Creating Tomorrow's Organization: Unlocking the Benefits of Future Work (Financial Times) [Hardcover]

David Birchall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 1995 | Series: Financial Times

This is a comprehensive guide to creating tomorrow's virtual corporation today.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

FOREWORD

Much of our case study material comes from The Future Work Forum at Henley—a research initiative set up within Henley Management College in 1992 bringing together senior and prominent people across the whole area of Future Work. These pioneering companies and individuals include several major banks, national institutions, suppliers of communications infrastructure and leading IT suppliers, local and central government agencies and advisers, as well as leading academics and others with a special interest in the subject area. We have conducted original research into aspects of Future Work, we have provided the research methodology for OffNet (an EU Telework project), and we have given evidence to government. We were delighted to receive recognition of our efforts:"We live in fast-changing times and informing ourselves and being brave enough to grasp the technology is perhaps the greatest barrier. In this connection, the Henley Management College is doing excellent work in bringing about something called the Future Work Forum. This is being actively supported by big players in industry and telecommunications itself, including British Telecom and Mercury."— LORD LIVERPOOL
House of Lords debate on Flexible Work, January IO, 1994

The results from our Focus Groups, Conferences, Syndicate Sessions—as well as informal discussions with people both in and around the Future Work Forum at Henley—have had a significant influence on our beliefs. They have been a key motivator and source of material for this book. We also bring to bear many years of first-hand practical personal professional and managerial experience working within, commentating on, monitoring and analyzing the development of organizations of all sizes, both private and public, and across many industries. Of course we have to say that responsibility for the views expressed here rests entirely with the authors, just in case the future does not unravel itself exactly as we foresee!David Birchall
Laurence Lyons
Henley 1995

About the Author

David Birchall and Laurence Lyons are leaders of the Future Work Forum at Henley Management College, a center of excellence for businesses concerned with the challenges of work in the future. Professor Birchall led the team that established Henley's virtual business school, which connects more than 6,000 learners and tutors worldwide. Dr. Lyons is Principal of Metacorp, a consulting network specializing in advising organizations at board level on business strategy and organizational development.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times/Prentice Hall (August 9, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273610945
• ISBN-13: 978-0273610946
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,149,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A summary of trends, August 2, 2000

By 

Jyrki J.J. Kasvi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Tomorrow's Organization: Unlocking the Benefits of Future Work (Financial Times) (Hardcover)

New organisational trends and fads are a big business. If you manage to introduce one, you can be assured of lucrative lecturing and publishing deals. You cannot avoid thinking these realities of modern consulting as you read how Birchall and Lyons try to glue together ideas like teleworking, hotdesking, networking, distributed teams, business process re-engineering, virtual and learning organisations, etc. in order to build their concept of Future Work. The problem is, there is nothing new in this book, and quotes from literature make up a considerable part of the 274 pages. What is more, there is a lot of redundancy in addition to the introductions and executive summaries of each chapter. Finally, the language used is unnecessarily tangled and tricky. A good editor should have been able to shave away dozens of pages without removing any actual content.

The concept of organisational metalanguage might have been interesting, had it been discussed in detail, but now it felt just like an addendum located at the end of the book. This way it just makes the reader confused.