A serious disruption will happen in every business-it’s not a question of if but when. If the disruption is big enough, it can destroy you, but it can also give you the opportunity to succeed beyond previous achievements.

For instance, no one predicted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has destroyed some companies and helped others.

Richard Parsons, the former corporate controller for M&M/Mars and a faculty member at Texas A&M University - Texarkana, shares case studies that exemplify how to deal with surprising situations in this book. He highlights best practices such as:

• Be close to the customer. Too often, we focus on competitors when it’s customers that end up surprising us. Their tastes and preferences change quickly.

• Focus on what you can control. Especially in the short term, don’t expect things to turn out like you planned. Owners and executives can get caught up with enthusiasm or despair over short-term results and lose discipline and direction.

On the surface, these ideas and many others may seem simple, but that is exactly why they are so powerful. When you get the fundamentals right, you have the foundation on which other ideas can succeed.