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Title: The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, James Maxmin ISBN: 0-670-88736-6 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Inversion is Before Us
Comment: When I got the Jan/Feb edition of Across the Board I found an article by A J Vogl about The Support Economy- the new book by Shoshana Zuboff of HBS and Smart Machine fame. I read Vogl's article. He said the book was different from all other business books, contained a unique and one day seminal vision and yet challenged eveything business does today, He also said it would scare alot of people. Boy, he was spot on about everything. When I started to read the book I immediately entered that part of Alice in Wonderland's world where everything was backward, Suddenly the consumer was in the center of the universe, I owned my career, people wanted to help me rather than scew me and I had relationships that were genuine not instrumental. It all seem unreal and impossible. But reading the book I also realised that todays world would look impossible to even the most visionary and intelligent person in 1930. I realized that people once has genuine relationships, that the local doctor , lawyer and store keeper provided what Zubof and Maxim are calling deep support and that people trusted one another. It is not unrealistic it is just lost. Mass production and mangement havce destroyed these values and trust and it you and I that suffer, Vogl asked them if the book was a rant? It is not it a passionate call to action . It is a light in the darkeness, It is a vision of technology being used for support, freedom and decision making not automation and re engineering. We stand before the Inversion it is ours to embrace. It would be easy to dismiss all of this but it would be extremely foolish and short sighted. I work in a large coporation and a good dose of distributed capitalism would make us feel better, act better and make more money
Rating: 5
Summary: The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff
Comment: The overall thrust of the book admits to the success of the
managerial economy in maximizing efficiency. The human dimension
has lagged behind the maximization formulas. Many corporations
can no longer guarantee a life time employment scenario.
Therefore; it is important to develop a strong entrepreneurial
class/capability to take up the slack. The authors discuss
"distributed capitalism" to empower individuals to exploit the
new technologies . The authors discuss an important concept
which involves merging infrastructure activities to exploit
strengths in the bureaucratic systems and distribute these
advantages across a wide spectrum of users. The book makes
a point in explaining that half of what people buy today
was not available a century ago. The authors envision a solution
in home employment to empower the babyboomers well into the
future. This is an important work. It could be developed
further in some of the aforementioned areas. For instance,
there is a wide array of government assistance available to
small business owners and aspirants. This aspect could have
been developed more fully. Matthew Lesko has a number of
government self-help books on the subject of government
grants, giveaways and low cost loans for small business.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Outstanding Diagnosis
Comment: I strongly recommend The Support Economy.
I'll start with the negatives -- it took me about 100 pages to really get into it; like most business books the authors repeat themselves; the future state they outline is sketchy; and they don't even really attempt to describe how we get from here to there.
The reason I'm recommending it is that Zuboff and Maxmin absolutely nail the diagnosis of what's wrong with the interaction between producers and consumers today -- the way that individuals (at home and at work) are the shock absorbers between what enterprises know how to do and what people today need; the reason that managerial capitalism has to give way to, well, something new that they call "distributed capitalism;" the need to move beyond the relentless optimization of transactions and towards the maximization of value in the context of people's lives. And, thinking about my own situation and those of many of my peers, it just rings true. My personal trainer (who is also an event planner) is a kind of poster child for this new capitalism.
While "support" is in the title, this isn't a book about technical support -- it's about a new value proposition of people helping people, not just better-products-cheaper. That being said, it is strongly influencing my thinking about technical support in general and my consulting company's value proposition in particular.
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Title: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor ISBN: 1578518520 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power by Shoshana Zuboff ISBN: 0465032117 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
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Title: Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology by Henry William Chesbrough ISBN: 1578518377 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. ISBN: 0060523794 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Beyond Budgeting: How Managers Can Break Free from the Annual Performance Trap by Jeremy Hope, Robin Fraser ISBN: 1578518660 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 11 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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