The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What It Means for You (Hardcover)

~ Michael Malone (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Malone (coauthor of The Virtual Corporation) surveys the growing virtualization of the workplace and the dismantling of traditional organizational structures to argue that we need ways of thinking about organizations that reflect the changing reality of the people who are part of them. The solution, he asserts, is the protean corporation, distinguished by its ability to constantly restructure itself to changing circumstances and new opportunities. Praising such corporations as Google, Wikipedia and the U.S. Army, Malone contends that these early-stage shape-shifters behave like perpetual entrepreneurial startups, continuously changing their form, direction and identity. He also examines the historical, technological and entrepreneurial evolution of the corporation and envisions the structure, behavior and impact of numerous protean organizations on the American economy and culture. Insightful and visionary, this book will appeal to forward-thinking executives who aim to develop their companies in the tumultuous and ever-changing global marketplace. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Malone, a journalist specializing in technology and business, presents his ideas on how companies will adapt to an emerging world that brings together the wireless Web, intelligent cell phones, billions of new consumers from developing countries, and a dedicated entrepreneurial culture. To be “protean,” corporations (not-for-profits and government agencies) will consistently function as new business start-ups, 80 percent staffed with entrepreneurs operating far from corporate headquarters—independent, empowered to use their own judgment, taking risks in developing new markets, and less attached to their employer. The 20 percent minority will be people who seek stability, are risk-averse, and will be vital to maintaining the corporate culture and preserving the institutional memory; they will be key to long-term survival. Google and Wikipedia are early-stage protean organizations, as is the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although all may not agree with Malone, entrepreneurs will revel in the historic opportunities he sees for them; and if his ideas contribute to corporate discussions and planning, his objectives will be met. Excellent book. --Mary Whaley

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business (May 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307406903
• ISBN-13: 978-0307406903
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,007 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read: on Management in 2.0 era, May 21, 2009

By	Amul Mago "Amul Mago" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author is very articulate in scripting the character of a 2.0 organization; which he calls a "protean organization" as part of a "protean society" where time will seem to accelerate (a dynamic world), distances further shrunk (globally connected), a sense of isolation will increase (importance of individuality). At the same time; the excitement will be more.

In such a society, the writer describes a protean organization to be essentially lean (with core group of people at the center - to manage and rive the company history, philosophy & mission). This lean group would take care of infrastructure, & strategic planning.

The core group will be surround by a dynamic workforce (salaried/ contractual employees with benefits & flexible working arrangements)to allow the company to respond nimbly to change.

Furthermore; the author takes our mind into the 2.0 era where a protean being would exist. Probably the highest capable form of human existence which would essentially be a combination of individuals strongly rooted within themselves; complete understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, skills, goals and aspirations looking for assignments NOT title/s as a way of growth in their careers.

[...]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you want your company to become dated and a thing of the past with no hope of ever being successful again? If not, ..., May 21, 2009

By	Jeff Lippincott "www.Jlippin.com" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I loved this book. Maybe its organization could have been a little more refined so there were fewer chapters. But I think the topic and the content are so important regarding business today. The business world changes so quickly these days. In fact, it really has not been stable since about the time I entered the workforce back in the late 1980s. And it keeps changing quicker and quicker with every year.

This book is about companies doing business in industries that are being turned upside down. Such companies are dinasours that are either going broke or just limping along waiting to go under. This book talks about the need for every company in the future to be a protean one - able to be flexible and shift its shape to conform to the demand for its services and products. The book is well written and is split into 5 sections and 14 chapters as follows:

§1. The new world [1&2]
§2. Reinventing themselves: How corporations evolve [3-5]
§3. Building the protean corporation [6-10]
§4. Running the protean corporation [11-13]
§5. The protean society [14]

0. Intro: Catching the future, again
1. A new business model for a new world
2. The shape-shifter: The paradox of permanence & change
3. The rise of the corporation
4. Packard's way: The technology era
5. The center cannot hold: The virtual era & its fading relevance
6. The cloud, the core, & the boss
7. Denizens of the core
8. Rethinking the CEO
9. Where the real action is: The cloud
10. Bringing in talent: Competence aggregator
11. Who matters: Fateholders
12. Rings of engagement
13. Redefining success: What a protean corporation actually does
14. The world's first entrepreneurial society
A. Core size

