When this book was first published in German, it topped Switzerland’s non-fiction bestseller list. Now available in English, In the Sign of the Butterfly asks why natural selection eliminated the gigantic dinosaur from the game of evolution some 65 million years ago, yet the delicate butterfly, which already existed at the time, continues to survive. Gottlieb Guntern’s conclusion: the dinosaur based its survival strategy on a maximization of body weight and size, while the butterfly responded flexibly when faced with drastic changes in environmental conditions. This takes the author to the core issue of the book: the basic leadership failures that typify present-day society. His diagnosis rings ever truer in the course of recent events: leadership failures are symptoms of a deep-seated illness — a spiritual crisis. Our greedy society has forgotten how to adapt as it attempts to survive in the sign of the dinosaur. Guntern shows us how to learn from the butterfly and succeed in abandoning the dino-strategy of maximizing single variables. There is no question that wanting to be bigger, faster, richer, more ruthless, and more powerful, with no thought of the consequences, is mindless and dangerous — a perfect prescription for doom.
