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Turning up after the downturn!
Most successful companies claim they compete on competence. Their talented people are the difference between inglorious failure and glorious success. But, the stark truth is we're all becoming increasingly ignorant. Like it or not, there's a widening gap between what we know and what you know. Look around. Academia is ever more specialized. Education is more global than ever. Wherever you look, what man knows is expanding at an incredible rate, but what a single individual knows is declining as a share of total knowledge.

On top of that, things just got even more complicated. In the global village, things are interdependent to an extent never previously witnessed. Anything seems to depend on everything. Think spiders-web. Economical, technological, physical and political linkages know no boundaries. Think swine-flu and the credit crisis. Think supply-chain management Wal-Mart style.

Unfortunately, most people respond to the extreme challenges caused by competence shortage and excess complexity by thinking me instead of we. Rather than considering the future, a majority settle for focusing on what's happening now. Too many of our organizations are therefore permeated by a destructive "menow-logic" of reduction - often reinforced by short-term oriented individual bonus schemes. This reaction isn't sustainable.

To stand a chance of truly turning up after the downturn, we must radically rethink the traditional recipes for business success. The best leaders apply a positive logic of PLUS - moving beyond the person, the present and the existing paradigm of management. Using examples from some of the most successful contemporary corporations, Dr. Ridderstråle presents four key ideas to help us make it in this new world of commerce:

• The enterprise+: In an era in which most centralized systems are doomed, the crucial issue is how to build corporations that profit from the wisdom of crowds. How can your corporation effectively mimic the principles of self-organizing systems - compete on we rather than me?
• The entrepreneurial+: When the future is too complicated to be predicted it must be created. What will it take to lead a company that operates on real-time feed-back; a corporation that is as good at innovation as the organization of the past was at exploitation? Could you lead an organization focused on tomorrow and not only today?
• The evolutionary+: As the shape of the global socio-economic landscape changes, people demand new things. Successful strategies must evolve to reflect that. Dr. Ridderstråle shows how you can identify tomorrow's business opportunities in a world where most customers feel stressed, bored, lonely and anonymous.
• The emotional+: The final idea focuses on the critical importance of engaging talent. Access to advanced know-how is now mandatory. Yet, not all the intellectual capital in the world will provide you with a sustainable competitive advantage. The next challenge is to utilize the full potential of the emotional capital of the firm. Dr. Ridderstråle outlines how to create such a re-energized corporation by boosting both the will and thrill of its people - complementing competence with confidence and courage to ensure execution.

FUNKY BUSINESS: Talent makes capital dance - Jonas Ridderstrale launches a manifesto for the new world of business. Forget what has come before; this is the future for organizations and leaders. We are all condemned to freedom. We cannot delegate the understanding of what drives tomorrow's society to politicians and executives. The funky future is here and now it's all up to you. The new world is different. Forget the old world order. Forget what you knew yesterday. The revolutionary reality is that 1.3 kilograms of brain holds the key to all our futures. Competitive advantage comes from being different. Increasingly, difference comes form the way people think rather than what organizations make. Today, the only thing that makes capital dance is talent. In such times we cannot have business as usual--we need funky business. Technology, institutions and values are being subverted and overturned. They are the triad, the inter--linked drivers of change, transforming each other and creating a global village of turbulance, tribes and fusion. We are deregulating life for ourselves and our children. Whether you like it or not, we are all condemned to freedom-- the freedom to choose.

KARAOKE CAPITALISM: Jonas Ridderstrale launches a new manifesto for how to make it in the world of Karaoke Capitalism. The karaoke economy is dominated by individuals with endless choice. The trouble for business is that the karaoke club is also home to institutionalized. Copy-cats abound. Only imagination and innovation place societies, organizations and individuals center-stage. Karaoke Capitalism is a call to arms. With his unorthodox combination of academic rigor, forceful logic and funky free-thinking he re-writes the rules for revolutionaries. This is a true work-out for the wits. He teaches us how to successfully compete on competencies, create capitalism with character, and how to have a great life while also making a living.

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