"The antidote to bland writing and bland thinking" Tom Peters Funky Business tells us that difference rules, and difference comes from the way people think. In this world, we can no longer do "business as usual" - we need funky business. With its fresh thinking approach and updated with the latest business messages and new examples, Funky Business will ensure you are always on the right side of change. Only talent will allow you to be unique. Forget what has come before. The new edition of Funky Business will rewrite the future for organizations and leaders. "The gospel of new thinking is Funky Business" Industry Standard "Funky Business is rigorously researched, witty and intelligent, and overflows with provocative ideas" Business Voice
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Sell Back Your Copy for $2.15
Whether you bought it on Amazon or somewhere else, you can sell it back through our Book Trade-In Program at the current price of $2.15.
Used Price$14.50
Trade-in Price$2.15
Price after
Trade-in$12.35 |
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $2 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Oh dear. A book called Funky Business by two Swedish academics. At first glance, it has all the allure of Benny and Bjorn's (from Abba) sadly never-released concept album about life as a middle manger in a multinational conglomerate. There is something earnestly hip about the way Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle of the Stockholm School of Economics present themselves. "They do gigs not seminars. These gigs sell out. They have shaved heads and wear black," says the blurb.
But that's what makes Funky Business worth reading. It's not so much the novelty of the authors' argument, which boils down to the notion that in an oversupplied world, ideas are what separate successful companies and individuals from failures. Rather, it's the vitality of their argument and the rhythm of their language that make their ideas so compelling. "Traditional roles, jobs, skills, ways of doing things, insights, strategies, aspirations, fears, and expectations no longer count. In this environment, we cannot have business as usual. We need business as unusual. We need different business. We need innovative business. We need unpredictable business. We need surprising business. We need funky business."
The book, which is almost a virtuoso display of rhetoric and intellectual power, bursts at the seams with the force of its argument and the weight of its colorful evidence. Sources quoted range from the pope to the British band the Prodigy. Funky, Inc., they say, "isn't like any other company. It is not a dull, old conglomerate. It is not a rigid bureaucracy. It is an organization that actually thrives on the changing circumstances and unpredictability of our times."
This is great entertainment. But the slick veneer does not invalidate the way the book pulls together many existing strands of thought about how business is developing and evokes a coherent and intriguing vision of a future whose main feature will be incoherence.
This really is one for the whole family. Or at least those old enough to have a job. --Alex Benady --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Funky Business is the antidote to bland writing and bland thinking." Tom Peters "Could barely, literally put down, Funky Business."Warren Bennis "The gospel of the new thinking is Funky Business"" "- "Industry Standard" "It's the best un-businesslike business book I have ever read ...Funky Business is less of a business handbook and more of a religion. It should be treated like a chain letter - read it and pass it onto 10 other people." (or even better, tell 10 other people to buy it) ... This book should carry a government health warning: Read with care - this book will seriously blow your mind. Go on, read it, be a devil - after all, you only live once." - "Human Resources" """Funky Business is a better book than most novels but it is not for bedtime. It will jerk you out of your complacency and make you question your very existence. It will transform your brain"." - Customer Management" "This is the New Economy's Killer Book!" Some say they can't put a certain book down. This one I had to - regularly - in order to recover from the impact of the statement I had just read. I'm in the Internet business and thought I understood plenty about the New Economy. But this book didn't just open my eyes, it ripped them out and tossed them high in the sky!"Rich Preece aus Hamburg, Germany, Amazon Customer Services "Funky Business - the groovy bible of modern business philosophy" Red magazine "You know when Time magazine trumps the rebirth of design on its from cover that something's up. You know too that the world of "boring is best commerce" is taking note of change when books like Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom's Funky Business hits the best-seller lists."Viewpoint magazine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Move it.
Move it fast.
Move it faster.
Move it now.
Move it fast.
Move it faster.
Move it now.
These are the words, which summarize all the 245 pages of the book and energize them. Although casual in style and easy-to-understand in language, Funky Business is yet a profound and philosophical survey of the recent shift of basic values in social and business structures of the global society. Those, who understand the spirit and emotions of Mission Impossible II or Swordfish - Password Accepted, will definitely appreciate both the style and the message. For the `businessmen', who love ACID Jazz the message of the book is also easy to catch. The other guys may miss it out.
