Page 210 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

• • The cost of a gigabyte of computer memory dropped
from $10 million in 1956 to $7,700 in 1990 to $13.30 in
2000 to $1 in 2006.
• • Sales of white bread in the United States fell slightly
from $2.3 billion in 2001 to $2 billion in 2005. In the
same time period tortilla sales rose from $81 million to
$1 billion—a 12-fold increase.
• • One in eight couples married in the United States dur-
ing 2005 met online.
• • In 1976, Americans drank an average of 1.6 gallons of
bottled water per year; in 2006, the average was 28.3
gallons.
• • More than half of the Ph.D.s awarded in the United
States in science and engineering go to students from
China, India, Korea, and Taiwan.
• • Ed Lawler also found that between 1973 and 1983, 35
percent of the top 20 companies in the Fortune 500
were new; 45 percent were new between 1983 and 1993;
60 percent were new between 1993 and 2003; and if the
last five-year trend holds, over 70 percent of the top 20
Fortune 500 companies will be new to that list for 2003
through 2013. 2

All of these changes and the millions more they represent take
us into new territory, where the likelihood of failure increases.
Deficit responses to change are rooted in fear, stagnation,
and withdrawal, born of the belief that failure is a threat to
success. Abundant responses to change focus on learning and
resilience, born of the belief that failure is a path to success.
A classic example of this second mind-set is Thomas
Watson, Jr., who headed IBM in the 1960s. A manager
reporting to Watson ran a business unit that lost $10 million.

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