Bruce Borup: Rejection of Linear Economics

I categorically reject the concept of linear or deterministic economics. I believe it is arrogant to think we can reliably predict the outcome of a multi-variant equation as complex as modern business. How many times have you seen a business try to plan its way through the future without any idea what the future holds in store? It's as if modern business plans were some sort of railroad you could build to ride a guaranteed success train that could only be derailed by unforeseen circumstances and natural disasters.

Business just doesn't work that way. A good friend of mine once said there ought to be a CEO's prayer, "please Lord, just one day without something going wrong!" You live and compete in a fog every day, making decisions with incomplete information and facing unpredictable competitors and global market conditions that change at a moment's notice. Under those conditions, what makes you think you can just pick a direction and achieve what you set out to do? Just how well do you have to execute to make a typewriter survive in today's marketplace?

The way you develop strategy has to change. The way you plan has to change. The way you manage has to change. How you do business is as important as what you do. The speed at which you do business is important. You have to recognize how you interact with your competitive landscape. Your ability to adapt is as important as what you make. Even how you communicate is a strategic advantage.

Your first step in building a strategy in today's business environment is for you, your board, your management team, your employees, your shareholders and all your stakeholders, to admit that you don't know everything and that you only have the tiniest clue of what the future holds in store. As a leader, that is the reality you must define for your enterprise. Everything else is arrogance! Then, and only then, can you begin to build a strategy.

Bruce Borup

The ups and downs in the corporate world: Bruce Borup and calculating business risks and rewards

Seasoned entrepreneur Bruce Borup believes that “life is governed by probabilities, not uncertainties.” And much like in life, businesses should also consider the probabilities that may help or hinder their success, which falls under the business approach called risk management.

Bruce Borup Photo Credit: Theinstitute.ieee.org

The book Enterprise Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis shares that risk management can be defined as the process of identifying risks, the probability of its occurrence, and its impact on the business. The process is an important aspect of preparing for the future and something that affects how entrepreneurs or business managers make sound judgments and decisions.


Experts believe that understanding and taking calculated risks is important for a business to grow. The step enables companies to veer away from status quo and equilibrium, which, as entrepreneurs like Bruce Borup believe, should be challenged once in a while.

Bruce Borup Photo Cerdit: Jonnywalthall.wordpress.com

The rewards of taking risks


Sustaining risk management has helped countless of companies reach high level of success. The book Managing Business Risk: A Practical Guide to Protecting your Business shares the story of how companies, like Toyota, took risks and managed to get by the tough competition in the industry through sustainable innovation.

Bruce Borup Photo Credit: Blueprintsforbiz.com

Loss of profit and other unfortunate events are common probabilities in the business world. Thus, experts recommend business leaders to always take the worst-case scenario into consideration because only by doing so will the company be prepared for what’s about to come, when it comes.


Bruce Borup is the Director of GSC International. Visit BruceBorup.Livejournal.com for more about him.

Bruce Borup: CEO of Eckso Bionics

Bruce Borup was the CEO of Eckso Bionics from May 2008 - February 2010.

Founded in Berkeley, California in 2005, Ekso Bionics aims to help people rethink their physical limitations through applying the latest technology and engineering in the manufacture of exoskeletons and bionics. The company has received grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and has formed partnerships with the University of California at Berkeley and other world-class institutions. Its technology is licensed to the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Bruce Borup Photo credit: eksobionics.com

Berkeley Bionics and Lockheed Martin jointly developed the military and industrial (HULC) exoskeleton for military use.

From Photo credit: eksobionics.com

Today, Ekso Bionics is one of the pioneers in the development of exoskeletons to aid in human mobility. More information on the company and its range of products is available here.

From Bruce Borup

Read more about Bruce Borup and his accomplishments in this and other companies on LinkedIn.

Bruce Borup: Disrupting equilibrium to achieve organizational order

Surfing the Edge of Chaos:

Adaptive leadership disturbs equilibrium:

a)     Communicate the urgency of the issue

b)    Establish a broad understanding of the roots of the problem - explain why traditional solutions won’t work.

c)     Holding stress in play until guerrilla leaders come forward with solutions.

Adaptive leaders can disturb equilibrium by:

a)     Overloading the organization beyond its business as usual carrying capacity

b)    Using deadlines, public scrutiny and other action-forcing events to sustain disequilibrium

c)     Identifying the adaptive challenges BUT NOT stepping in to fix them

 Bruce Borup does not rely on age-old, conventional business standards in his white paper "Ruminations on Strategy."  Instead, he has laid out his own ruminations which reflect the ideas of modern thinkers such as Richard Pascale, Mark Milleman, Linda Gioja, M. Mitchell Waldrop, James Collins, and Jerry Porras.

Borup’s White Paper delves into the idea that chaos is an essential element in the survival and success of an organization. This is founded on the idea that linear principles no longer serve the purpose of modern enterprises. Instead, organizations must be readily flexible to face challenges and accept them openly. Although crisis is commonly perceived as something negative, it is a time when innovation flourishes.

From Bruce Borup

More information on Bruce Borup’s professional achievements can be found at www.linkedin.com .

Bruce Borup discusses strategy, innovation, and process improvement

Dr. Bruce Borup is a businessman, educator, and U.S. Army officer with over 25 years of experience in business management and leadership. He earned the first rank in INC 500’s 2007 list of fastest-growing defense contractors in the country. He helps numerous companies ramp up quickly and guides them in navigating the complexities of federal acquisition regulations. Due in large part to his years of experience in the business arena, Dr. Bruce Borup has a lot of insights on strategy, innovation, and process improvement. He believes that for businesses to be successful, it is important to be watchful of radical breakthroughs, and proactively optimize current processes. He believes that life is not governed by certainties, but rather, by probabilities, and that people must understand frozen accidents and how little actions trigger bigger ones that become irreversible – like an avalanche.

From Bruce Borup

More information on Dr. Bruce Borup can be found on his Linkedin profile.

Dr. Bruce Borup: Cultivating a sound corporate environment

The corporate world has always been a melting pot for a wide variety of innovations, developments, and trends. For business leaders like Dr. Bruce Borup, a strong grip to corporate changes — whether they pose challenges or rewards — could help a company become more flexible and be on top of its game. The following are some great quotes:

From Blogger Pictures

From msiqnow.com

Law of the Jungle

Now is the law of the jungle…the law runneth forward and back: the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. – Rudyard Kipling

Failure is necessary

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. –Franklin D. Roosevelt

Good Ideas

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience. – Admiral Hyman Rickover

Harnessing adversity by learning from previous mistakes
Mistakes become a hindrance to success when one repeats them in spite of the consequences they have previously caused. Mistakes can actually help companies devise new strategies.

Dr. Bruce Borup’s professional profile can be found at www.linkedin.com .

On core values: Bruce Borup and the importance of mission and vision statements

Building a strategic framework

Both mission and vision statements have a similar purpose: to help company owners build a strategic framework on which all the operations within the business shall be founded. They only differ in what each specifically does to serve this purpose. A vision statement is created to signify the company’s ideals for the future; like a guiding star it should be unreasonable and unattainable.

Bruce Borup Photo Credit: Ghostceo.com

A mission statement defines the next step in achieving the organization's vision. It should be attainable, but still unreasonable. Avoid those carefully crafted mission statements that nobody cares about. A mission should be inspiring in order to be an effective strategic tool.

From Bruce Borup

Visit Bruce Borup’s LinkedIn profile for more information.