Listening to the Future

Listening to the Future: Why It's Everybody's Business explores the challenges and opportunities facing organizations, the transformations that will ripple through the political, economic, and social environments, and the implications for different industries in the 21st century workplace. Written by Microsoft forecasters Daniel W. Rasmus and Rob Salkowitz, this important book equips your business to get out in front of new technology innovations in the consumer world with the knowledge, practices, and tools to differentiate your business in our competitive, fast-moving global economy.

Autorentext

Daniel W. Rasmus (Sammamish, WA) is Director of Information Work Vision for the Microsoft?Office Product Marketing Group. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dan was an analyst with Forrester Research (formerly Giga) and wrote extensively about collaboration and knowledge management. Rob Salkowitz (Seattle, WA) is a writer and consultant specializing in the social implications of new technology. He has worked with leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, to help formulate market strategy and articulate business goals.

Klappentext
Praise for Listening to the Future "Turbulent times present businesses with the opportunity to rethink their value, their processes, and how they differentiate themselves in the market. Businesses need context to do this successfully. Rasmus and Salkowitz create a context for the challenges and opportunities ahead, and a lens for examination that can help businesses redefine themselves even in uncertain times. Listening to the Future provides practical advice on how to apply technology, not to solve specific problems, but to facilitate agility. Further, the authors don't just write about their thinking, they reveal the framework behind the findings, providing strong insight on the value of scenario planning in anticipating and navigating change."
—Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft® Business Division "As Arie de Geus suggested in his award-winning The Living Company, 'the only sustainable competitive advantage in times like these is the ability to learn faster than your competition.' Listening to the Future is an indispensable guide to that earning, a manual for managers faced—as all of us are—with the uncertain challenges of the future."
—Lawrence Wilkinson, Chairman, Heminge & Condell (H&C); cofounder, Global Business Network (GBN) "As we stand on the brink of a dramatic transformation in global culture and global business, we need good ways to think through the implications for ourselves and the world around us. Listening to the Future offers a panoramic view of the terrain, balancing vision with practical observations and useful strategies for organizational leaders. Rasmus and Salkowitz present a number of thought-provoking ideas that range from blended workforces to the rising complexity of business brought about by new relationships, new sources of data, and the failure of industrial age measurement."
—Ray Kurzweil, founder, Kurzweil Technologies "Dan Rasmus and Rob Salkowitz lay out how Microsoft®, the most powerful software company in the world, creates its internal crystal ball and takes advantage of accurately anticipating the future. Dan is one of those that constantly lives in the coming future and with Rob's help lays out a methodology that can help all of us do a better job of preparing for and taking advantage of the opportunities our future will bring."
—Rob Enderle, Emerging Technology Analyst "We get into scenario work as a vehicle for thinking more effectively about uncertain futures (and our decisions today); but we lack enough good role models of organizations that have adapted scenarios into their perspectives. Here's an example that can be followed in depth; the scenario leader at Microsoft® shows in depth how the practice illuminated the shift of mind among their customers and employees going forward, and how they must rethink their product line accordingly."
—Art Kleiner, Editor in Chief, strategy+business; author, The Age of Heretics

Zusammenfassung
Listening to the Future: Why It's Everybody's Business explores the challenges and opportunities facing organizations, the transformations that will ripple through the political, economic, and social environments, and the implications for different industries in the 21st century workplace. Written by Microsoft forecasters Daniel W. Rasmus and Rob Salkowitz, this important book equips your business to get out in front of new technology innovations in the consumer world with the knowledge, practices, and tools to differentiate your business in our competitive, fast-moving global economy.

Inhalt
Microsoft Executive Leadership Series: Series Foreword ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1 Listening to the Future 1

Embracing Uncertainty 3

The Shape of Things to Come 15

Technology and the Changing World 17

People Make the Future 22

Note 23

Chapter 2 Managing a Dynamic Business 25

Driving Forces 26

Strategic Technology Capabilities 32

Tenets for Success 39

Dynamic Business: Forces to Watch, Uncertainties to Consider 41

Notes 43

Chapter 3 Prospering in a Blended World 45

Driving Forces 46

Strategic Workplace Technologies 54

Blending Beyond the Workplace 63

Tenets for Success 65

Blend Trends 68

Notes 70

Chapter 4 Insights from Complexity 73

Driving Forces 75

Strategic Technologies to Drive Insights 86

Tenets for Success 92

Sources of Insight 94

Notes 95

Chapter 5 Building Strategic Advantage Through IT 97

The Challenge of Measuring Return on Knowledge 98

Why IT Matters 99

Why Applications Matter 102

Why Platforms Matter 104

Why Infrastructure Matters 108

Creating a Dialog Between Business and IT 110

Tenets for Success 111

Why IT Still Matters 114

EightWays to Achieve More Strategic IT 115

Key Infrastructure Investments for Competitive Advantage 116

Notes 117

Chapter 6 From the New World of Business to the New World of Work 119

One World of Business 120

Always On, Always Connected 127

Transparent Organizations 133

Workforce Evolution 141

Notes 150

Chapter 7 Managing Knowledge and Talent in the New World of Business 155

Managing Knowledge in One World of Business 156

Knowledge Anywhere, Anytime 157

Knowledge in the Transparent Organization 157

Managing Knowledge for a Changing Workforce 158

From Knowledge Management to Managing Talent and Knowledge 160

Complexity and Specialization 162

Simplifying the Knowledge Work Environment 164

Toward a Dynamic Knowledge Environment 165

Navigating the Dynamic Knowledge Environment 168

Embracing Organizational Learning 175

10 Starting Points for Dynamic Knowledge Enterprises 176

Notes 177

Chapter 8 The Future of Industries 179

Manufacturing 180

Retail 182

Government/Public Sector 184

Retail Banking and Insurance 185

Healthcare 187

Education 188

Professional Services 190

Chapter 9 Hearing the Future 193

Strategy and Uncertainties 195

Exposing the Dynamic Uncertainty Loop 200

Finding the Signal in the Noise 211

Looking Forward 215

Notes 216

Afterword 217

Index 221