"If you loved Funky Business as much as I did, you'll love Karaoke Capitalism. Weird?
Most certainly. Different? Most definitely. But, if you want to re-imagine your
organization and your career it's a thought-provoking place to start."
Tom Peters
In the long-awaited
follow-up to the best-selling Funky Business, Nordstrom & Ridderstrale take on the
challenge of individuality and choice.
Whether we like it or not,
we are citizens of a world dominated by markets. We are surrounded by market mania and
live on a planet where money is meaning. In this world where markets rule, Karaoke
Capitalism is a book about people, management for mankind, the individuals prepared to
grasp the microphone and express themselves.
Karaoke Capitalism shows
that expressing your individuality, being different, lies at the heart of the modern
enterprise and modern life. We are all individuals now. The choices are ours. The music of
chance has become the music of choice.
The riff of our times is the
gloriously eclectic sound of individualism. The riff pulls us in improbable directions -
Bollywood via the Buena Vista Social Club to Britney Spears. It is as individual as we
are. After the collapse of communism, the rise and fall of dot-communism and the sometimes
violent questioning of capitalism, the only ism left on earth is individualism.
Individualism means that
more and more people throughout the world can shape their lives. Choice rules. Those with
cash or competence have the freedom to know, go, do, and be whoever they want to be.
The world of Karaoke
Capitalism is being shaped by the glorious trio of technology, institutions and values.
This trio is creating an
abnormal society of extremes, a double economy of graft and grief, misery and opportunity.
The winners are talented individuals and customers. Friction-free commerce is a
shopper's paradise.
All this provides companies
with formidable challenges. They are held hostage by competent individuals and under siege
from demanding customers. To thrive, they must learn to master the art of capitalizing on
competencies and customer creation.
Karaoke companies look
different, feel differently and behave differently. They possess a seductive story, are
diversified and decentralized, possess purpose, persistence and passion and are engaged in
a constant process of dialog and discovery. Join the karaoke world or perish.
Praise for Funky
Business
"Funky Business is the
antidote to bland writing and bland thinking." Tom Peters
"It's the best
un-businesslike business book I have ever read ....Funky Business is less of a business
handbook and more of a religion. It should be treated like a chain letter - read it and
pass it onto 10 other people." (or even better, tell 10 other people to buy it) . -
Human Resources
"Funky Business is a
better book than most novels but it is not for bedtime. It will jerk you out of your
complacency and make you question your very existence. It will transform your brain."
- Customer Management
"Funky Business is
rigorously researched, witty and intelligent, and overflows with provocative ideas."
Business Voice
"Funky Business - the
groovy bible of modern business philosophy" - Red magazine
Features
Sequel to best-selling Funky Business Funky Business: sold 250,000 copies worldwide, in 25
languages Funky Business: sold 50,000 copies in our edition Funky Business: has been our
best-selling FTPH book Funky Business: has been the only Pearson book to make the all-time
Top 20 Business books ranking (Business Strategy Review survey of 3000 managers) Funky
Business: is the only book in that Top 20 to have been written in the last 5 years.
FUNKY BIZNES
RIDDERSTRALE J. NORDSTROM K.
FUNKY BUSINESS TALENT MAKES CAPITAL DANCE
NORDSTROM K. RIDDERSTRALE J.
Table of Contents
PREFACE
ONE: INDIVIDUALS: ENDLESS
SOLOS
There is endless individual
choice. But choice costs. You can either pay in cash or competence.
TWO: TECHNOLOGIES: FREED BY
ROBOTS
Technology creates
opportunities and opens up possibilities for longer and richer lives. Technology frees us
to be ourselves - but only if we have the cash or competence. Power is transferred from
those who used to control information to those who control knowledge.
THREE: INSTITUTIONS:
CHANGING THE RULES
The institutions of the past
are being reshaped. Fragmentation and disappearing social capital require that we all
become individual institutional innovators. Power is transferred from the rule-takers to
the rule-breakers and rule -makers.
FOUR: VALUES: MATERIAL GIRLS
AND BOYS
Meaning is no longer given
- by church or state. Materialism rules! To move beyond the meaning of lite we have to
create our own communities. Power is transferred from local citizens to global tribesmen
and women.
FIVE: SOCIETY: THE AGE OF
ABNORMALITY
Abnormal is the new normal.
The bubble economy has given way to the double economy of graft and grief, misery and
opportunity, making a living and having a life.
SIX: RESOURCES: TALENT TAKES
OVER
Talented individuals are
mobile monopolies with global passports. They control the key to competitiveness, the
scarcest resource: competence.
SEVEN: COMPETITION:
CUSTOMERS IN CHARGE
Friction-free commerce is a
shopper's paradise. A profusion of markets, surplus supply, continuous commoditization
plus inexpensive information = perfect competition.
EIGHT: MARKETS: CAPITALISM
IS CRYING
Companies face a two-front
war: held hostage by competent individuals and under siege by demandind customers. The
number one characteristic of a well-functioning market economy is low average
profitability. To thrive, organizations must learn to master the art of capitalizing on
competencies and customer creation.
NINE: COMPANIES: KNOWLEDGE
INC.
Organizations which maximize
competence are organized in innovative ways to do things - everything - differently.
Knowledge is everything.
TEN: PEOPLE: TALES AND
TRANSFUSION
To attract talent you need a
seductive story. Stars will not settle for XM (extra medium) when they can get XMe.
Personalize or perish.
ELEVEN: PERSPECTIVE:
DIVERSITY AND DECENTRALIZATION
In a world of abnormality,
sameness sucks. Deviance is good. Recruit deviants and then set them free to create
tomorrow.
TWELVE: PURPOSE: MAPS AND
COMPASSES
Even deviants need to know
who they are, where they are going and be given the incentive to get there.
THIRTEEN: PROCESS: THE
DIALOG OF DISCOVERY
Creation is not a single
voice in the darkness, but a conversation, a process of dialog and discovery.
FOURTEEN: PERSISTENCE: THE
RULES OF CREATION
Beyond the quick fix lies
continuous commitment to doing things differently. Experimentation requires persistence as
much as imagination.
FIFTEEN: MONOPOLIES: THE
HOLY GRAIL OF BUSINESS
From Picasso to Michael
Jackson, temporary monopolies are karaoke heaven. Lie back and monopolize.
SIXTEEN: MODELS: RATIONAL
INNOVATION
What do we want to do for
the customer? What's your customer value proposition? Go forth and exploit the
imperfection.
SEVENTEEN: MOODS: EMOTIONAL
INNOVATION
In a world of mood swinging
markets, understanding emotions may lie at the heart of economics.
EIGHTEEN: THE CHALLENGE:
MANAGING MOODY MODELS
Leaders relate to others and
themselves. Love them and lead them.
NINETEEN: BREAKING FREE FROM
KARAOKE: MANAGEMENT FOR MANKIND
In the Viagra and Prozac
world it seems we can choose or lose. But management for mankind requires that most
elusive of talents: balance.
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