The Company of the Future: How the Communications Revolution Is Changing Management

by Frances Cairncross

Book Overview

Cairncross, management editor at The Economist, argues that we have underestimated the power of the Internet to change the way companies behave, and predicts that the Internet will permanently alter the role of management and the structure of the organization. She asserts that managers and their co

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578516579
• ISBN13: 9781578516575
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Insightful, Thought Provoking, Great Read

As a futurist, concentrating on workforce and workplace trends, I was eager to read this book. The author is the Management Editor at The Economist magazine and resides in London. Interesting...British author published by Harvard. I discovered that the book very effectively bridges American and British concerns, and much more. It's a global look, even in the generic sense of the word, at what companies will look like in the years ahead. The metamorphosis will be evolutionary, but many of the concepts of tomorrow will be revolutionary compared to where most employers are today. The organization of this book-the chapters and the order in which they're presented, reveals the emphasis Cairncross believes will characterize companies in the future. Right out of the box, she focuses on management, information, and technology. Throughout the book, she observes that the development and increasing use of the internet will change the way we do business. The importance of knowledge, decision making, and innovation are emphasized early on, along with recognition of the vitality of customers and brands in the years ahead. The human side of enterprise is well covered, though Cairncross doesn't really engage this topic until chapter 4. Since my personal bias is that people are the most important component, I found this curious, but then noticed how she concentrated on different parts of this aspect in chapter 4 (Recruiting, Retaining, and Training), chapter 5 (Communities and Corporate Culture), chapter 8 (Corporate Structure), and chapter 9 (Leading and Managing). So, the field is well-covered in these interwoven chapters, but her book organization puts people just a step behind information, innovation, and technology. Chapters on purchasing and strategic suppliers bring out the growing importance of alliances and new relationships in the company of the future. In the beginning of the book, Cairncross suggests that readers with time constraints read chapters one and ten first to gain a perspective of her views. When more time is available, the reader can delve into the other chapters. While that strategy would be effective, there is a richness of potent observation, vivid warnings of challenges to come, and a plethora of thoughts to stimulate your thinking throughout the book. The Company of the Future is quite well-written, as you might expect from an editor of an internationally-acclaimed magazine. This is the kind of book you'll want to read first, then share with colleagues in your own organization...and in organizations where you have existing or developing alliance relationships. The book has an index, notes, and readable text-no graphs, pictures, or other tools of book designers. This one is pure, welcome, high-grade content.

The future is here

The Internet is often compared with the railways of the nineteenth century. The railway too had its initial hype where people overestimated its impact and drove its stocks to dizzy heights. Public memory is short; we have seen the repetition of this phenomenon during the last five years and this time the craze was the Internet. Railways have since survived and flourished bringing in prosperity and transforming the industrial landscape. That was in a physical world but in the new era it is the seamless flow and abundance of information that determines and controls business decisions.While working on supply chains, what strikes me most is the proverbial "Weakest link". In most cases the structure and functioning of these chains is stunted by the lack of connectivity and information sharing between the participating entities. In dealing with such distributed systems that are outdated and hierarchical, we often tend to automate existing processes by linking isolated legacy systems rather than inventing radically new processes that are made possible by the technologies of computing and communications. To give another example, even after the advent of electric power and electric motors, the shop floors were designed to install machines as close to the source of power - the legacy of steam power! Unlearning at times is more difficult than learning.Think of water as an important resource for survival. You are living in a self-contained village that has a small lake, which supplies just enough water for the current needs. Look at another village close by. It is on the banks of a perennial river that in addition to meeting the basic needs of water for drinking, washing and agriculture allows you to navigate and trade goods with far flung towns. Soon this village is bubbling with activity and becomes a major hub for trade. It then builds a port and also needs a small fleet of coast guard to police the lucrative waters. Now you have two options. Either migrate to the port town or connect your lake to the river with a canal to attract the excess traffic and have a small share of the business. But new businesses need new skills. You acquire some and hire the others. A quiet village is suddenly transformed. This analogy came to my mind while reading a chapter in this book that compares the internet with a flowing river that can be harnessed to ones advantage.The best part of the book is that each chapter is devoted to a certain topic- Knowledge Management, Supply Chain, Customer Relationships, Human Resources, Corporate structure, Corporate culture and Leadership - and the impact of the Internet on these Organizational facets. "The Company of the Future" finally emerges as a multidimensional and interconnected global entity, never in isolation on any aspect of business.

Reasonable, Plausible, and Thought-Provoking

I recently re-read Cairncross' previously published The Death of Distance before reading this brilliant book .I highly recommend both and suggest that they be read in the order in which they were written.In this volume (published earlier this year), Cairncross carefully organizes her material within ten chapters following a section in which she identifies and then briefly discusses "Ten Rules for Survival." I have a minor quibble with the title because I think all of these "Rules" for companies are directly relevant to other organizations (regardless of size of nature) throughout the world. The "Rules" themselves are obvious enough (ranging from Manage Knowledge to Develop Leadership) but the context within which Cairncross examines each is understandably complex. Moreover, with consummate skill, she suggests throughout the book how all of the "Rules" are interrelated, indeed interdependent. Many of the core concepts in this book were introduced in The Death of Distance, all of which are now developed in much greater depth. However, Cairncross shifts her focus from how the "communications revolution" is changing individual lives to how it is changing management of organizations. As she explains:"This book aims to look beyond the traumas of recession, terrorism, and war, and to chart a course further into the future....The basic message of this book is that Internet technologies will profoundly alter the structure of the company and of many business practices. But they will do so only if accompanied by capable management, with the support of empowered and intelligent employees. getting corporate structure right will be just as important for making the best use of of Internet technologies as acquiring the right software and hardware." I agree. As already indicated, Cairncross examines each of the ten "Rules," correlating and integrating combinations of them whenever appropriate. They are the recurring themes of her cohesive narrative. Then the final chapter, she acknowledges that it would indeed be curious if the company of the future "turned out to look extraordinarily like the company of the day before yesterday." At this point, who knows? Cairncross certainly does not profess to. Rather, with meticulous care, she examines the most relevant information, attempts to identify what may well prove to be major trends, and then extrapolates from them to a general description of the company of the future. It would be a disservice to her and to her reader to reveal in this review what her tentative conclusions are hypothesis is but I will say that they are plausible. Judge for yourself.Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out three books written by Peter Schwartz and his associates. The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World (1996), Scenario Planning: Managing for the Future (1998), and The Long Boom: A Vision for the Coming Age of Prosperity (2000).

An Engaging East-Paced Look at the Information Revolution

Most business books pack 10 pages of useful information into a poorly written 250-page tome. Frances Cairncross' The Company of the Future breaks this mould by providing in all 204 pages an engaging fast-paced look at how the information revolution is likely to impact all businesses and all functions going forward. Based upon numerous interviews with companies large and small, the book points out by weaving in frequent examples the pervasiveness of new technologies and continually questions not whether there will be a profound impact on this or that aspect of business but how extensive that impact will be and whether management will be enlightened enough to guide and/or take advantage of the change. She sums it up by saying that "most people overestimate the effects of change in the short term, underestimate them in the long term, and fail to spot where change will be the greatest." A thorough reading of this book is a close thing to a textbook on how to be a successful spotter.

Open your mind for using IT in Business Operation

Thanks for the author who points out all the critical points for using information technolgy in running differents kind of business. Easy to read and in very good English. Strongly recommend for people for who wants to know how internet applications can do in different kinds of company