Ingebretsen carefully organizes his material within 14 chapters which are arranged in a specific sequence, beginning with The Deadly Spiral and concluding with Future Challenges. The value of each chapter will be determined, of course, by the nature and extent of each reader's immediate needs and interest. However, Ingebretsen offers an eloquent and compelling explanation of why each of "The Ten Deadly Sins" is so dangerous after identifying (in Chapters 2 and 3) Early Warning Signs" and "More Early Warning Signs." Unlike vehicles, companies do not have gauges arranged conveniently in a cluster which immediately indicate when they are going too fast, overheating, running out of fuel, etc. In The Inferno, Dante saved the last ring in hell for those who, in a moral crisis, preserve their neutrality. I thought about that as I read Chapter 13 in which Ingebretsen "saves the worst corporate sin for last": arrogance. (For example, Enron, Polaroid, and Webvan.) In the final chapter, he shifts his attention to "probable causes for business failures in the years ahead, when all companies must run on Internet time."
For me, some of Ingebretsen's best thinking is provided in the Appendix: In Search of a Failure-Proof Strategy. However, the value of the Appendix to a great extent depends on how carefully the previous 14 chapters have been read. It is also important to keep in mind that competing on Internet time involves change which now occurs with unprecedented velocity as well as frequency. According to Ingebretsen, "the one constant, sadly, is that companies that either can't adapt or refuse to adapt will fail. And in an even more closely entwined global economy, there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of companies standing in line to take their place." According to one Hebrew aphorism, man plans and then God howls with laughter. No plan can accommodate all possibilities. No plan can guarantee success or failure. Ingebretsen does not offer a failure-proof strategy. Rather, he suggests how the search for one could (perhaps should) be conducted.
My own opinion about all this is that the planning process is not only important but imperative. Of even greater importance, the plan (once devised) must preclude violation of "The Ten Deadly Sins" while ensuring that the given organization has the resilience needed to respond rapidly and effectively to change. Ingebretsen agrees with Charles Darwin that natural selection results in the survival of the fittest...and the fittest are those who are most adaptable. It remains for those who read this brilliant book to make their own determination as to which portions of it can be of most immediate benefit. They are well-advised to keep in mind that decision-makers in their competitor companies will probably read Ingebretsen's book. Also, that Internet time waits for no one. In the final anaylsis, moreover, most fatal wounds are self-inflicted.