Managing in the Next Society

"To be able to exploit these changes as opportunities for the enterprise, executives will have to understand the realities of the Next Society and will have to base their policies and strategies on them. To help them do this, to help them successfully manage in the Next Society, is the purpose of this book." — Peter F. Drucker. Managing in the Next Society is a collection of Peter Drucker's most strikingly prescient articles from the past five years. Salient and incisive as ever, Drucker ranges widely over the most critical issues facing business and society today to offer advice, admonition, and instruction for proactive executives. Divided into four parts, the book offers searching analysis of the information revolution and the knowledge society it has created. It goes on to scrutinize the unprecedented demographic, economic, and sociological transformations of recent times to present an outline of "the Next Society"—which in turn points to a challenging, provocative and at times shocking view of the future. The rapid shrinkage of young people in the developed world, for instance, looks set to create a fundamental rift in the composition and scope of the mass market. With the workforce being dominated by knowledge technologists, traditional personnel policies and personnel management are quickly becoming obsolescent. So what will take their place? And how will enterprises manage a workforce which increasingly consists of people who work for the enterprise without being employees of the enterprise? While rapidly expanding in production volume, manufacturing is rapidly shrinking as a creator of wealth and jobs — to the point of becoming marginal socially but paradoxically thereby becoming all the more potent politically. And globalization means the rapid emergence worldwide of a new and dominant middle class. What does all this mean for management and businesses? Drucker's work has taken a leading place in some of the most celebrated publications in the world, including The Economist, Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. This book provides the opportunity to sample the very best of Drucker's new writing in one volume. It is absolutely essential reading for anyone who wants to know how today's transformations will affect tomorrow's economic climate. The best new writing from the world-renowned management guru — all in one volume. Find out his views on the issues that will revolutionize tomorrow's commercial environment — such as the competitive knowledge society. Take advice on how to understand, adapt to, and benefit from these transformations.