Rethinking the Future

By Rowan Gibson

Book Overview

The Updated Bestseller
This volume provides insights from business thinkers on their visions of tomorrow. Powerful new forces are reshaping the world today. Traditional boundaries between industries and disciplines are rapidly blurring, and the old rules of management no longer make sense in a post-industrial world.

This book looks at how organizations can be redesigned to survive and thrive in tomorrow's hyper-competitive global environment; how they can learn to adapt to change and improve their performance; and how they should be "managed", if at all. It examines the changing role of the leader and the powerful influence of corporate culture. It probes the universal principles and values that ultimately govern the success of any leader or organization. It also looks at strategies for creating tomorrow's competitive advantage and tomorrow's markets. It offers a glipse of the future of marketing, which will be driven by new demographics, new global markets and new technology.

Most importantly of all, the book gives readers a framework for understanding the big picture. It provides a panoramic perspective that puts all the pieces together in a coherent and easily understandable context. Tomorrow's executives will need to understand business at a far more global and synergistic level than ever before, and to feel comfortable leading people who have learned to manage themselves.

Contributors include Stephen Covey, Charles Handy, Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad, Al Ries and Jack Trout, Philip Kotler, Regis McKenna, Michael Hammer, Eli Goldratt, Peter Senge, John Kotter, Warren Bennis, John Naisbitt, Lester Thurow and Kevin Kelly.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1857881087
• ISBN13: 9781857881080
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Worth taking time off to read!!

Every once in comes a book packed with ideas, and this is definitely one of them. Although many of the authors/thinkers interviewed kept referring back to their previous works -- which had made them famous in the first place - this collection of interviews and essays is definitely worth reading. To get a big group of business hall-of-famers together in one work is an achievement in itself. Kudos to Rowan Gibson for making this happen.

Muy Bueno

Este debe ser uno de los libros más interesantes que he leido. Lo recomiendo tanto para alumnos de econonomía como para ejecutivos de areas similares. Concentra a grandes autores del area producción y economía, de los cuales destaco Goldratt. Realmente es excelente el libro.

A Review of Rethinking the Future

Rethinking the Future is a collection of interviews with experts who examine issues related to organizational change for the twenty-first century. The book contains a framework for creating the future in business, economics, and society in an environment of rapid change. The book has six sections with contributions from various writers as follows: Rethinking Principles - Charles Handy, Stephen Covey Rethinking Competition - Michael Porter, CK Prahalad, Gary Hamel Rethinking Control & Complexity - Michael Hammer, Eli Goldblatt, Peter Senge Rethinking Leadership - Warren Bennis, John Kotter Rethinking Markets - Al Ries & Jack Trout, Philip Kotler Rethinking the World - John Naisbitt, Lester Thurow, Kevin KellyThese thinkers present diverse views about key issues within their fields at the dawn of the 21st century. There are some common themes. Technology is viewed by all as the catalyst for the rapid rate of change. The widespread availability of technology has led to the democratization of information throughout the workplace. The world's leading nations in the east and the west are experiencing a shift to a knowledge-based economy requiring knowledge workers. These knowledge workers must be highly educated and possess technology skills. Another theme with strong consensus is the notion that the path to the future won't be found by implementing models and strategies that have been successful in the past.Technology has facilitated the globalization of the world economy. This trend has forced business to rethink itself in terms of competition, markets, and trade. Convergence within and between industries will continue. This is evidenced by project or product based alliances. The goal of business is the satisfaction of customer needs. The informed customer is demanding a higher level of products, services, and satisfaction.The 21st century leader has a responsibility to generate intellectual capital within the organization. The leader focuses the company on its purpose and principles. The leader's key obligation is to articulate vision and lead by example.This selection is engaging reading. Gibson provides us with a wide lens to view many pictures of the future. He showcases a group of specialists from different fields. Rethinking the Future dispels the myth that the future can be easily predicted.Melanie Tucker Pepperdine University Doctoral Student Educational Technology

Rethinking your own Future

What happens when you have several great thinkers giving their thoughts about the future, each from their own perspertive? Shake and Blend their thinkings as contained in the book, and take them as ingradients for your own Re-Thinking, What do you get? Starting from your own Current Reality (as a worker, supervisor, manager, CEO, Director, ...) what is your world view? Whatever world view, it contains two important aspects a) your understanding of Current Reality, made up of your conclusion of the Past, and b) your perception of the Future, consciously or unconsciously. As a discipline, you write down your thoughts on the above, then you read the thoughts of various thinkers (in the book) on "Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets and the World". The Thinkers are Charles Handy, Stephen Covey, Michael Porter, CK Prahalad, Gary Hamel, Michael Hammer, Eli Goldratt, Peter Senge, Warren Bennis, John Kotter, Al Ries & Jack Trout, Philip Kotler, John Naisbitt, Lester Thurow, Kevin Kelly. Rethinking the Future (of your own), helps you to understand your Current Reality better. Without the later, which is actually more challenging and mysterious than the "Future", most people continues to live in illusion, fantasy, ideals, speculation or dream, forever floating in the cloud. It is the insights that you gain on your Current Reality that propel you to take effective steps towards the perceived Future. By Andrew Wong Organisation Observer and Thinker Homepage : http://www.geocities.com/Athens/562