Rotate: How Five Innovative Women Are Rewriting the Story of Business

By Gráinne McNamara

Why does the corporate world consider innovation a disruption? How can companies adapt to the massive changes happening in technology and culture? What if the solutions to the problems they face can already be found in the nonprofit and entrepreneurial communities?

In the face of emerging technology like AI and postpandemic cultural shifts, companies find themselves amid an existential crisis, focused on the risks instead of the rewards. But what if the answer to these so-called disruptions is Rotation?

Like the ancient wisdom that brought forth the wheel, innovative Rotation lends itself to a more frictionless path to human and economic prosperity. In ROTATE: How Five Women Are Rewriting the Story of Business, author Gráinne McNamara takes readers on a journey to discover a philosophy of transformation that is both timeless and infinite.

McNamara combines insights from thirty years in corporate finance and technology infrastructure, organic innovation from nonprofit and minority communities, and groundbreaking entrepreneurial ingenuity. McNamara uncovers the skills that can unleash human genius more holistically and inclusively than the current models. You’re invited to experience this New Renaissance through the stories of five intrepid women who embody the skills of Rotation:

Narrative—Dr. Cheryl Wood
Strategy—Katie Nowak
Human-Centered Design—Swin Huang
Engineering—Zino Haro
Building Ecosystems—Torin Darling Brazzle

ROTATE is an exploration of a generative philosophy that combines individual, communal, and corporate transformation. In the New Renaissance of the modern world, art, science, and the human spirit join together as a prismatic light illuminating the way into the future. Through the power of Rotation, McNamara proposes a bold way for individuals and companies to become generative in both thought and action.

It’s time to write the history of the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Advantage Media Group
• Release date: Mar 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9781642259414

Gráinne McNamara

Hailing from Ireland, GRÁINNE MCNAMARA now resides in Brooklyn where she works at the intersection of finance, tech and organizational transformation. An adjunct professor and sought-after speaker, she is heavily invested in nonprofits, women entrepreneurs, the arts, her doctoral studies and serving as a dedicated mother while constantly expanding her personal horizons.

Book preview

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Below you, at this very moment, the earth rotates on its axis. You do not observe this movement while you are running an errand, taking your pet on a walk, or playing with your child at the park. But the rotation is there at all times. There is no disrupting it. Regardless of our own individual paths, it carries us all together into the future.

On the surface of the earth, it’s difficult to discern this steady rotation. You have to elevate above the atmosphere to witness it. Up in space, looking down upon the surface of the globe, everything is simpler. There is no bustling traffic and noise, no boundaries dividing the landscape. It is only down below where we find such disruptions, divisions, and complexities.

My homeland of Ireland registers as a tiny dot upon the earth. Yet within this dot you’ll find a rich history of artists, philosophers, poets, and teachers. More often than not, all these qualities are intertwined within a person. While we do not have a monopoly on being a multi-faceted culture, our cultural heritage is rife with such intersectionality.

Consider Irish musician Paul David Hewson—perhaps btter known as U2 front man Bono. Is he a musician? An activist? A philosopher? Rather, all three of these identities are woven together within him.

Or the lesser-known, multifaceted Countess Markievicz. An audit of her life reveals not only a revolutionary and political activist but a feminist, a military figure, an artist, a cultural enthusiast, and a free-spirited woman who took the path less traveled. Compartmentalizing these facets of her is futile. They intersect with one another seamlessly in her work and her societal contributions. Her unique personality and multifaceted contributions are perhaps celebrated even more today, most notably because of her gender and the associated norms of her time.

Likewise, within my own family I grew up surrounded by writers, philosophers, and poets. I absorbed Irish legend, folklore, and the history of my people, reading in both Irish and English. Part of the Irish experience is the search for significance in everything around us. We are a prismatic people, the sum of our parts.

The course of my own life, however, has been marked by episodes of disruption—a term that has become synonymous with change within corporate culture. It has only been in the past few years that I have fully understood the interconnectivity of my own personal growth and its relation to my experience of the world and my