New Rules For the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World - Softcover

Kelly, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014028060X ISBN 13: 9780140280609

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Synopsis

Outlines ten elements of today's global, computer-linked, decentralized business world and offers executives and entrepreneurs clear and specific strategies for succeeding in it.

About this title

Review:

There's hype and then there's the Internet. The widespread emergence of the World Wide Web and the idea of a network economy have set new records for excess in overheated marketing campaigns, breathless newspaper and magazine articles and topsy-turvy financial markets. From his perch as founding editor of Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly has long been one of the new economy's chief hypesters. In New Rules for the New Economy, Kelly tries to encapsulate the characteristics of this emerging economic order by laying out 10 rules for how the wired world operates. The result is a dizzying, sometimes confusing, but always thought-provoking look at the behaviour of networks and their effect on our economic lives. At the root of this network revolution is communication. As Kelly writes:

Communication is the foundation of society, of our culture, of our humanity, of our own individual identity, and of all economic systems. This is why networks are such a big deal. Communication is so close to culture and society itself that the effects of technologising it are beyond the scale of a mere industrial-sector cycle. Communication, and its ally computers, is a special case in economic history. Not because it happens to be the fashionable leading business sector of our day, but because its cultural, technological, and conceptual impacts reverberate at the root of our lives.

Kelly's genius lies in synthesising large amounts of information in unique and interesting ways. His ability to turn a phrase is reflected in the names he gives to his 10 rules, and it makes this book a pleasure to read. Some, for example, are: "Embrace the Swarm: The Power of Decentralisation" (Rule 1); "No Harmony, All Flux: Seeking Sustainable Disequilibrium" (Rule 8); and "Let Go at the Top: After Success, Devolution" (Rule 6). A few of his ideas have a kind of Teflon quality that makes them elusive and difficult to evaluate. But that's OK. Like other prognosticators of the future--Alvin Toffler and John Naisbitt come to mind--Kelly's job is to imagine a new world. Far from hype, New Rules for the New Economy is required reading for anyone pondering business in the not-too-distant future. --Harry C. Edwards, Amazon.com

From the Back Cover:

The old rules are broken. New Rules for the New Economy is the survival kit for the new economy.

Forget supply and demand. Forget computers. Today, communication, not computation, drives change. Commerce is rushing into a world where connectivity is everything and where old business know-how means nothing. In this new order, success flows primarily from understanding networks – and networks have their own rules.

In New Rules for the New Economy, Kevin Kelly, executive editor of Wired, presents ten fundamental principles of the connected economy. The traditional wisdom of the industrial world is inverted, leading to surprising wisdom: seek plenitude, not scarcity; feed the web first; let go at the top; avoid efficiency.

New Rules for the New Economy explains why these powerful laws are hardwired into the new economy and how they play out in all kinds of business – both low and high tech – all over the world. From these vital fundamentals, Kelly prescribes many clear and specific strategies for success in the network economy. He outlines the new paths to wealth and power that flow through our newly connected world.

New Rules for the New Economy answers the perplexing questions all executives, from CEOs to middle managers, are asking themselves: why aren’t the usual business strategies working any more? Why are so many unknowns getting ahead?

New Rules for the New Economy is a hands-on, cutting-edge tool for every business person worried about the future, and especially helpful for anyone curious about where the economy is going. The moral of New Rules is clear: those who play by the rules will prosper; those who ignore them will not.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 014028060X
• ISBN 13: 9780140280609
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192