Customer Reviews

The Fourth Wave

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What will the future hold for business? The Fourth Wave attempts to answer this question by looking far out to the horizon of knowable things. Expanding on Toffler's Third Wave, The Fourth Wave analyzes trends that will shape the nature of business in the 21st century. At the forefront of this trend analysis is the consideration of global consciousness, ecology, environmental integrity and economics. The book is written from an academic perspective, so it is not an easy read, but the authors must have sensed this shortcoming, because they use charts to effectively summarize the information presented in the chapters. We [...] recommend this book to anyone who wants a fresh perspective on the role business might play in the future, and perhaps should play today. Executives, change leaders and students will find this book useful and thought provoking.

I only read this book because it was required by a management professor. The book contains enough eco-trash logic to make you wince in pain. The authors would have you believe that business owners will succumb to the temptation of giving up their profits for the good of the community. Not only do the authors repeatedly promote an organization called the NIEO, they use words that soften their political philosphy. They say the second wave of business ownership is "Stockholders", the third is "Worker Ownership" and the fourth "Communitarian". "Communitarian"? What is that? Sounds like you know what. They base their analyses on exactly zero facts, or at least questionable conclusions. Reading this book was torture. A better read about business and how it should and will operate is "Reframing Organizations" by Bolman and Deal. In case you haven't guessed, I'm a "Capitalitarian".