one of the co-authors, Rod Beckstrom, as our new CEO, effective July 1, 2009. When I first learned that Rod was a candidate for the Board, I looked up his resumé and learned of this book. So, I downloaded it to my Kindle and devoured the book--also some of his appearances on YouTube, including one that reviews the ideas of this book. I quickly realized that Rod was a kindred spirit. The authors' analogies are reasonable and highly memorable representatives of their thesis about the strength of a decentralized organization with very low profile leaders or no discernible leaders at all. But, their wisdom shines through when they also speak of hybrid organizations that combine elements of both the spider and the starfish (General Electric was one example that they offered). The book is certainly not a full course in management or organizational theory, but it is a well written thought provoker that challenges much orthodox thinking, and, as such, it is a valuable read. Highly recommended.