UBERNOMICS: How to Create Economic Abundance and Rise Above the Competition (2016)
In this radical business book, Barbara Gray makes it clear that all is not as it seems. Just when we think we know the rules of the road, we find we have hit the age of economic abundance—and surprises await.
Gray navigates us through this journey with great insight and acuity, sharing stories and case studies about a new breed of “rebel with a cause” companies such as Starbucks, LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Uber, whose founders relish disruption of the status quo. Taking us through the highlights of her research, Gray reveals her discovery of the next generation of business strategy for companies looking to create economic abundance and rise above the competition.RemoveStore links
SECRETS OF THE AMAZON (2017)
AMAZON’S INVASION OF THE RETAIL SHORELINE IS JUST BEGINNING… The tectonic shift in technological, societal and economic forces is giving rise to a new class of highly disruptive companies like Amazon, Uber, Airbnb and WeWork. As these companies push the edges of the consumer value frontier, traditional industry boundaries are blurring and structural fault lines are emerging for companies across a wide range of industries.
In this radical business book, Barbara Gray navigates us down the raging Amazon river where we witness the unfolding of the retail apocalypse. By piecing together emerging structural disruption developments, Gray uncovers valuable and timely insights for investors as she reveals the secrets of the Amazon, including the truth about Alexa — Bezos’ Amazonian Warrior and Queen. And we learn how companies can escape the coming reckoning as Amazon begins its invasion of the retail shoreline.
SECRETS OF THE AMAZON 2.0 (2018)
In this sequel to Secrets of the Amazon, Barbara Gray guides us deeper into the Amazon, where we uncover the secrets of the three pyramids. We also watch the drama unfold as Bezos, with Alexa by his side, starts to invade healthcare and banking. As we voyage with Gray to these next frontiers and the new worlds of blockchain/crypto and WeWork, we discover that industry boundaries aren’t just blurring, they’re being decimated. And we witness how this unprecedented breadth and depth of change is disrupting the value equation for companies, causing them to re-strategize how they originate, capture and extract value. Most importantly, we learn how the acceleration in structural disruption is changing the game for both investors and companies.
SECRETS OF THE AMAZON III: A Strategic Map for Investors & CEOs to Survive & Conquer the New Disruptive Era (2019)
In this finale of the Secrets of the Amazon trilogy, we travel to the land of unicorns and castles, where the rules of the game are changing fast, for both companies and investors. We observe unicorns like Uber and WeWork gazing in admiration at the Amazon castle as they graze in the bountiful meadow of Silicon Valley. For they understand the secrets of the Amazon. But not every unicorn deserves a rainbow valuation. It’s dotcom déjà vu as growth investors are now at risk of drinking the “pink Kool-Aid” of many of these cult-like unicorns. Likewise, as illustrated by the dark raging ocean that has capsized iconic companies like Toys ’R’ Us and Sears Holdings, value investors are at risk of drinking the “blue Kool-Aid”, whose toxicity is rising as the rate of structural disruption increases. And just like investors can no longer rely on traditional valuation metrics like P/E and P/BV, companies need to realize they can no longer function as non-tech businesses.
In this book, Gray equips you with her proprietary Value Pyramid and shares value-added insights into the latest structural disruption developments — providing you with a strategic map to survive and conquer the new disruptive era.
THE NEW CYBER DECADE: Are You Driving Towards Utopia or Dystopia? (2020)
In this sequel to the Secrets of the Amazon trilogy, we leave behind the “growth at all costs” decade. As the WeWork drama unfolds, it is back to reality for high-flying unicorns that have been chasing rainbows in the bountiful meadow of Silicon Valley. We also watch as the rising gig economy labour rights movement threatens to rein in the two ridesharing unicorns: Lyft and Uber. Sustainability takes center stage as CEOs from the biggest financial and tech companies ring the alarm bell on climate change.
