The Shape of Things to Come: 7 Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business - Hardcover

Oliver, Richard W.

9780070482630: The Shape of Things to Come: 7 Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0070482632 ISBN 13: 9780070482630

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 1998

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Offers strategies for dealing with global changes in the business world

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From the Back Cover:

"Crucial reading for anyone whose job it is to prepare for the future."--Edward E. Crutchfield, Chairman and CEO, First Union Corporation. "His lucid presentation of the vast changes of the past and present as practice for what lies ahead is both thoughtful and persuasive. A great read!"--George Stalk, Jr., Senior Vice President, The Boston Consulting Group and co-editor of Perspectives on Strategy. "I can readily identify with the seven imperatives for winning in the new world of business. I agree with much of the shape, the future, and the force of the arguments so well articulated in this book."--Edmund B. Fitgerald, Former Chairman & CEO, Northern Telecom and the Committee for Economic Development. "A superb book! An insightful analysis of key trends shaping the new world of business. Provides an excellent framework to successfully manage companies in the 21st century."--Seban Teodoresco, Global Innovation Leader, Diversilever, a division of Unilever. "The Shape of Things to Come provides critical insights for everyone in the "Global Village."--Tatsuo Aoki, Chairman, Digital Planet Institute. "An excellent set of principles by which to manage successfully through the dramatic changes which are just in front of us."--Robert M. Neumeister, Jr., Chief Financial Officer, Sprint PCS.

From Publishers Weekly:

The twin waves of globalization and information technology present business opportunities that Oliver, a professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, maps with mixed success. A former Northern Telecom executive, Oliver decrees intriguingly that the information age is over, and we are at the dawning of what he calls the "Bio-Materials Age," where manipulating organic matter?be it agriculture output or environmental pollutants?will be where the next commercial battles are fought. To get from here to there, Oliver offers his seven imperatives, presented in the middle third of the book. The problem is that some of them?"think global/act global," "replace rules with roles"?will strike many managers as old news. And where Oliver raises engaging ideas, e.g., "make customers your marketing department," "personalize everything," his examples from companies such as Honda and Wells Fargo are fuzzy at best. Perhaps his greatest contribution here is forcing readers to anticipate how the next waves of change will transform the way they do business in the "post-information society."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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