Politics and ego often trump profitable outcomes. #2 on the Thinkers 50 list, Rita McGrath has seen this play out in real time. 

McGrath is a professor at Columbia Business School and the best-selling author of many books including Seeing Around Corners. She explains how organizations large and small can see inflection points in advance by identifying weak signals within their organization. 

One major theme she discusses is how well executives, intentional or not, insulate themselves from the front lines of their organization. Behind every organizational failure, was a leader who saw the weak signals, and refused to listen. 

McGrath also discusses the role of clear facts in future decision-making and why waiting for the data is a fatal choice. 

If you're at risk of being disrupted or seeing customers slowly leaving you for other solutions, THIS episode is your weak signal of a coming inflection point. You should probably listen before it's too late.