Review by Graham White for The HR Director
“In a world that has lost sight of the ageless skill of prescience Trafford and Boggis have produced a masterpiece of writing that in less than 300 pages delivers a new and innovative approach to developing, applying and implementing executive strategy. Despite asking question after question; (three in the first sentence of the introduction); the writers have managed to produce a startling piece of writing in which the answers are conspicuous only in their absence. It may have been Voltaire who said, “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers” but Trafford and Boggis in their book Beyond Default have taken this to a whole new level of understanding.
From the very first page of the introduction the reader is taken on a journey of reminiscence through lists of organisations that either no longer exist or are but a shadow of their former selves. Names tumble through your mind creating memories of what were once commercial giants. Pan-am and Woolworths trigger thoughts of great companies that no longer exist and Kodak and RBS remind the reader that success is a fragile state. And it doesn’t stop there as we are brought into the present day and recall the fragility of both Tesco and Standard Charter Bank which remind us that past greatness is no guarantee of future success.”