The Visionary's Handbook: Nine Paradoxes That Will Shape the Future of Your Business [Hardcover]

Watts Wacker (Author), Jim Taylor (Author), Howard Means (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 2, 2000

Building upon the Age of Possibility first espoused in their provocative and acclaimed The 500 Year Delta, Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor now welcome readers to the Age of Uncertainty, where, because life has never been easier, it has never been more difficult.

In this unprecedented new book, Wacker and Taylor present a vision of the present and future that goes beyond all the chaos and complexity of our times.With a clear and firm grasp of their material, they proceed to chart a method for readers to create a personal course for the future.

This navigational route is premised upon the authors' profound understanding of nine mind-boggling paradoxes that capture the imponderables of modern life, and define the business and social climates of the world as we move forward into the new millennium:

• The Paradox of the Visionary The closer your vision gets to a provable truth, the more you are simply describing the present. In the same way, the more certain you are of a future outcome, the more likely you will be wrong.

• The Paradox of Value The value of any product becomes inseparable from a buyer's perception of worth. Instead of intrinsic value, we have relative value only--the products that a business makes bear diminished relations to the physical content of the offering.

• The Paradox of Size The bigger you are, the smaller you need to be.

• The Paradox of Time To succeed in the short term, you need to think in the long term. Yet the greater your vision and the longer the time interval over which you predict results, the greater the risk that you will be unable to take the necessary steps in the short term to achieve the long-term goals. The tension between short- and long-term planning has never been more tormented.

• The Paradox of Competition Your biggest competitor is your own view of your future; competition comes from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

• The Paradox of Action You've got to go for what you can't expect to get; nothing will turn out exactly as it's supposed to. You must act intuitively and be equally ready to take resolute counter-intuitive action.

• The Paradox of Leadership To lead from the front, you have to stay inside the story. In an inherently inconsistent world, consistency is not the virtue it once was in our leaders.

• The Paradox of Leisure Play is hard work; play and work are blending and becoming indistinguishable.

• The Paradox of Reality Every person on planet Earth today has the potential to be connected to every other person, and every single one of us inhabits a world of our own and is a marketing segment of absolutely one. As our links become stronger, our individuation becomes starker.

A bold, incisive book, The Visionary's Handbook captures the interlocking web o paradoxes that abound in everyday business life, and provides an essential map to help make the future work for every individual and every company in the challenging and uncertain times ahead.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At a time when business bestsellers such as Six Sigma are touting scientific management, The Visionary's Handbook desires to be different. Authors Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, and Howard Means forgo the nuts-and-bolts approach for a philosophical look at management, examining nine broad trends, or "paradoxes," they say are shaping business today.

At the heart of these paradoxes lies change--change that is occurring at an increasing rate. The more certain we are of the future, say the authors, the more likely we are to be wrong. To support their argument, they cite both online and real-world examples, including Xerox, eBay, Kodak, and Cisco. Their observations, if not groundbreaking, are certainly accurate. For instance, the Paradox of Size--the bigger your company, the smaller it needs to appear--has been explored at length in Customers.com. Similarly, the need for continual innovation--even to the detriment of your core business--is a paradox that merits attention and one that readers of The Innovator's Dilemma will recognize.

The Visionary's Handbook is about more than just paradoxes, though. Interspersed throughout its pages are exercises challenging readers to pencil in the future they want to see, to visualize and outline their success. Some may find these exercises a valuable and practical addition to the text. Broadly conceived and thought-provoking, The Visionary's Handbook will be an eye opener for many readers. --Demian McLean

Review

"Highly original, full of insights, and lots of fun to read." -- -- Sally Helcesen, author of The Web of lnclusion and The Female Advantage

"Just the idea of looking at the creation of your future as a serial experience, as is done in The Visionary's Handbook, is a breakthrough for business planning andespecially for one's own life. A must read." -- Christopher Forbes, vice chairman, Forbes Inc.

"Leaders of all kinds of organizations can use this astonishingly insightful conceptual toolbox to create their desired futures while increasing effectiveness in today's multidimensional, multiparadoxical world." -- Gloria Feldt, president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund

"The authors combine an intellectual thrust with old-fashioned, down home logic. There is a consistent theme within this book that urges you to become part of your own story; the style ensures that you become part of their story." -- David S. Ford, chief executive, Gardner MerchantFood and Management Services

"This book will challenge your most fundamental beliefs about competition, value, time, action, and leadership. Get ready for enlightenment!" -- Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"Watts Wacker's newest book, The Visionary's Handbook, contains the thoughts of an undeniably great thinker." -- -- Edward C. Emma, president and COO, Jockey International, Inc.

