Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World

Preface

The implications of our global real time economy affect us all. Its rise has been much discussed for the last 30 years or so, and during that time this economy evolved in ways that were often slow and subtle. Sometimes it even seemed like the real time economy was more about words than reality. Now we know otherwise. The global economy has a life of its own; it lives in real time; and we are all a part of it. Hello, brave new world.

The technical and economic infrastructure that makes this economy possible has gone from something of academic interest and speculation to something that now sets the daily tempo and working conditions of our lives. This economy is at times a pretty harsh taskmaster. We wonder if there is a way to get back some of the personal control over our careers and our lifestyles that seems to have disappeared.

Our world is driven by the convergence of a host of forces that are transforming the way we live. There is relentless economic competition, outsourcing of white-collar jobs and manufacturing jobs to lower-wage countries, rising prices for basic commodities like food and fuel, and the climate change effects resulting from the actions of all of us.

Our challenge is clear enough. It is to learn to use this economy and the information and communications technologies that enable it to operate so as to achieve and sustain a good life, one that responds to our basic needs for sustenance and also responds to our higher needs for belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. ...