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Contact:
Kate Kazeniac“Leaders of all kinds of organizations can use this
astonishingly insightful conceptual toolbox
to create their desired futures while increasing effectiveness
in today’s multidimensional, multiparadoxical world.”
Gloria Feldt
President, Planned Parenthood Ň
Federation of America and Planned ParenthoodŇ Action
Fund
“Just the idea of looking at the creation of your future as
a serial experience, as it is done in THE VISIONARY’S HANDBOOK, is a breakthrough
for business planning and especially for one’s own life. A must read.”
Christopher Forbes
Vice Chairperson, Forbes, Inc.
In their groundbreaking The 500 Year Delta, Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, and Howard Means argued that the social, economic, political, and technological shifts shaking our world signal changes so fundamental that none of the assumptions held over the last five hundred years will survive intact. The familiar, logic-based “Age of Reason,” they showed, is giving way to an era of increased turbulence and uncertainty-the exciting, chaotic "Age of Possibility."
THE VISIONARY’S HANDBOOK: Nine Paradoxes that Will Shape the Future of
Your Business (HarperBusiness; February 29, 2000; $26.00) focuses on the
core reality of the Age of Possibility: "We live today inside a continuous
collision of opposites, and those collisions change us and the terms of our
business and personal lives every moment." For business leaders, the
gradual synthesis of old and new data to set a course for the future is no longer
possible.
Indeed, the visionary faces three interlocking paradoxes: (1) the closer your vision gets to a provable truth, the more you are simply describing the present; (2) the more successful you are at predicting the future, the more you disable the present; (3) the more certain you are of a future outcome, the more likely you are to be wrong. THE VISIONARY’S HANDBOOK is the first book to describe in detail the collisions that have now begun to rule our lives and to provide essential guidelines for living with one foot in the present and one foot in the future.
While it is impossible to predict the future and control outcomes, we can learn to manage daily contradictions and be prepared for whatever does come. From establishing values invulnerable to the winds of change, to flouting the "natural" rhythms of a business to gain a fresh perspective, to taking actions that support your vision of the future but don’t commit you so strongly that an emergency revision will mark you as a hypocrite, THE VISIONARY’S HANDBOOK presents a comprehensive "prep" course (it’s a real handbook, Folks) for forward-looking leaders. Most importantly, it identifies the paradoxes at the heart of today’s complex business environment and, drawing on examples from visionary companies, offers strategies for dealing with each one:
The Paradox of Value: "Intrinsic worth isn’t." With the vast expansion of marketplace choices, the consumer’s perception-relative value-is the driving force today. Stable brands like Coke and Michelin have taken advantage of this paradox to maximize price margins. FedEx and Dell Computers reacted by defying one of most basic rules of business: they both require customers do part of the work themselves. Yet, the companies have risen to the top of their industries because they satisfy their customers’ definition of value-quick delivery in the first case, a customized product in the second.
The Paradox of Size: "The bigger you are, the smaller you need to be." In a global economy made up of culturally and geographically disparate markets, big companies need to be broken down into bite-sized pieces and small organizations need to operate as though they are giants. The success of two on-line booksellers provides the perfect real-world example: "Nothing about Barnes & Noble’s site suggests that it is a very small part of a very large organization; nothing about Amazon’s site suggests it is a very, very large part of a relatively small organization."
The Paradox of Time: "To succeed in the short term, you need to think long term, yet the greater your vision…the greater the risk you will be unable to take steps necessary in the short term to achieve long-term goals." The age-old balancing act-within a company and in the marketplace-has become harder than ever. Companies invest in training, only to lose their best workers; employees work hard and loyally, only to discover promotions are limited. Arthur Andersen turns this present-future problem (the absence of partnership slots for their best young workers) into a future-present solution (the growth of the firm’s business) by training its employees with the expectation that they will be hired by clients and potential clients. Reaching the current and future marketplaces simultaneously can be as serendipitous as Corning’s invention of fiber-optics cable, an event which turned the cookware company into a major player in telecommunications, or as calculated as Honda’s imminent launch of a car that runs on both gas and electricity.
