Futureorientation 6/2007
Dear Reader
Leaving the corporate world. As we know it. Many of us dream of it. Employees have been machines and resources, and now they are people. Companies have been factories, money-machines and productivity machines. In the future, they will be social and interest-based companies, because a company is human beings working together to produce something for the benefit of others than themselves.
Vibeke Wara: The mobile smoking room
We are waiting only for the new medium to finally find its place as a distinctive medium. One that isn’t a reflection of the medium we have been bound to the last 15 years, but that is a new medium offering new prospects – and that may one day change our way of thinking, working and cooperating. Meet a technofreak who has spotted the mobile phone’s potential to create corporate mobility.
Thomas Geuken and Gitte Larsen: To be in good company
“To be in good company.” That’s what it’s about in the company of the future. It is togetherness and cooperation around a purpose that will drive people, companies and the world forward. In other words, cooperations – not corporations – will be the attractive companies of the future.
Lotte Forchhammer: Organization is an art
Who doesn’t long for a work life that makes sense, that challenges us with inspiring tasks that nourish and develop our talent and skills? The concept of work and our organizations are undergoing violent transformation. Managers and employees increasingly see themselves as creative self-directed individuals, and many companies are using artists to inspire with perspectives on management and problem-solving. That can contribute to the formulation of a clear and democratic work ethic.
Gitte Larsen: Extraordinary organizations
We need organizations and managers who take a stand on the world and time we live in. That’s what Roxana Kia believes. She is a theatrical director and “chaos pilot,” and she makes her living creating presences and meaningful relationships in companies and organizations. She believes we create what we see, and that is therefore a good idea to choose what we want to see. She has chosen to see the extraordinary in people and organizations. Meet her in this interview.
Gitte Larsen: The future of The Corporate World (TCW)
What do you consider to be the best thing about The Corporate World (TCW) as it is today? What is the biggest challenge for TCW in the near future? What is your vision, your hope, for the future of your company/corporation or TCW as a whole? FO/futureorientation asked seven business thinkers these questions. Read what Andy Hines, Chetan Chandavarkar, Adam Morgan, Irene Colhag, Axel Olesen, Raj Rai and Sascha Amarasinha think about the future of TCW.
Tina Monberg and George Perry: A FAIR future
The increasing move towards ‘partnering’ between companies requires long-term relationships based on fairness. A CEO is expected to further the main interests of his company, not those of the broad industry. This bottom-line approach calculates only what the CEO has been able to secure for his company, not the costs imposed on other stakeholders. Read about how we can change our society and companies from being rights-based to being interest-based.
Patrick Damsted: Put a face on it
We have long sensed it. Neither business-to-business or business-to-consumer communication works. Companies cannot communicate. The direct communication from person to person can, on the other hand, be the company’s best investment in the future. Both the customer and the salesperson can promote their interests when they “put a face on it”
Eva Boxenbaum: The institutional entrepreneur
Companies thrive in markets if they reflect societal trends – especially if they are among the first to do so. Since the modern company must adjust its development constantly, it is important that it has contact to clever institutional entrepreneurs. Read about who they are and consider who they are in your organization – or who they will be in the future.
Anders Bjerre: Sidetracked decision cultures
What determines a good decision? It isn’t necessarily what a manager does, but how she thinks before she decides, that matters. Neither good strategy or excellent execution are the common denominator for exceptional companies and organizations. Instead, it is the ability of management and the organization to manage several contrasting ideas and hypotheses at the same time. Instead of focusing on the decision process’s result, the manager should keep alternatives possibilities and solutions open longer. Good management requires, in other words, that you are a futurist at heart.
Axel Olesen: When the future happens today
A world on speed demands long-term planning – even in the short term. Here are three good reasons to use futurology in your company.
Johan Peter Paludans’ comments: The graying company
Your columnist will have turned 63 when this issue of FO/futureorientation is published, and he is – for his troubles – member of the Danish employment minister’s senior think-tank, where he is supposed to exchange ideas about how we can persuade people to stay in the labor force longer.
Richard Watson: 50 years on
Why there’s no time like the present to worry about the future, and why pessimistic forecasts sell better.
Peter Khallash Bengtsen: The future is a new idea
The future has not always existed – it is a modern discovery. Before, the future was seen as a repetition of the past. The idea that the future could be changed by changing the present was first born in the Age of Enlightenment. First then was it possible to create development, which today is the biggest given in the Western world.
