Living in the Corporate Zoo: Life and Work in 2010 [Paperback]

"..its a quick read worth making space for." (Management Today, April 2002)

"..the result is a wide ranging and often stimulating read..you will enjoy and be provoked by the ride.." (Business Voice, April 2002)

"A good read ...." (People Management, 30 May 2002)

"…well laid out with a good–sized font. It also contains a useful index…" (Managing Information, March 2003)

 

"..its a quick read worth making space for." (Management Today, April 2002)

"..the result is a wide ranging and often stimulating read..you will enjoy and be provoked by the ride.." (Business Voice, April 2002)

"A good read ...." (People Management, 30 May 2002)

"…well laid out with a good–sized font. It also contains a useful index…" (Managing Information, March 2003)

"A good read ...."

"..well laid out with a good-sized font. It also contains a useful index.."

"This powerfully argued book combines excellent analysis of future trends with insights into directing and managing the forces of change."
– Jim Coulter, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation

"A thought–provoking re–examination of the modern world, its changing culture, people and lifestyles. Challenging, authoritative and immensely readable.′′
– Prof Gordon Marshall, Chief Executive, Economic and Social Research Council

"Who knows what the future holds in store? Richard Scase helps us consider some possible scenarios. A thought–provoking and enjoyable read."
– Philip Williamson, Chief Executive, Nationwide Building Society

"Scase scores again, looking ahead at what′s facing us in the future"
– Robert M. Worcester, Chairman, MORI

"Richard Scase has a gift for the trenchant comment that captures the unease of our age. In this book he draws together all the global economic, business, social and political trends that we perceive but only half–understand and weaves them into a coherent fabric."
– Susan Segal–Horn, Professor of International Strategy, Open University Business School

"Richard has captured in one slim volume, the latest thinking on ′corporatisation′ from the global to the personal which only a dedicated RSA lecture attendee could hope to acquire over many years."
– Penny Egan, Director, Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

′A compelling and provocative overview of how we do business and the business we do in the 21st century. With hallmark insights, Richard Scase offers a banquet of ideas on the new forces that are reshaping corporate life. Easy to read and hard to put down.′
– Ken Robinson, Senior Advisor to the President, J.P. Getty Trust

The products we use in our everyday lives, the tools and the skills that we employ in our jobs, are all affected by globalisation and technological change. Whether located in a remote village in sub–Saharan Africa or living in London, Paris or New York City, we can′t escape their fundamental consequences. But just as technologies are changing the way we do business, so too are the attitudes and values of people as employees, consumers and citizens. This revolution is occurring at a phenomenal rate and is having just as much impact on business as the ever present and changing Internet.

In Living in the Corporate Zoo, Richard Scase tackles a huge range of issues. From looking at corporate re–structuring and American models of management to the competitive advantage of nations, and from balancing home and work life to what the future of employment will look like, Richard Scase defines the new world of work, or ′corporate zoo′ that we are living in. Where personal success is driven by performance related reward systems. Where long working hours and the ability to swing from one organization cage to another are just part of everyday life. He looks at the broader personal and social ramifications of these challenges.

Richard Scase is perhaps one of the most authoritative and sought after thinkers and speakers on business and society in Europe today. He speaks to thousands of business and political leaders every year and is prominently featured in the media almost daily. In this sequel to the best–selling Britain in 2010, Richard once again sets out the landscape of current and future thinking which can help leaders deal ultimately with Living in the Corporate Zoo.

"This powerfully argued book combines excellent analysis of future trends with insights into directing and managing the forces of change."
– Jim Coulter, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation

"A thought–provoking re–examination of the modern world, its changing culture, people and lifestyles. Challenging, authoritative and immensely readable.′′
– Prof Gordon Marshall, Chief Executive, Economic and Social Research Council

"Who knows what the future holds in store? Richard Scase helps us consider some possible scenarios. A thought–provoking and enjoyable read."
– Philip Williamson, Chief Executive, Nationwide Building Society

"Scase scores again, looking ahead at what′s facing us in the future"
– Robert M. Worcester, Chairman, MORI

"Richard Scase has a gift for the trenchant comment that captures the unease of our age. In this book he draws together all the global economic, business, social and political trends that we perceive but only half–understand and weaves them into a coherent fabric."
– Susan Segal–Horn, Professor of International Strategy, Open University Business School

"Richard has captured in one slim volume, the latest thinking on ′corporatisation′ from the global to the personal which only a dedicated RSA lecture attendee could hope to acquire over many years."
– Penny Egan, Director, Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

′A compelling and provocative overview of how we do business and the business we do in the 21st century. With hallmark insights, Richard Scase offers a banquet of ideas on the new forces that are reshaping corporate life. Easy to read and hard to put down.′
– Ken Robinson, Senior Advisor to the President, J.P. Getty Trust

RICHARD SCASE is Europe′s leading business strategist and forecaster and was voted European Business Speaker of the Year in 2002. He is author of the highly influential Britain 2010: The Changing Business Landscape (Capstone Publishing, 2000), which has not only received wide media attention across the globe but has also contributed to UK government planning and strategy.

