Post-Capitalist
Society, by Peter F. Drucker (a classic)
It is difficult to break out and break through into the new and better methods for conducting business. Machine Age business practices are intensely self-reinforcing and largely about controlling and optimizing repetitive behavior. The Machine Age was about repetition, but the Information Age is about doing new things. In today's markets if a company allows innovation and strategy to take a back seat to control and cost-cutting, the price can be high.Today the phenomenon called "competitive convergence," where firms start to resemble each other, is common. Many firms now endlessly copy each other's products and processes, and outsource their operations, often to the same suppliers. Therefore, the drift toward clones, mindless process, and commodity products. The consequences: Dilbert-type management, dumbed-down businesses, razor thin margins, fearful employees, and ever-shrinking companies are both unappealing and unnecessary.
A golden age of prosperity is at hand for those able to change and adapt. Here are some readings that give examples, existence proofs, and, in general, allow hope that effective change and sustained prosperity is available to those with the courage to break from the past.
John D. Trudel CMC
Post-Capitalist
Society, by Peter F. Drucker (a classic)
This is a good start for those who seek to understand the new environment of the Information Age. Short Reading.
Jumping the Curve:
Innovation and Strategic Choice in an Age of
Transition, by Nicholas Imparato and Oren
Harari.
If your present methods are not working, what can you do? You can jump the curve. Review.
How Microsoft
Competes, by Michael A. Cusumano and Richard W.
Selby
How does mighty Microsoft manage innovation? Their methods are simple and vastly different from typical Machine Age practice. Review.
The Fifth Discipline:
The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, by
Peter M. Senge.
What should be the purpose of a business organization in the
Information Age? Senge says the purpose is rapid organizational learning,
not mindless repetition, and he says it well.
Short Reading.
Creative R&D Leadership:
Insights from Japan, by James L. Bess.
How do the Japanese manage R&D? Their methods are vastly different from our own. Review.
Value Migration: How to
think several moves ahead of the
Competition, by Adrian J.
Slywotzky.
Market value is dramatically shifting from certain companies to their rivals. Why is this so, and what does it mean? Review.
High Tech with Low
Risk, by John D. Trudel, 1990.
A cult classic and a quick read. A compendium of methods for building
small, fast, high innovation, teams to deliver "the next thing" for the company.
Fore Foreword and Reviews.
One World, Ready or
Not, by William Greider. Major
new book. Reviewers say, "Best written book on the global
economy I have yet read."
Review.
(Note: For those interested in well referenced books on the new trade wars and the dark side of Japanese economic policy, I recommend Trading Places by Prestowitz and The Japanese Conspiracy by Wolf.)
The Balanced Scorecard:
Translating Strategy into Action, by Robert
S. Kaplin and David P. Norton. The issue of moving beyond Machine
Age "balance sheet metrics" is becoming a hot topic, and one that this book was early to discuss. Review. *
Review.
Emerging Patterns of
Innovation: Sources of Japan's Technological Edge, by Fumio
Kodama. Major book from one at the forefront of Japanese economic and technology
policy. A follow on and expansion to his 1991 book that won the prestigious
Sakuzo Yoshina prize and afforded Kodama much honor in Japan.
Review.
Engines of
Prosperity, by Gerardo R. Ungson and John D.
Trudel
What's different about Information Age Business? Why do the
traditional methods and templates fail? This book suggests five principals, five
"engines," for powering and empowering future prosperity. (Imperial College Press, 1998, ISBN 1-86094-092-7, US $25.)
Overview.
* Preface. *
Review.
Creating an
Environment for Successful Projects, by Robert J. Graham and
Randall L. Englund, Jossey-Bass, 1997)
How do companies develop streams of new products? Here is how Hewlett Packard did it. Review.
The Future and its
Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise and
Progress, by Virginia Postrel, The Free Press, 1998
What type of political thinking drives the patent
wars and leads to a desire to stifle technical progress? Postrel's book
has some good insights. Here is a review from the San Jose
Mercury. Review.
The Innovator's Dilemma: When
New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton
M. Christensen, Harvard Press, 1997. This is the definitive
book on disruptive innovation. Review.
Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking
the Hidden Value of Patents, by Kevin G Rivette and
David Kline, Harvard Press, 2000. This is the first
mainstream book that attempts to tie intellectual property to corporate
strategy, now that IP law has been shifted to favor incumbents. This is how
"patent flooding" got started. Review.
Leading the Revolution: by
Gary Hamel, Harvard Press, 2000. This is the first new
approach to business strategy in over a decade. Written by the person whom The
Economist termed "the world's reigning strategy thinker," it will be controversial.
I like it! Review.
World on Fire: by Amy
Chua, Doubleday 2003. A well researched and deeply
insightful examination of the unintended consequences of Globalization. Review.
Birth of Plenty: by William
J. Bernstein, McGraw-Hill 2004. A seminal work on
how wealth is created which presents a simple, historically verifiable, model that
accurately predicts which societies will
prosper. If our political leaders would read this and put the precepts into
practice (unfortunately, neither party is likely to), the U.S. economy would be better off. Review.
Free Culture: by Lawrence
Lessig, The Penguin Press 2004.
This is Lessig's third book on how the body of Constitutional law intended to
protect the new has been subverted to protect the old. This one looks broadly at
how some very old freedoms core to our culture are being lost. His last book, The
Future of Ideas, looked at what was happening. This book focuses on
consequences and implications, and discusses his own Supreme Court case and
others. Review.
Making Innovation Work: by Tony
Davila, Marc J. Epstein, and Robert Shelton (Wharton School Publishing, Upper
Saddle River, NJ; 2006) This is about the business side of innovation. It covers
how to manage innovation and make money from it. It gets down to careful
organization and hard work, not fads. Review.
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