Turning the Giant: Disrupting Your Industry with Persistent Innovation

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By Andrea Rocchino

Some business books talk about disruption like it’s a clean, exciting move you plan out in advance. Turning the Giant: Disrupting Your Industry with Persistent Innovation pushes back on that idea. It treats disruption as something slower, more stubborn, and honestly more uncomfortable than people like to admit. That difference is what makes it stand out. It doesn’t promise easy wins, it leans into the friction.

Reading it feels grounded in a way that’s hard to fake. There were moments where it felt less like advice and more like someone walking you through things they’ve already wrestled with. It doesn’t rush to conclusions, which can feel a bit slow at times, but it also makes the ideas feel earned. I found myself thinking about situations where I’ve tried to avoid problems instead of working through them, and that stuck more than any single takeaway.

The book keeps circling around this idea of “giants,” the things that don’t go away no matter how much you plan. Competition, change, pressure, even your own doubts. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t frame them as enemies to defeat, but as forces you have to deal with over time. That idea goes beyond business. It connects to how people handle anything that feels bigger than them, whether it’s in work or just life in general.

John Berra writes in a way that feels straightforward and tied to experience. The structure blends personal story with broader ideas, and even when it repeats certain points, it doesn’t feel accidental. It feels like he’s trying to show how the same problem shows up in different forms. It’s not flashy writing, but it doesn’t need to be.

By the end, it doesn’t feel like you’ve been handed a strategy you can copy. It feels more like you’ve been asked to rethink how you deal with obstacles in the first place. It’s worth reading if you’re tired of polished advice and want something that feels closer to how things actually unfold.

About the Author

John Berra

John Berra received a B.S. in Systems Science & Engineering from Washington University in 1969 and began his career as a Control Engineer at Monsanto. In 1976 he joined Rosemount, where he held several management positions, including President of the Industrial Division. He was named President of Fisher-Rosemount Systems in 1993, and in 1999 was promoted to Senior Vice President and Process Group Business Leader for Emerson Electric. In 2008, he was named Chairman of Emerson Process Management. He was named one of the fifty most influential industry innovators by Intech Magazine. Voted into the Process Automation Hall of Fame. He also served on the board of directors of Ryder System and National Instruments.