The Company of the Future

In The Company of the Future, Frances Cairncross (senior editor at The Economist magazine and author of the business bestseller The Death of Distance) provides a lucid analysis of how the communications revolution – especially the Internet – is affecting, and will affect, the way companies operate and are managed. The book concentrates not on Internet companies, but on the way mainstream companies and managers are being transformed as they find ways to exploit new communications tools.

Today, almost every aspect of running a business is in flux. The reason: the evolution of the Internet, and a whole cluster of new technologies for handling and transmitting information. Cairncross examines the key elements of any corporation – organisational structure, culture, human resources, knowledge management, purchasing, supply chain, customer relationships – and how the way in which they operate and are managed will be affected by the changes taking place. She then outlines the key skills that managers must develop in order to manage successfully the company of the future.

Contents

• Preface
• Ten Rules for Survival
• Management, Information, and Technology
• Knowledge, Decision Making, and Innovation
• Customers and Brands
• Recruiting, Retaining, and Training
• Communities and Corporate Culture
• Purchasing
• Strategic Suppliers
• Corporate Structure
• Leading and Managing
• The Company of the Future
• Notes
• Index