Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets, and the World [Paperback]

Rowan Gibson (Editor), Alvin Toffler (Foreword), Heidi Toffler (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 1998

Everywhere we look today, powerful new forces are reshaping the world. Traditional boundaries between industries, disciplines, and countries are blurring, and the old rules of management no longer make sense in a post-industrial world. This book is a meeting of the minds. It provides a unique opportunity to gain insights into tomorrow from today's most highly regarded business thinkers whose cutting-edge advice has helped to guide many thousands of corporations through the changing business landscape. Now, in a series of original and inspirational contributions, they define the new paradigm that will transform business and society in the 21st Century. Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business Principles, Competition, Control, Leadership, Markets and the World looks at how organizations can be redesigned to survive and thrive in tomorrow's hypercompetitive global environment. Rethinking the Future gives readers a framework for understanding the big picture. It provides a panoramic perspective that is accessible and lies within an easily understood context. This book takes the place of an entire bookshelf on business strategy. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with business success beyond the next quarter.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Rethinking The Future is about a world of increasing uncertainty in which the very nature of work, of organizations and of economics is changing. It is about the move away from traditional hierarchies and the democratization of power, about giant nation states a nd corporations giving way to global networks. Rethinking The Future examines the changing role of t he leader and the powerful influence of corporate culture. And it probes the universal prin ciples and values that ultimately govern the success of any leader or organization. It also look s at strategies for creating tomorrow's competitive advantages and tomorrow's markets, which will be d riven by new demographics, new global structures, and new technology. Rethinking The F uture gives readers a framework, a panoramic perspective for understanding the changes taking p lace daily in the global issues as they impact on our daily lives through technological advance, t he economy, social policy, and government regulation. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Rowan Gibson is an independent business consultant who works in close cooperation with EURO RSCG - a global advertising agency network whose clients include Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Compaq, BMW, and Philips. Visit Rowan Gibson's website at www.RethinkingGroup.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (October 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857881087
• ISBN-13: 978-1857881080
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Review of Rethinking the Future, February 28, 2000

By 

Melanie Tucker (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets, and the World (Paperback)

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 Kelly

These 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

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth taking time off to read!!, November 12, 2003

By 

Mohan Babu "Globalization and Me" (Global) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets, and the World (Paperback)

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.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rethinking your own Future, September 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets, and the World (Hardcover)

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

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