We have seen traditional ways of doing business get outdated. Think of the auto industry in the US. Think of the newspaper industry in the US. Think of the book publishing industry, too. It's just a matter of time before our education system and medical providers get turned on their heads. These industries have not kept up with the times. They cling to doing things in an outdated and expensive way. Basically they are simply out-of-sync. Customers want something they aren't providing. And customers want what they have provided in a different cost-effective way. By reading this book you may be able to build a company or retool one so it won't fall prey to this problem. 5 stars!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Protean Corporation: "A new business model for a new world", May 28, 2009

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Once again, Charles Darwin's explanation of the importance of adaptation during a process of natural selection is directly relevant to a book written more than 150 years after The Origin of the Species, in this instance to Michael Malone's The Future Arrived Yesterday. He focuses on what he describes as the "Protean Corporation, " explaining how and why it is "a new business model for a new world." What are its dominant characteristics? Here is a composite of brief excerpts: It "will be a very dynamic place. Companies will complete the move from hierarchies and toward a model of highly interconnected craft guilds. With a workforce scattered around the planet, linked virtually, the last obstacles to inclusiveness will also fall, meaning virtual job shops, temporary help hired off the Web, more permanent part-time workers, and the hiring (in unusual new relationships) of the retired, the young, and the unlikely (illiterates, for example)...Protean Corporations will appear to be risk-takers with constant shifts and turns [when adapting to changing conditions], but they will, in fact, be risk-aversive, changing their form and direction to minimize risk. Being extremely stable at heart, Protean Corporations will also likely be more politically active (in support of their attitudes and values), an easier target for unions (if a new form of organized labor arises to meet their unique needs), and extremely innovative with regard to employee benefits, pay structures, services, and motivational tools."

When will this business model become a reality? It already has. Exemplary companies include Google, Wikipedia, Pajamas Media, Huffington Post, Approtech, and Twitter as well as several well-established corporations (e.g. HP, Intel, and IBM) that have completed or are in the process of completing major change initiatives. "The U.S. Army, after its experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, is hurriedly restructuring itself to be able to change its shape to meet any threat in the world with an appropriate combat force that adapts on the ground to an ever-shifting battlefield f reality." The new currency of organizational effectiveness consists of speed, resilience, flexibility, and adaptability.

I especially appreciate Malone's skillful use of various reader-friendly devices, such as the checklists that he inserts throughout his lively narrative. For example, he identifies and then briefly discusses his book's six premises (Pages 9-13). "If you do not agree with them, you should be highly skeptical of all that follows." He also highlights key points in bold face or poses a transition question. For example, "The role of the Core [i.e. a body of long-time, permanent employees who best understand the company] in a Protean Corporation is to establish standards of behavior in the company, preserve the company history, and nurture and grow the company's culture. Its primary operating task is to advise and consent on all cultural decisions made by the company chief executive and management. Its secondary task is to maintain and upgrade the company statement of purpose, corporate objectives, and all other documents, regulations, and standards reflecting the company's culture and philosophy. The Core reports directly to the Board of Directors and indirectly to the CEO." (Page 122) Now here's a question: "What happens when the plans of a CEO collide with the corporate culture being maintained by the Core employees? Who wins?" (Page 153). Note how effectively the statement summarizes key points and how the question then sets up Malone's response.

He accepts the inevitability of the new future he has described as well as its challenges, and offers a strategy "for businesses and other institutions to meet that future and succeed." He makes a compelling case for the Protean Corporation, "fort a new organizational model that is not so radical in its design or that requires such a complete restructuring of current models that no company or other institution could justify risking the attempt." Malone may be a visionary thinker but he is also a pragmatist whose opinions and insights are guided and informed by empirical evidence that can be verified. With all due respect to the importance to an organization of its ability to move quickly, adapt to rapidly changing marketplaces, and, perhaps most important, attract the talents of an increasingly entrepreneurial workforce, Malone concludes his brilliant book with an eminently sensible reminder: "But even as you build your Core and fill it with Core Employees, it is absolutely vital to circumscribe their powers. They are, in the end, people of the past, not the future, they represent stasis, not change. It is the rest of us who represent the future, who embody that change. And by giving those few others the task of preserving what is defining and enduring, they in turn free the rest of us to pursue out ever-changing, ever-shifting dreams. The Protean Society belongs to protean imaginations."

Sooner than "the rest of us" may realize, the future that arrived yesterday will become a distant past and those who remain must then adapt to a new future that has only recently arrived, posing new and more daunting challenges than we can possibly imagine.