The Structure of Success: A Framework to Help Build Your Business Career
Patrick Esposito
An Inc. Original (October 2023)

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” Colin R. Davis

Albert Einstein was once gently chided by a faculty colleague at Princeton because he always asked the same questions on his final examinations. “Quite true. Guilty as charged. Each year, the answers are different.” I was again reminded of that response as I worked my way through Patrick Esposito’s narrative. He has devised a sound but flexible framework that he hopes will help as many people as possible to build a successful career in business.

In his uncommonly informative Introduction, Esposito poses eight critical questions that will help his reader to focus on the inner workings of their business. “Answering these questions will help you create the structure to position your business for success.” The business world today is more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than at any peior time that I can recall. Over time, I am certain, your answers to most (if not all) of the eight questions will change.

Years ago at one of GE’s annual meetings, its then chairman and CEO — Jack Welch — was asked the reasons for his high regard for small companies. Here’s his response:

“For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they focus on doing what is most important. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy.”

Most of Welch’s key points are relevant to almost all organizations, whatever their size and nature may be. The same can be said of Patrick Esposito’s key points when explaining how to apply his framework’s approaches, methodologies, and tools within eight critical and essential decision categories. The ultimate objective is to ensure your organization’s structural integrity. Just about you all you need to know is in this book, a brilliant achievement. Bravo!

Here are two concluding suggestions while reading The Structure of Success: Highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), and page references as well as your responses to questions posed and to lessons you have learned. Include your responses to each of the questions posed (on Page 5)  and the end-of-chapter exercises, both “In Review” and “For Further Exploration,” and do so with candor. These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.