The Shape of Things to Come: 7 Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business

The twin waves of globalization and information technology present business opportunities that Oliver, a professor at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, maps with mixed success. A former Northern Telecom executive, Oliver decrees intriguingly that the information age is over, and we are at the dawning of what he calls the ""Bio-Materials Age,"" where manipulating organic matter--be it agriculture output or environmental pollutants--will be where the next commercial battles are fought. To get from here to there, Oliver offers his seven imperatives, presented in the middle third of the book. The problem is that some of them--""think global/act global,"" ""replace rules with roles""--will strike many managers as old news. And where Oliver raises engaging ideas, e.g., ""make customers your marketing department,"" ""personalize everything,"" his examples from companies such as Honda and Wells Fargo are fuzzy at best. Perhaps his greatest contribution here is forcing readers to anticipate how the next waves of change will transform the way they do business in the ""post-information society."" (Oct.)