PREFACE
ONE: INDIVIDUALS: ENDLESS SOLOS
There is endless individual choice. But choice costs. You can either pay in cash or competence.
TWO: TECHNOLOGIES: FREED BY ROBOTS
Technology creates opportunities and opens up possibilities for longer and richer lives. Technology frees us to be ourselves - but only if we have the cash or competence. Power is transferred from those who used to control information to those who control knowledge.
THREE: INSTITUTIONS: CHANGING THE RULES
The institutions of the past are being reshaped. Fragmentation and disappearing social capital require that we all become individual institutional innovators. Power is transferred from the rule-takers to the rule-breakers and rule -makers.
FOUR: VALUES: MATERIAL GIRLS AND BOYS
Meaning is no longer given - by church or state. Materialism rules! To move beyond the meaning of lite we have to create our own communities. Power is transferred from local citizens to global tribesmen and women.
FIVE: SOCIETY: THE AGE OF ABNORMALITY
Abnormal is the new normal. The bubble economy has given way to the double economy of graft and grief, misery and opportunity, making a living and having a life.
SIX: RESOURCES: TALENT TAKES OVER
Talented individuals are mobile monopolies with global passports. They control the key to competitiveness, the scarcest resource: competence.
SEVEN: COMPETITION: CUSTOMERS IN CHARGE.
Friction-free commerce is a shopper's paradise. A profusion of markets, surplus supply, continuous commoditization plus inexpensive information = perfect competition.
EIGHT: MARKETS: CAPITALISM IS CRYING
Companies face a two-front war: held hostage by competent individuals and under siege by demandind customers. The number one characteristic of a well-functioning market economy is low average profitability. To thrive, organizations must learn to master the art of capitalizing on competencies and customer creation.
NINE: COMPANIES: KNOWLEDGE INC.
Organizations which maximize competence are organized in innovative ways to do things - everything - differently. Knowledge is everything.
TEN: PEOPLE: TALES AND TRANSFUSION
To attract talent you need a seductive story. Stars will not settle for XM (extra medium) when they can get XMe. Personalize or perish.
ELEVEN: PERSPECTIVE: DIVERSITY AND DECENTRALIZATION
In a world of abnormality, sameness sucks. Deviance is good. Recruit deviants and then set them free to create tomorrow.
TWELVE: PURPOSE: MAPS AND COMPASSES
Even deviants need to know who they are, where they are going and be given the incentive to get there.
THIRTEEN: PROCESS: THE DIALOG OF DISCOVERY
Creation is not a single voice in the darkness, but a conversation, a process of dialog and discovery.
FOURTEEN: PERSISTENCE: THE RULES OF CREATION
Beyond the quick fix lies continuous commitment to doing things differently. Experimentation requires persistence as much as imagination.
FIFTEEN: MONOPOLIES: THE HOLY GRAIL OF BUSINESS
From Picasso to Michael Jackson, temporary monopolies are karaoke heaven. Lie back and monopolize.
SIXTEEN: MODELS: RATIONAL INNOVATION
What do we want to do for the customer? What's your customer value proposition? Go forth and exploit the imperfection.
SEVENTEEN: MOODS: EMOTIONAL INNOVATION
In a world of mood swinging markets, understanding emotions may lie at the heart of economics.
EIGHTEEN: THE CHALLENGE: MANAGING MOODY MODELS
Leaders relate to others and themselves. Love them and lead them.
NINETEEN: BREAKING FREE FROM KARAOKE: MANAGEMENT FOR MANKIND
In the Viagra and Prozac world it seems we can choose or lose. But management for mankind requires that most elusive of talents: balance.
