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Big Bang Disruption
Big Bang Disruption
Apr 16, 2025 12:56 AM

Author:Larry Downes,Paul Nunes

Big Bang Disruption

'A stimulating read...carefully researched and accessibly written...the case studies on disruption alone are worth the cover price' -Financial Times

'Everything you need from business school in one very direct book' -Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter

It used to take years for new products and services to dethrone industry leaders. Now any busi­ness can be instantly devastated by something better and cheaper. How can you protect yourself, and harness the power of Big Bang Disruption?

No matter what your industry, start-ups can change the market before you even begin to grasp what's happening. The good news is that any business can mas­ter the strategy of the start-ups.

In Big Bang Disruption, Larry Downes and Paul Nunes show you how to spot the next big thing - before the next start-up does. Based on extensive research by the Accenture Institute for High Performance and interviews from over 30 industries, this essential bookwill give you with the tools to take control of your future.

Reviews

A stimulating read...carefully researched and accessibly written...the case studies on disruption alone are worth the cover price

—— Financial Times

Everything you need from business school in one very direct book

—— Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter

Downes and Nunes are right that the competitive heat has been turned up by new technology

—— Economist

Stimulating...offers a helpful conceptual framework for thinking about big bang disruption

—— Forbes

Fascinating. Read this book quickly: the rules of the game change overnight

—— Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever

Reading this book is the best action you can take to fend off a Big Bang

—— Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google

Still full of insights into the ever-changing world of work... Challenging received opinion, as he has done for decades.

—— Peter Day , BBC World Service

A fierce manifesto for radical political, corporate and social change.

—— The Financial Times

In this book Handy encourages us to think differently about organisational structures. He presents engaging, cogent arguments about the organisations that we know today in sectors such as politics, education, business and how they will need to be very different in 20 years’ time.

—— Marketing Week

You need to get hold of Stephen Witt's jaundiced, whip-smart, superbly reported and indispensable How Music Got Free

—— Washington Post

Fascinating… An engrossing story… surely the year's most important music book

—— Independent

Astonishing

—— Guardian

Enthralling

—— Sunday Times

An accomplished first book… So compelling

—— Economist

Lucid, page-turning, engaging… A cross between a nail-biting true-crime story and the type of blow-by-blow books penned by Bob Woodward… Deeply sourced and dramatic

—— Scott Timberg , Literary Review

Witt's first book has great strengths — primarily that he is a natural storyteller, with an eye for character and the ability to digest large amounts of technical detail, and turn it into a colourful tale

—— Financial Times

Scorching investigative history of how the music industry found itself staring catastrophe in the face... Full of colourful characters... Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of our creative industries

—— The Bookseller

This is a riveting account of greed, huge characters and the collapse of a kind of empire, and will be the benchmark by which future books are judged

—— Jamie Atkins, 4 stars , Record Collector

The richest explanation to date about how the arrival of the MP3 upended almost everything about how music is distributed, consumed and stored

—— Dwight Garner , New York Times

A rare thing… Compulsively readable

—— Andrew Orlowski , Register

Definitive exploration of the turmoil the music industry has experiences in the last 20 years

—— Daily Mail

A surprisingly engaging guide

—— Rachel Farrow , UK Press Syndication

Remarkable

—— Ed Power , Irish Independent

Hats off to Witt…because the book he’s delivered is sensational: lucid, informative, breathlessly exciting, with the pounding narrative tempo of a first-class thriller

—— Allan Jones , Uncut

Witt brings the many-layered tale to vibrant life

—— Andrew Hill , Financial Times

Witt’s sharp prose and pace grips... His narrative hurtles like a thriller toward the “sin cleansing” development of iTunes and the profit shift from recorded to live music. It is – in both senses – a ripping yarn

—— Helen Brown , Telegraph

One of the most gripping investigative books of the year - my mind reels at who will play Glover in the inevitable movie adaptation

—— Zach Sokol , Vice UK

An exhaustive and entertaining account of how digital music piracy started, what effect it had on the industry and who was involved

—— Andrew Williams , Metro

Jaundiced, whip-smart, superbly reported and indispensable

—— Louis Bayard , Guardian Weekly

Brilliant… Witt's account is every bit as riveting as a thriller… Required reading for anybody interested in how we came to consume music today

—— John Meagher , Irish Independent

It’s a truly terrific read. Thoughtful, compelling, action-packed (surprisingly), utterly robust and guaranteed to be one of those nonfictions you rip through as if it was a novel by your favourite author

—— Bookmunch

Excellent

—— Sonny Bunch , Miami Herald

A terrific tale of music piracy at the dawn of the digital era

—— Helen Brown , Daily Telegraph

The collapse of the music industry, thanks to the emergence of the internet and illegal downloading, is told here with all the urgency and colour of a thriller

—— Louis Wise , Sunday Times

Witt tells the captivating and tense story of how the digital music revolution transformed the music industry, and made criminals out of many of us. Read it to learn all about a landmark moment in music and technology that still affects us today.

—— Isaac Fitzgerald , Buzzfeed

His book is a tour de force, delving into the criminal underworld of hackers and pilferers as well as the complacent corporate boardroom

—— Lionel Barber , Financial Times

A must-read. It flows like a captivating novel.

—— Mohamed El Erian , The National

A terrific book… Rich and fascinating.

—— Waitrose Weekend

Page-­turner about how piracy nearly destroyed the established music industry.

—— Andrew Hill , Financial Times

A great read.

—— Disrupts

Brilliant.

—— Hugo Rifkind , The Times

Witt skillfully and thoroughly documents this “warez” scene of file sharers… Absolutely enthralling, and occasionally cinematic.

—— Jon Fine , Strategy + Business

Beautifully told.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard
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