True, none of the business concepts, exposed in the book is new to the business community. But the authors created the brand new vision of the modern business through hy-phe-nation (as they describe the phenomenon themselves) of the latest ideas. Only such a weird combination of ideas helped them to produce the most beautiful (and harmonious?) description of a competitive advantage I ever learnt: "Competitive advantages weigh no more than the dreams of a butterfly". I understood the vitality of this phrase when I heard one of businessman in Russia (not oil, timber or caviar tycoon) telling, that he is "dedicated to the quality of idea in his business, because the highest quality of idea is the only thing impossible to be replicated immediately". And this gives him a competitive advantage. Once again: it was asserted not from the sends of California, but from the woods of Russia. What else should be said or done to prove the unambiguous victory of Forces of Funk throughout the world?
But above all, this is not the book to read, to learn and to forget. This is the ACTION book. It wakes up those who haven't yet understood that Future Just Happened. And it puts more pressure on those who are already awoken in order to move faster. My judgement is that Funky Business is a must-read for everyone in business: from an intern to the CEO. We already did it in our office. Every newcomer MUST read Funky Business in a bid to speak with his peers and bosses (very few, really) in the same language.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Some say they can't put a certain book down. This one I had to - regularly - in order to recover from the impact of the statement I had just read. I'm in the Internet business and thought I understood plenty about the New Economy. But this book didn't just open my eyes, it ripped them out and tossed them high in the sky!
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is an extended riff on a hodgepodge of topics - technology, globalization, competitive advantage, organizational structures, hierarchy, fragmentation - that is filled with sweeping generalizations (with little background evidence), sloppy use of terminology, ill-considered formulations (such as saying that Manpower, Inc. is "essentially" a big international trade union), business literature clichés, and the construction of nonsense terms that substitute for rigorous intellectual thought. The authors, two professors at the Stockholm School of Economics, argue that the entire world is now governed by the "forces of funk," a term that they never define in a coherent fashion. All companies must become "funky" or they will be driven out of business.
The "funky" corporation advocated by the authors bears some resemblance to the "visionary company" described in Built To Last (Collins and Porras 1994), notably in the necessity of firms having a core ideology, encouraging innovation and tapping the creativity of its employees. Otherwise, the model "funky" corporation is "narrow, focused on one or just a handful of core businesses" (p. 132), designed to leverage the accumulated knowledge of its workforce and partners, consistently innovative, and organized to contain "many hierarchies of different kinds" (p. 168). To create such organizations, managers must offer "meaningful leadership" that welcomes experimentation, promotes continuous learning, hires from diverse "tribes" of people, and creates value by building upon the "economies of soul."
Overall, this is an annoying and intellectually sloppy book that presents no original research and adds little to our understanding of how organizations need to adjust to the realities of the network society.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Buy the Original
Since the first Funky Business book was published their next two books: Karaoke Capitalism and Funky Business Forever has been a repeat of the same ideas and examples that was... Read more
Published on August 10, 2008 by Mikkel S. Christiansen
Business as usual ? Funk that !
This book is about the funky (business) world we are living in. All three books written by the authors are such a pleasure to read ... so informative ... unconvential ... Read more
Published on March 16, 2008 by Franco Arda
Funky Review
I found Funky Business to be a fresh look at how the business world continues to change (and how it refuses to admit to the need for change). Read more
Published on May 22, 2007 by Anthony J. Seiwert
Different Perspectives
If you want to see things -business or normal life- from different perspectives, then this is the book to choose!
Published on October 19, 2005 by Hedwig S. Weinstein
Good book, but too much hype without real essence
I have respect to all things coming out of Sweden (from music to cars). But after reading this book (as well as another Swedish made, 'Netocracy') I feel that Suedes are playing... Read more
Published on April 13, 2005 by Adria
Twisty language beguiles the easily amused
The influences are clear: rock journalism, pampleteering, dot-com uber capitalism and some basic ideas about markets. Read more
Published on April 30, 2004 by ZDDQ140770
Do not stop in thinking if funky is good or not...funky is
Until today my concept for being the best have changed 180 degrees.
Funky business bring to all managers and people in general a new way of thinking...people driven... Read more
Funky business bring to all managers and people in general a new way of thinking...people driven... Read more
Published on April 20, 2004 by Oscar
Wonderfully Idiosyncratic
Ridderstrale and Nordstrom have written a witty, but substantive treatise covering the impact of change on the global business world and institutions. Read more
Published on August 9, 2003 by Greg T. Smith
all flash no substance
After reading this book all I can say is "so what?". Yeah sure the world is changing, fast, old rules don't apply, heard that a 1000 times before, but what the authors... Read more
Published on October 24, 2002 by Randy Sabourin
one of the top 10 business books of all time
I have reread this books many times, i have done a book review on local magazine and i think this is a different kind of business book that must be read by all business... Read more
Published on May 7, 2002 by T SANTOSO
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
