The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Will Shape Tomorrow's World

by Lester C. Thurow (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1996

  $5.27

  Survival of the fittest capitalism stands alone and apparently trimphant. Communism has collapsed and the social welfare state is breaking down everywhere. But technology and ideology are shaking the foundations of 21st-century capitalism. Technology is making skills and knowledge the only sources of sustainable strategic advantage. Abetted by the electronic media, ideology is moving toward the consumer's instant gratification. A new capitalism must emerge, one in which the ownership of skills ( man-made brainpower ) instead of physical capital is the key strategic asset. Economic success will depend upon our willingness and ability to make long-term social investments in skills, education, knowledge and infrastructure. The intrinsic problems of capitalism (instability, rising inequality) are still waiting to be solved, but so are a new set of problems - and opportunities - that flow from capitalism's growing dependence upon human capital and man-made brainpower industries. In this era of massive economic and political change as five great tectonic plates of capitalism reshape the future, those who win will learn to play a new game with new rules requiring new strategies. Tomorrow's winners will have very different characteristics than today's winners. When technology and ideology start moving apart, the only question is when will the big one (the earthquake that rocks the system) occur? Paradoxically at a time when capitalism finds itself at the end of history with no social and political competitors, it will have to undergo a profound metamorphosis. This work analyzes the future of capitalism, and charts a course for surviving and winning in the years ahead. Lester Thurow is the author of Head to Head and The Zero-Sum Society .

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.25

  This volume posits that there is something wrong with large corporations. Large firms are losing out to smaller ones. The panaceas of the early 1990s, such as empowerment and re-engineering, are incapable of stopping the rot. The book asks, what has gone wrong with big business, and how can it be put right? The authors state that the problem is management itself, and the answer is to manage without management as a separate activity or set of jobs. Other suggestions include: large firms have become far too complicated - they are being strangled by their own managment processes; big business is not too big in terms of revenues, but it is too complex; and there are far too many products, divisions and functions, and much too many managers. The authors see the emergence of a totally different 21st-century supercorporation, with no headquarters, standardized operations throughout the world, and very simple structures. The supercorporation will be controlled by customers and information technology and a new breed of superleaders, not by managers. Richard Koch is the author of Wake Up Your Company , The FT Guide to Management and Finance , The FT Guide to Strategy , Selecting Shares that Perform and The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less .

• Used

  Hardcover
  1996

  $4.18

  Large corporations are losing out to smaller ones. The panaceas of the early 1990s, such as empowerment and re-engineering are in trouble, but no-one knows why or what to do about it. The authors argue that the root problem is management itself, and the answer is to manage without management. Large corporations are being strangled by their own management processes. Big business is not too large in terms of revenues, but is too complex and has too many products, divisions and functions - and too many managers. The good news for large corporations is that it is now possible to manage without management as a separate activity or set of jobs. Six powerful forces can be mobilized to dispose with management: customer power, information power, investor power, global market power, simplicity power and leader power. A new breed of superleaders will emerge that has more in common with Hollywood stars than today's top executives, and whose role is to become market developers and customer champions. The authors hail the emergence of a totally different type of 21st-century supercorporation that will be truly global and expand into all parts of the economy. This supercorporation - the 20 per cent corporation - will be quite unlike today's big companies, with no headquarters, standardized operations throughout the globe, and very simple structures. These corporations will be controlled by customers and information technology, and not by managers. The supercorporations will be immensely wealthy and influential, and will drive up living standards. They will make life very difficult for their competitors. Unless the transition to supercorporations is handled creatively, there could be very large increases in unemployment and social disruption in the next two decades. Managing the transition to a world without management will pose the biggest challenge of all.