The Invisible Continent: Four Strategic Imperatives of the New Economy - Softcover

Ohmae, Kenichi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857882946 ISBN 13: 9781857882940

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2001

Synopsis

During the past 15 years, civilization has changed at an unprecedented rate - it's as if a new continent has been discovered and the impetus for exploration has come from business. People with courage and curiosity are changing the way of life on the old continents irrevocably. The only difference is that the new continent - the new, interlinked, web-shaped economy of the 21st century - has no land. Yet its economic, political, social and business consequences are real. The new and "invisible continent" where Microsoft's business far outweighs the GNP of most nations has been commented on, but until now the links between the forces that created it have not been fully understood. This book sets out to provide solutions to successfully integrating the old and the new, and outlines strategies to settle the new continent by building "golden platforms" - standards and agreements that set its limits and structures.

About this title

Review

Kenichi Ohmae's invisible continent is a moving, unbounded world, consisting of four dimensions: There's what you can see (old economy commerce, like bricks-and-mortar retail); a borderless world in which capital moves around, chasing the best products and the highest investment returns regardless of national origin; the cyber-world, which has changed not only the way we do business but the way we interact on a personal level; and the high multiples awarded to new economy stocks, which are the basis of not only present wealth but what anyone with a retirement plan hopes will be future comfort.

By Ohmae's reckoning, the invisible continent was born in 1985. Microsoft released Windows 1.0, CNN launched, Cisco Systems began, the first Gateway 2000 computers were shipped, and companies like Sun Microsystems and Dell were in their infancies. Back then, the economic outlook was gloomy and few saw this embryonic continent forming. Now, of course, it affects virtually every business. Ohmae throws his arms around the entire continent and looks at how decisions are made on the invisible continent (the "platforms" which are created by businesses rather than governments), how money moves around the globe, how old-economy monoliths can become new economy Godzillas, and even how all of it might collapse. (Imagine that the Euro overtakes the dollar as the currency of choice; arbitrageurs "short" American currency; inflation soars; the stock market crashes.) The Invisible Continent is a bold and visionary attempt to not only explain the present, but project the future. (Bill Gates as UN secretary-general? It could happen.) The possibilities he raises--good and bad--are equally mind-blowing. More important are the practical questions that arise: Who's running this new continent? To what end? And for whom? We'll have to wait and see what the real answers are. But for now, Ohmae's speculation is nothing short of fascinating. --Lou Schuler

Review

'...he has plenty of stimulating and radical ideas about things that governments ought to be doing about education, about the gap between the rich and the poor, and about how companies may bst explore and even profit from the dangers of the new world order.' -- Financial Times, 4th September, 2000

One of the country's best business thinkers -- U.S. Journal of Business Strategy

Edition details

• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857882946
• ISBN 13: 9781857882940
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288