Chapter 22, cha14 PRM OKR

Here is the updated extension to the book summary for John Doerr’s *Measure What Matters*. 

Ass requested, I’ve added **five books** drawn from Larry Chiang’s “Fifth Epiphany” framework (as outlined in his 2014 Harbus article “What Mr Peabody Can Teach Harvard Business School About The Fifth Epiphany”). These five books form the foundational “mashup” or sequel concepts that Chiang presents as a future-oriented epiphany for entrepreneurs—emphasizing practical pattern recognition, business model engineering, lean execution, customer development, and real-world sales/mentorship skills to build and sustain ventures.

Chiang’s piece weaves these as a “five-song mashup” for achieving breakthroughs (including avoiding pitfalls like failure modes in scaling or resource crises), which aligns thematically with a new **Chapter 22: Turnaround**—focusing on recovery, resilience, and renewal when OKRs falter, companies face distress, or pivots are needed post-setback (e.g., bankruptcy survival, cofounder persistence, or cultural reboot in tough times). This chapter extends the book’s optimism in Chapter 21 by addressing real-world reversals, using OKRs for comeback stories while incorporating Chiang’s entrepreneurial “epiphany” tools for gritty execution.

**Chapter 22: Turnaround**  

This new concluding chapter shifts from proactive goal-setting to reactive revival, exploring how OKRs serve as diagnostic and corrective tools during crises—whether financial distress, leadership churn, market shifts, or near-failure scenarios. Doerr (hypothetically extended) would draw parallels to Intel’s competitive battles and Google’s pivots, but zoom in on “turnaround” mechanics: resetting priorities with fresh OKRs, tracking recovery metrics rigorously, stretching for reinvention, and rebuilding culture through transparent CFRs.  

The chapter stresses resilience via accountability loops—mid-quarter resets, candid scoring of stalled Key Results, and alignment on survival Objectives (e.g., cash preservation, customer retention, or talent re-engagement). It warns against abandoning OKRs in panic, instead using them to focus scarce resources, foster commitment amid uncertainty, and enable stretch recoveries that turn near-misses into legends (echoing stretch examples like Chrome/YouTube but applied to distress). Real-world anecdotes might include anonymized cases of startups or nonprofits that used OKRs to emerge stronger post-downturn.

To ground the chapter in practical, battle-tested wisdom, the bibliography expands with five influential books from Larry Chiang’s “Fifth Epiphany” mashup (projected as essential reading for founders navigating high-stakes reversals):

1. **Crossing the Chasm** (and related works like *Inside the Tornado* and *Escape Velocity*) by Geoffrey A. Moore — Moore’s innovation lifecycle series provides the roadmap for scaling beyond early adopters, escaping “gravity” in mature markets, and engineering business models to avoid death traps during growth crises or turnarounds.  

2. **The Lean Startup** by Eric Ries — Emphasizes validated learning, pivots, and minimum viable everything to iterate out of failure modes quickly—ideal for resource-constrained recoveries where experimentation replaces rigid planning.  

3. **Business Model Generation** by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur — Focuses on canvas-based redesign of core boxes (value proposition, revenue streams, key partners) to reboot models during distress, condensing complex restructurings into actionable visuals.  

4. **The Four Steps to the Epiphany** by Steve Blank — Customer development bible that forces founders to get out of the building, test assumptions, and discover product-market fit—crucial for turnarounds where initial assumptions failed and survival depends on rapid re-validation.  

5. **What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School** by Mark H. McCormack — Practical guide to sales, reading people, entrepreneurship, and mentorship outside academia; breaks down street-smart sub-routines for negotiation, relationship-building, and execution in messy, high-pressure recovery scenarios.

These additions enrich the bibliography by bridging Doerr’s corporate/philanthropic OKR lens with Chiang’s scrappy, founder-centric epiphanies—equipping readers not just to set ambitious goals, but to recover when they fall short. The chapter closes on hope: Turnarounds aren’t endpoints but new starting lines, where disciplined OKRs, combined with these timeless entrepreneurial patterns, enable phoenix-like rises.