The Visionary's Handbook succeeds in providing an intriguing narrative filled with insightful analysis. -- - Business 2.0

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (February 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066619874
• ISBN-13: 978-0066619873
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,495,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Visionary's Handbook July 20, 2000

By Todd Jatras

Format:Hardcover

In "The Visionary's Handbook," Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor lay out a vision of the future where change is the only constant and decision-making is shrouded by various paradoxes that often contradict each other. The stated goal of this "handbook" is to help readers identify nine paradoxes that they deem critical to understanding the future and managing business activity.

The so-called Age of Uncertainty that Wacker and Taylor describe picks up where their popular 1998 book, "The 500-Year Delta: What Happens After What Comes Next?", left off. In that book they argued that The Age of Reason was rapidly coming to a close after 500 years, and that the shift would force businesses to increasingly rely on chaos-based logic rather than traditional reasoning and economics.

In "The 500-Year Delta," Wacker and Taylor called the current business model an Age of Possibility, and established that an overabundance of possibilities was leading to a crises for decision-makers, an embarrassment of options that leaves chaos and confusion in its wake.

The nine paradoxes presented here are a guide to cutting through this clutter, providing clarity in a sea of chaos and a mechanism for managing decisions based on a well-defined vision of the future. Wacker and Taylor open with the Paradox of the Visionary, which states: "The more you are right, the more wrong you will be." The idea being that as we experience higher levels of success, we are faced with greater and more frequent "collisions with chaos." Ultimately, the authors conclude that we are no longer in control of outcomes, and the more successful we become, the more poignant that becomes.

They caution, "All we can do is attempt to influence our own future or the future of our own business, absorb the paradoxes that our personal and professional life presents us with, and be prepared for whatever tomorrow does arrive." In order to do that, they insist throughout the book, organizations and individuals must constantly ask themselves two fundamental questions: "What am I?" and "What will I be?"

While this may echo James Stockdale's--Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential running mate--befuddled debate question ("Who am I, and why am I here?"), Wacker and Taylor relentlessly pursue those questions throughout the book and meticulously apply them to each paradox. Every chapter features "future exercises," where they ask readers to define themselves, their company and products and how they visualize them in the future, according to the paradox in question.

Readers may find each chapter's command to soul-search and to put it in writing to be somewhat annoying. Who really relishes the idea of writing "the resume of the person you want to be in X number of years" or composing an exhaustive list of "all the qualities ascribed to you, and all the stories you have reason to believe are told about you by your colleagues?"

However, the paradoxes themselves are thought provoking and cleverly grounded with solid historical and anecdotal examples. The Paradox of Time, for example, illustrates the concept that at the speed of light, nothing happens: "To succeed in the short term, you need to think long term, yet the greater your vision and the longer the time interval over which you predict results, the greater the risk you will be unable to take the steps necessary in the short term to achieve long-term ends." While this almost sounds like theoretical doubletalk, they do provide concrete analogies, in this case ranging from Kodak's difficult transition into digital imaging to Apple's rollout of the new G-4 chip.

A couple of other paradoxical gems are to be found in the Paradox of Competition ("Your biggest competitor is your own view of the future") and the Paradox of Leadership ("To lead from the front, you have to stay inside the story").

In the end, Wacker and Taylor have some interesting ideas and an unusual historical approach, but don't expect their technique to be taught at Harvard's School of Business anytime soon. They themselves admit upfront, "We don't know if we are right about the future--how can we until it happens?"

(This review originally appeared on Notara.)

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought May 5, 2000

By Naomi Moneypenny

Format:Hardcover

I enjoyed the subject matter of this book though stylistically it did strike me as a little strange. If you haven't read the top 10 recent bestsellers (Innovator's Dilemna, Serious Play and books of that ilk) then this book will serve you well in getting you rapidly up to speed. Think of it as a exceutive summary of those. If you have read them, there is something to be gained in seeing all the 'paradoxes' placed side by side to consider. This would be excellent if you are in a scenario planning type exercise or want a better treatment on how you should 'model' the future. The authors attempt to engage the reader through a series of thought exercises about yourself (life, career etc) in order to give you some material to apply the paradigm shifts they detail. Though I wholeheartedly applaud them trying to use something other than the 'usual' case studies of Dell, Amazon etc etc, I don't think this 'personal' approach works. I just found it annoying but others who are looking to evaluate themselves might not. However those sections are easily skipped over and key points are succintly and well written for a quick and thought-provoking read for the business audience.

17 of 24 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Snake Oil January 3, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Thought provoking yes, but not for its marketed reasons. While reading Wacker and Taylor's work, one's train of thought turns to how could they possibly churn out another 254 pages of mindless drivel (after "The 500 Year Delta"), spun around one or two interesting blips of thought? Wacker and Taylor's underlying advice to question "What am I?" and "What will I be?" offers little more than a sophomoric therapy session - hardly visionary. ...