The Paradox of Competition: "Your biggest competitor is your own view of the future." Competition-us versus them-will always be a part of the business world. But the definition of "us" and "them" is in a constant state of flux: competition can come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. To compete today, businesses need to define who they want to be in the future and expand their view of the competition to embrace all other companies who are (or may be) pursing profits in the same arena. At the same time, as world-wide connectivity grows, the economic model is shifting from competition to cooperation and even collaboration with "rivals." General Electric and Rolls Royce, fierce competitors in the production of jet engines, collaborate in the development of technology and industry safety standards, a course which benefits them both.
The Paradox of Action: "You’ve go to go for what you can’t expect to get." While no one could have predicted that Yahoo! would achieve a market capitalization of $5 billion within half a decade, the company’s initial impulse to act made it possible to exploit their full potential. The Yahoo! experience can be duplicated, but only by business people who have faith in their visions of the future and in their abilities to spend capital wisely, convince others that they’ve chosen the right direction for the company, manage the political entanglements that change always brings, and can move intuitively and counterintuitively at the same time.
The Paradox of Leadership: "To lead from the front, you have to stay inside the story." In the Age of Reason, consistency (real or imagined) was the prized leadership quality. In the Age of Possibility, leaders not only indulge in wildly contradictory behavior, they are entirely comfortable with their own inconsistencies. Bill Gates and Bill Clinton, to name just two examples, demonstrate time and again their inherent aptitude for succeeding in a world of multiple realities. Dealing with the juxtaposition of opposites is essential in day-to-day management as well. From Jack Welch at GE to Duke University basketball coach Mike Kryzenicki, leaders of winning teams combine a full command of everyday facts and figures with an unwavering commitment to a future ideal. By recognizing and separating short-and long-term value, they achieve both.
The Paradox of Leisure: "Play is hard work." Company softball teams, golf games with clients, cell phones at the beach, and laptops on airplanes-in today’s world, the line between the work and non-work world is quickly disappearing. In response, many companies are building a play ethic into their corporate cultures. By encouraging pilots to be playful in their communications with passengers, Southwest Airlines makes a basically uncomfortable environment a little more pleasant; at Mattel Toys, management presents information about company affairs and policies in the form of plays from a stage in the cafeteria; at Texas Instrument, there’s a "non-stimulus" chamber for exhausted employees, and across the country, companies are creating playrooms and nap centers for those who need to restore their creative juices.
To help readers hone in on where they are today and what the future might bring them and their companies, THE VISIONARY HANDBOOK features fun, eye-opening tests and exercises. Pessimists obsessed with worst-case scenarios will discover how to lighten up and embrace new possibilities.
Optimists will find the dose of cautionary advice that can lessen the likelihood of future disasters. In the Age of Possibility, pessimists, optimists, and those in the middle are freer than ever to write their own stories. This book provides the tools they need to become what they want to be.
“I’ve seen the future and it is in the pages of this
eye-opening book. The most powerful asset in business is a strong point of view about the future.
THE VISIONARY’S HANDBOOK will help you figure out your future.”
William Taylor
Founding Editor, Fast Company
“Tired of abstract theory about chaos and acceleration and
predictions of the future? Fasten your seatbelt for this personal, rock & roll
journey into your own future. As usual, Jim and Watts don’t disappoint.”
Candice Carpenter
Chief Executive Officer, iVillage
Praise for The Visionary's Handbook : Nine paradoxes that will shape the future of your business
Watts Wacker is the founder of the consulting firm FirstMatter LLC and a futurist at one of the nation’s foremost think tanks. He lives in Westport, Connecticut.
Jim Taylor is a lecturer and consultant to cutting-edge companies. He lives in North Sioux City, South Dakota.
Howard Means is a senior editor at the Washingtonian and lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
| TITLE: | THE VISIONARY’S HANDBOOK |
| SUBTITLE: | Nine Paradoxes that Will Shape the Future of Your Business |
| AUTHORS: | Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, and Howard Means |
| PUBLICATION DATE: | February 1, 2000 |
| ISBN#: | 0-06-661987-4 |
| PRICE: | $26.00 |
We always appreciate two tear sheets of any review or mention of HarperBusiness books or its authors.
Individuals may go to the Visionary's Handbook page at Amazon.com, as well as chain bookstores and their web sites. Please call 1-800-CEO-READ for corporate/volume purchases of this book.
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