Listening to the Future: Why It's Everybody'sBusiness (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series) - Softcover

Rasmus, Daniel W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1119090865 ISBN 13: 9781119090861

Publisher: Wiley, 2008

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

From the Back Cover

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

From the Inside Flap

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1119090865
• ISBN 13: 9781119090861
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 255