Customer Reviews

2020 Vision

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:::2020 Vision::: Stan Davis and Bill Davidson Simon & Schuster (c) 1991 ISBN 0-671-73237-4 I just finished the book last week, and I think I want to read it again already. There are so many new ideas and concepts that it's hard for me to really remember them. Besides, this new economy that the book is about is such a different way of thinking for me that it's not just a matter of incorporating some new suggestions into the same mindset that I've always had -- 2020 Vision is really about looking at business and management in a whole new way; the mindset itself is different. When I read phrases like "the new economy," or "informationalize your business," I'm usually a more than a little skeptical. "Yeah, right," I used to think all this talk about an "information economy" was about looking up answers to questions and trying to sell each other last week's baseball scores. I no longer think so. I took the book home largely because one of the promotional blurbs on the back cover was by Tom Peters, who said "If Stan Davis' Future Perfect was the 'book of the decade' for the '80s (and I think it was), then his and Bill Davidson's 2020 Vision may well be the 'book of the '90s.' 2020 Vision is not for the faint of heart. It is a provocative masterpiece that puts almost all other 'futurist' treatises to shame." Well! How could I resist a challenge like that? Besides, I read Future Perfect back in the '80s, and it was indeed brilliant. I'd have to agree with Tom Peters about Davis and Davidson's book. Not only did I begin to understand that we really are in the midst of a new economy -- and thus a new era of mankind's social relationships, thinking and enterprise -- but even as I was reading through the chapters my mind began to be crowded with all sorts of new ideas not just for improvements in the way I'm already doing business, but whole new businesses! Now, how many books have you read lately that both stimulate the imagination and suggest immediately practical solutions for everyday problems, all at once? Practical and exciting, 2020 Vision has important lessons for virtually every business, not just those we may first think of when things "high tech" or "computerized" are mentioned. Officers of large corporations as well as one-person home-based business-people will all be doing themselves, their customers, and their businesses a tremendous favor by reading this important and entertaining book.

There are so many really good business books out there, and many to be read in various niches that fit our own industries, but none is more important today than 2020 Vision. It should be required reading for every business owner, every business leader, every MBA student, and everyone going forward in business that plans to be around in the next quarter century and longer. This book will stimulate you to do things you hadn't conceived of before in ways you could never have imagined. Business as usual will no longer work. These guys are spot-on. This train hasn't just left the station, it's left the planet. Run, don't walk, and get yourself a copy. Read it now.

This book uses a search light to enable understanding the full picture of changing economy (as we read about the world that would be in the year 2020).

The book is about: "Information management is reshaping the basic structure of American enterprise, and biotechnology will be the next industry to be affected. In this pioneering analysis, Davis and Davidson explain what these changes mean and how entrepreneurs, executives, and others responsible for implementing business decisions are preparing today for the challenge of tomorrow."

In short, "Forecasts the realities of American business for the next three decades and explains how companies can reap profit through the use of information and biotechnology "

The book adds another jargon in the field of information management: 'informationalize.'

I like the formulae:
"Informationalization= customized products + rapid response."
"Informationalization= Manufacture at point of delivery"
"Informationalization= Shrinking overhead, inventory, and working capital"
"Informationalization + Direct Access= Higher Service Standards"
"Informationalization= Interorganizational bonding"
"Informationalization + logistics= Globalization" (pp. 63-78)

To understand these, one has to read the book.

This book does a good job predicting the evolution of the information economy but it's not as much use anymore because it was published in 1991. The world has changed so much in the last 20 years that a lot of his predictions are truth or they need repackaged in order to envision the 2040 generation. He was pretty right about the information economy though! It's definitely happening. We still don't have smart toilets yet though... Guess that prediction didn't work out as well.