The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What It Means for You

by Michael S. Malone

The author who outlined the opportunities of the then-emerging digital age (when the Internet was still the domain of technical experts) is back, once again making sense of a future just around the corner.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307406903
• ISBN13: 9780307406903
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Crown Business
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Future Arrived Yesterday

"In his new book entitled "The Future Arrived Yesterday", Michael S. Malone defines a new phenomenon in the corporate world which he calls the Protean Corporation. The Protean Corporation is a new form of organization that is structured to handle the stresses and strains we see emerging in our marketplace today. Stresses ranging from the retiring baby boomers being replaced by Gen Xer's, Gen Y's and millennials to the rising Asian workforce, continuous Internet connectivity, the pace of technological change, dramatic increases in new consumers the emerging nations and the rise in entrepreneurialism. These stresses and strains are unleashing an unprecedented rate of change into the marketplace, a rate of change that has never before been experienced and one that the organizations of today cannot possible handle successfully. According to Malone the Protean Corporation "must find a way to continuously and rapidly change almost everyone of their attributes - products, services, finances, physical plant, markets, customers, and both tactical and strategic goals - yet at the same time retain a core of values, customs, legends, and philosophy that will be little affected by the continuous and explosive changes taking place just beyond its edges." How does the Protean Corporation do this? By structuring itself into three distinct groups; 1. Core - the core staff are permanent staff responsible to retain the core values, customs, legends, and philosophies so that they will be little affected by the continuous and explosive changes. It is up to them to uphold the corporation's culture. 2. Inner Ring - permanent employees responsible for the operations of the business. These staff need to understand the workings of the business inside and out and must be extraordinary leaders as they will be leading day to day activities of the "Cloud" which makes up 90% of the Protean Corporation. 3. Cloud - In terms of numbers, the Cloud makes up 90% of the Protean Corporation. These are temporary staff whose employment may last anywhere from hours to days to years depending on their role and the requirements of the Protean Corporation at the time. They will be the staff that actually executes most of the day to day work under the guidance and direction of the Inner Ring. The Core employees will oversee the Inner Ring and the Cloud and ensure that the corporation's core culture is maintained. What does this have to do with your Strength Zone? Its pretty simple reallyâ¦.unless you understand your strengths and are working in your Strength Zone, you are not going to understand where you fit into the Protean Corporation and you will end up getting steam rolled by it. You need to understand how you can best apply your strengths in this new organization and whether you are best fit to live in the Core, the Inner Ring or the Cloud. No matter how the Protean Corporation structures itself to handle the increasing rate of change in today's world, unless its employe

Better than most business books

I read more fiction than business books, so I look for the business texts I do read to tell a story. This is why I am such a fan of Michael Lewis, Jim Collins and Malcolm Gladwell. Many business books seem like an essay extended far enough to comprise a 250 page book, so I usually get bored after about 50 pages. Not so with Malone's book. The book starts off ok, but for anyone working in new media, the idea of a protean organization doesn't seem too cutting-edge. We live it. But when Malone goes into his history of corporate structure/culture (going all the way back to the oldest company still in existence -- Beretta), the book really takes off. Malone's recounting of corporate organizational practices, and how these evolved as cultural, historical and technological changes influenced them, is utterly fascinating. I'd say this book is a required read for anyone trying to make sense of our ever-changing working world -- with less hierarchical org charts, companies booming and busting at alarming rates, globalization making the second and third worlds more relevant to business than ever before, contractors working side-by-side with full time employees (spread across the globe), flextime, wisdom of crowds decision making, smart devices allowing us to stay in sync with our peers 24/7/365, community-driven business innovation, etc. Another win for this book is Malone's prescient ability to anticipate readers' questions and address those. Every time I thought, "Yeah, but what about...", Malone had an answer for that very question a page or two later. Just brilliant. Malone isn't afraid to criticize the shortcomings in the protean model either, and this even-handed approach to his analysis underscores that this is a journalist who wrote this, not a cheerleader for the protean model. Nothing he says is truly earth-shattering, but its implications for the future of how companies work could be.

Great continuation from "virtual corporation"

I enjoyed reading this book ... I'd put it up there in importance with "the long tail" by Chris Anderson.

Must read: on Management in 2.0 era

The author is very articulate in scripting the character of a 2.0 organization; which he calls a "protean organization" as part of a "protean society" where time will seem to accelerate (a dynamic world), distances further shrunk (globally connected), a sense of isolation will increase (importance of individuality). At the same time; the excitement will be more. In such a society, the writer describes a protean organization to be essentially lean (with core group of people at the center - to manage and rive the company history, philosophy & mission). This lean group would take care of infrastructure, & strategic planning. The core group will be surround by a dynamic workforce (salaried/ contractual employees with benefits & flexible working arrangements)to allow the company to respond nimbly to change. Furthermore; the author takes our mind into the 2.0 era where a protean being would exist. Probably the highest capable form of human existence which would essentially be a combination of individuals strongly rooted within themselves; complete understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, skills, goals and aspirations looking for assignments NOT title/s as a way of growth in their careers. [...]

Do you want your company to become dated and a thing of the past with no hope of ever being successf

I loved this book. Maybe its organization could have been a little more refined so there were fewer chapters. But I think the topic and the content are so important regarding business today. The business world changes so quickly these days. In fact, it really has not been stable since about the time I entered the workforce back in the late 1980s. And it keeps changing quicker and quicker with every year. This book is about companies doing business in industries that are being turned upside down. Such companies are dinasours that are either going broke or just limping along waiting to go under. This book talks about the need for every company in the future to be a protean one - able to be flexible and shift its shape to conform to the demand for its services and products. The book is well written and is split into 5 sections and 14 chapters as follows: §1. The new world [1 & 2] §2. Reinventing themselves: How corporations evolve [3-5] §3. Building the protean corporation [6-10] §4. Running the protean corporation [11-13] §5. The protean society [14] 0. Intro: Catching the future, again 1. A new business model for a new world 2. The shape-shifter: The paradox of permanence & change 3. The rise of the corporation 4. Packard's way: The technology era 5. The center cannot hold: The virtual era & its fading relevance 6. The cloud, the core, & the boss 7. Denizens of the core 8. Rethinking the CEO 9. Where the real action is: The cloud 10. Bringing in talent: Competence aggregator 11. Who matters: Fateholders 12. Rings of engagement 13. Redefining success: What a protean corporation actually does 14. The world's first entrepreneurial society A. Core size We have seen traditional ways of doing business get outdated. Think of the auto industry in the US. Think of the newspaper industry in the US. Think of the book publishing industry, too. It's just a matter of time before our education system and medical providers get turned on their heads. These industries have not kept up with the times. They cling to doing things in an outdated and expensive way. Basically they are simply out-of-sync. Customers want something they aren't providing. And customers want what they have provided in a different cost-effective way. By reading this book you may be able to build a company or retool one so it won't fall prey to this problem. 5 stars!