Peter saw no problem with a system in which he and the analysts who worked for him made so many of the company’s decisions. Meanwhile, businesses around us were adapting to a world that was changing at blinding speed. We needed to change, we needed to be more nimble, and we needed to do it soon.

5. Complacency Trap

Shortly after sunset on November 29, 2014, the sixty-five-foot sailing sloop Vestas Wind was speeding through the choppy waters of the Indian Ocean, 268 miles from the nearest coast, that of the island of Mauritius.

How could this have happened? Especially given that the captain and navigator had access to a remarkable array of high-tech navigational equipment. The official report concluded that the navigator had misread some data and failed to access other sources that would have alerted him to the danger. He had come to believe that the reefs they were fast approaching were underwater mountains— called sea mounts— the peaks of which were some forty meters below the surface. In making that assessment, he had not attended to a signal given by one important piece of equipment called a C-Map.

That was the result of Cote’s marathoner “go slow to go fast” moves coming to fruition. Rather than flashy, highly risky, and dramatic moves, he’d made rigorously calibrated incremental improvements in business operations. These were combined with a steady stream of divestments and moderate acquisitions. Indeed, he is a standout example of someone who has mastered programmatic M&A, the systematic, highly strategic, and well-paced acquisition of relatively small companies compared the the size of the acquiring firm.

And there was wonder, too: he learned to see the wind by watching patches of ruffles on the water’s surface. To be on the sea at dawn, with the clouds blazing pink and gold, the sky all kinds of blue, the ocean reflecting everything above, as that ball of fire rose above the horizon, was like being inside a painting.