Tesla’s Cybertruck foreshadows the radical transformation of the corporate landscape as we drive into what I call the New Cyber Decade. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic turning our world into a dystopian ghost town, we are seeing an acute shift in societal behaviour which is acting as a catalyst to further accelerate the digital transformation of society. As illustrated by my Value Pyramid, the value equation is about the merging of technology and humanity.RemoveStore links
THE TWILIGHT ECONOMY: How Coronavirus is Accelerating Disruption (2020)
In this sequel to The New Cyber Decade: Are You Driving Towards Utopia or Dystopia?, the black swan coronavirus turns our world into a dystopian ghost town. As we leave the physical world, this creates an acute shift in societal and corporate behaviour, distorting the value equation. For home emerges as the centre of society — the place from which we go online to socialize, learn, work, shop and meet our healthcare needs.
To gain insight into the clash of these new forces and navigate between the dangerous new waves of disruption, we turn for guidance to my Value Pyramid. As the physical world reopens, we enter the “Twilight Economy” and safety emerges as the new risk factor. We witness the reckoning as the coronavirus continues to attack fragile companies stranded on the wrong side of the digital abyss. And the tech giants thrive as disruption arrives in the form of quantum leaps. We have arrived at the inflection point…
THE NEW ROARING TWENTIES (2021)
ENTER THE NEW ROARING TWENTIES… In this sequel to The Twilight Economy: How Coronavirus is Accelerating Disruption, the tech giant tsunami gains momentum as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has gone digital. As we travel through the final stretch of the dystopian COVID time tunnel, the vaccine promises to deliver us into the technicolour New Roaring Twenties.
Travel, leisure and entertainment are set to come roaring back but the world will not return to the way it was as coronavirus let the digital genie out of the bottle. The office apocalypse starts to unfold as companies declare the death of the 9-to-5 workday and cut their office footprints. For the convergence of new societal, technological and economic forces will once again radically transform the corporate landscape. We have arrived at a new inflection point…RemoveStore links
THE META NATIVES (2021)
In this sequel to The New Roaring Twenties, we continue our journey through the dystopian COVID time tunnel. Although travel, leisure and entertainment start to come roaring back, Delta has other plans. The tech giant tsunami continues to gain momentum as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has gone hybrid when it comes to healthcare, working, shopping and socializing. The office apocalypse unfolds as companies embrace the digital HQ. And sustainability re-emerges with a vengeance as the UN warns climate change has reached “CODE RED for humanity”.
We also embark on a new journey as we connect the dots between the rise in NFTs and strategic moves made by gaming platforms and tech giants to uncover the next generation of the Internet – the metaverse. The metaverse, hybrid working, sustainability — these are the post-pandemic themes that describe the systemic changes disrupting the way we live, work and play — and soon these three themes will converge to create a totally new way of life.
WHAT THE VUCA?: How the Bull Became a Bear (2022)
As we ascend to the peak of the bull market in fall 2021, we are in a euphoric state of DENIAL as we celebrate the arrival of the New Roaring Twenties by getting drunk on the Meta Kool-Aid. But we sober up quickly in the New Year as we get hit by the Omicron wave and ANGER sets in as we get stuck in Covid Groundhog Day. Just as the Omicron wave subsides, hope turns to despair when Russia invades Ukraine on February 24 and we skip over the bargaining stage, sinking into a state of DEPRESSION and shock. The invasion sets fire to inflation, ushering in a state of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) as we return to the BARGAINING stage and struggle to connect the dots. But it isn’t until I raise the red flag on Amazon on April 26 that I move into the final stage of ACCEPTANCE that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not only change the value equation, but it also ended up unleashing the famous symbol of Russia — the Russian bear — on our economy.
INTO THE EYE OF THE STORM: Navigating the New Economic, Societal & Technological Winds (2022)
In this sequel to What the VUCA?: How the Bull Became a Bear, I raise the red flag on Amazon, moving into the final stage of Acceptance. As the Fed raises rates to cool inflation, the eye of the storm approaches, creating new economic, technological and societal winds of disruption.
As the economic hurricane gains strength, we see increasing evidence of demand destruction in ad tech, e-commerce and enterprise technology and I question whether the earnings apocalypse is about to begin. I’m not alone as the founder of Amazon warns it is time to “batten down the hatches”.
The pandemic-driven tech giant tsunami comes crashing down just before Halloween as spending decelerates across ad tech and the cloud. As I share at a conference in Barcelona, the dots are getting harder to connect because “we’re no longer living in the simple world of Seurat but in the more complex world of Dali – the world of surrealism”.