LIVING IN THE GLOBAL CAGE

The revolution in information and communications technologies is restructuring the global economy. These forces of change are affecting the functioning of national economies, the role of governments and the ways in which we work and live. No one is unaffected by these trends, whether they are located in remote villages in sub-Saharan Africa or in the world's great metropolitan centres. The products we use in our every day lives, the tools and the skills that we employ in our jobs are all affected by the direct and indirect processes of the technological revolution and globalisation. On a daily basis, we drive automobiles designed in Europe, manufactured in Southeast Asia by companies that are US owned. Our domestic technologies are assembled with components manufactured by subcontractors distributed over all five of continents. Their activities are coordinated on a global basis through the application of internet technologies and corporate decision-making processes.

Economic cycles are no longer confined to national economies. Regional trade blocs, the operation of currency markets and the world's stock markets have created global interdependencies between countries. Recession in the United States quickly reverberates around the rest of the world. As part of the process of global convergence, the growing dominance of (mainly American-based) multinational corporations play a key role in shaping our own personal economic circumstances. Corporate 'downsizing' decisions taken in San Francisco, Chicago or New York can instantly generate large-scale unemployment in towns and villages in countries as far ranging as Mexico, Scotland, Sweden and Thailand. These same corporate decisions have further ramifications for the survival of other small businesses through the subsequent downturn in local consumer spending.

The skills we need to succeed and survive in this corporate zoo are equally affected by these global trends. The explosion in information and communication technologies, the revolution in transportation systems and the standardisation of business practices has brought about a shift of the world's manufacturing base to South China and Southeast Asia. The skills that we use as employees in Europe and the United States are those needed for the rapidly expanding information and knowledge based industries. Alternatively, they are those required for 'servicing' the personal needs of highly qualified knowledge workers in the retail, hospitality or (still expanding) state-owned health and welfare sectors. Education systems are compelled to respond to changing skill requirements as driven by globalisation and the information and communications revolution.

Our leisure and recreation activities are equally affected. The tools and equipment that we use are likely to be manufactured in the Far East. The barbecues, the garden furniture and the flowerpots on the house decks or patios will be made in China. The stereo systems, the TVs and other home appliances in South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. But the content, the music we listen to, the TV shows and the films that we watch will be inspired, if not licensed, by mainly US companies. It is the media, which have created the global village. De-regulation and the privatisation of radio and TV services throughout the world have created business opportunities that multinational corporations have exploited. The results are global citizens, particularly young people. Each country may continue to have its own entertainment heroes but, superimposed upon these in a globalised hierarchy, are the Hollywood movie stars and the celebrities of the popular music industry. There may be cultural diversity between nations but, as far as the corporate elite is concerned, their lifestyles are homogenised around common conversation pieces that include golf, stock values, the internet and the capabilities (or not) of 3G mobile technology.

Today, around one third to one half of young people in the United States and Europe attend university. This is to acquire the skills needed to be the future high earners in the global based knowledge economy. In their gap year and during vacations, they travel abroad. They are global citizens who regard time zones and national boundaries as airline time distances. Through this means they recognise cultural differences between countries but also the forces that are bringing about their convergence. They appreciate how a global cage is incorporating and shaping diverse work and lifestyle practices around the world. For the majority, it is a process to be embraced while for others, it is to be resisted and repelled.

But, for all of us, globalisation is shaping the nature of our personal relations. Developments in the world economy over the past fifty years have generated large-scale migration between countries. The result is that, within our families we have kin, as sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandchildren, stepchildren, whose personal heritage is steeped in other cultures. A paradox of the global cage is that it has broken down national and regional parochialisms. But through its centrifugal impact, it has generated greater diversity within our own personal lifestyles. We may be global citizens using similar technologies at work. In our every day lives we may admire the same celebrities, but we are not all the same. Globalisation has created, strangely enough, greater individuality and cultural diversity. We exercise greater choices in our spending patterns, personal relations and our lifestyles. The paradox is that as we become more the same, we also become more different from each other.

Basically, convergence, globalisation and the emergence of the global village are a process of Americanisation. Products may be manufactured in Southeast Asia and there may be indigenous industrial sectors in Europe. But it is the United States as the world's largest economy and the national base for the greater majority of the world's largest corporations that is the global driver. These companies have created more wealth in the past fifty years than the whole of humankind preceding 1950. And it will continue in the future - except at a faster pace - and as the Manhattan atrocity has shown - with growing resentment………..