Surviving the New Economy
Author: John Amman
The dot-com boom of the late 1990s marked the coming of age of the much-heralded New Economy, an economic, technological, and social transformation that was decades in the making. A highly mobile, and in many cases highly compensated, workforce faces a multitude of new risks: Jobs are no longer secure nor insulated from global competition, employer-provided health benefits are drying up, and retirement planning is almost entirely the responsibility of employees themselves.
This timely book examines the challenges facing high-tech workers and other professionals and the relevance of these struggles for the future of the economy. Written by leading experts, Surviving the New Economy shows how people working in technology industries are addressing their concerns via both traditional collective bargaining and through innovative actions. Using case studies from the United States and abroad, the authors in this collection examine how highly skilled workers are surviving in a global economy in which the rules have changed—and how they are reshaping their workplaces in the process.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Surviving in the New Economy: Sharecroppers in the Ownership Society John Amman Tris Carpenter Gina Neff 1Myths and Realities about High-Tech Work in the New Economy-A Personal View Derek W. Schultz 15
The Lure of Risk: Surviving and Welcoming Uncertainty in the New Economy Gina Neff 33
The New Economy as History Simon Head 47
No Deal or New Deal? Knowledge Workers in the Information Economy Sean O Riain 63
The Second Adolescence of the New Economy: China's Engineers At Work Andrew Ross 79
Globalization and Labor Resistance to Restructuring in Information Technology Immanuel Ness 99
Boom and Bust: Lessons from the Information Technology Workforce Danielle van Jaarsveld 119
Economic Development and the Labor Movement in the New Economy: Lessons from Silicon Valley Chris Benner 133
The New Media Union: What New Media Professionals Can Learn From Old Media Unions John Amman 157
What Works: Organizing Freelance Professionals in the New Economy Tris Carpenter 173
Conclusion: Strategies and Structures for the New Economy John Amman TrisCarpenter Gina Neff 185
Bibliography 201
Index 212
About the Editors 216
About the Contributors 217
Read also Down Syndrome or Living with Germs
Future Wealth
Author: Stan Davis
"The Internet revolution has so altered the economic foundations of post-industrial society that entirely new ways of looking at wealth are evolving. Future Wealth discusses the impact of global electronic markets on the individual investor as well as on the corporation and provides a valuable guide to the far-ranging, sometimes daunting financial and social transformations ahead."
--Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Former Secretary of State
"Future Wealth is a masterpiece, full of breakthrough insights and bold recommendations. A must read for both individuals and companies that intend to succeed in the new economy."
--Walter V. Shipley, Chairman of the Board, Chase Manhattan Corporation
"Whether you are self-employed, an Internet entrepreneur, a manager in a large corporation, or a policy wonk, this book is essential reading if you want to master the new economy."
--Ken Lay, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Enron Corporation
"In the digital age, what you earn is far less important than what you are worth. This eye-opening, provocative book illustrates the real value of dot.self and shows how to buy and sell derivatives of mental capital. Read it and gain an appetite for risk."
--Nicholas Negroponte, Cofounder and Director, MIT Media Lab
"As individuals become more aware of their wealth, and more responsible for managing it, our society will change. Future Wealth offers a compelling vision of our financial future."
--Art Ryan, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Prudential Insurance Company of America
"Davis and Meyer, in a sound analysis, have mapped out many astounding and profound societal changes likely to result from the Internet revolution."
--Frederick W. Smith, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Federal Express
"Future Wealth offers a mind-stretching look at how an efficient, transparent Internet-connected economy could work. It helps you see how the unthinkable might actually be possible."
--Clayton M. Christensen, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School, and Author of The Innovator's Dilemma
"Future Wealth is a major, necessary book for both business strategists and public policy makers. Davis and Meyer offer a compelling vision of economic growth for all people, companies, and societies."
--Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Freres & Co.
"A terrific read. Challenges even the most sophisticated assumptions about wealth, risk, and value in a connected economy."
--Jim C. Curvey, President and COO, Fidelity
"A provocative book that stimulates readers to think about how the revolution in information technology opens up new contracting possibilities for their human and financial capital."
--Bob Kaplan, Professor, Harvard Business School, and Coauthor of The Balanced Scorecard
"Davis and Meyer have done it again. In their last bestseller, Blur, they described the connected economy from 25,000 feet. Now, in Future Wealth, they bore down to ground zero, exploring the implications of the new economy for personal investors, private citizens, individual firms, and even governments. The boldness of the thinking and the clarity of the writing put Future Wealth in a class by itself."
--Thomas Petzinger Jr., Contributor, The Wall Street Journal
"Future Wealth is a wide-ranging and provocative book that will make you think. It may well reorder your personal business strategies as you negotiate the rapids of today's global economy."
--Alex Trotman, Retired Chairman of the Board and CEO, Ford Motor Company
"Two decades of formidable restructuring, innovation, and wealth creation have left everyone puzzled about how to fit into the new scheme of things, how to avoid being left out, and how to avoid being suckered. This book is a formidable manual on how to make sense of risk and opportunities. Unlike the get-rich-quick literature, it will make you work smarter as well as harder. A must for anyone who wants to go beyond the clichés and quacks."
--Rudi Dornbusch, Ford Professor of Economics and International Management, MIT
"Financial institutions secured by intellectual capital? Mutual funds representing shares in people? Future Wealth offers an intelligent and provocative look at the implications of an emerging 'connected' economy, where risk becomes opportunity and human capital is more bankable than tangible assets. This book will change how you think about your job, your company, and doing business in the new century."
--Steven M. H. Wallman, Former SEC Commissioner, and Chairman of the Board and CEO, FOLIO[fn] Inc.
"Davis and Meyer show us that the Internet doesn't just change business--it will transform wealth, employment, and social institutions as well. Future Wealth is a compelling book, important for both private citizens and policy makers."
--The Right Honorable Brian Mulroney, Former Prime Minister of Canada
"Davis and Meyer chart the transfer of value from hard assets in property, plant, and equipment to the new drivers of wealth such as intellectual property and creative, innovative people. Future Wealth is superb."
--Peter Munk, Chairman of the Board, Barrick Gold Corporation
The Standard
Big, important ideas beg to be carefully spun out in big, important books. Future Wealth, unfortunately, is long on big ideas but short on the vision of a big book.
Picking up where their 1998 bestseller Blur left off, Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer draw an enticing financial road map for the next two decades. The premise of Future Wealth is simple: The radical economic changes brought about by Net-enabled connectivity are driving economics away from tangible assets and toward a greater reliance on intangibles like intellectual capital. The authors' vision of the future of wealth involves three basic themes: risk as opportunity, human capital as the key force in financial markets and effective safety nets as the linchpin of social order.
But after a brief primer on economics, which asserts that current B-school economic theory already belongs in a history course, this vision begins to get, well, blurry. Maybe a better metaphor for the authors' optical flaw is tunnel vision. Davis and Meyers simplistically predict that within a few years, forward-thinking parents could be taking their daughters public as effortlessly as driving them to soccer practice. They cite such examples as the team of Web engineers that tried - unsuccessfully - to auction itself off on eBay and David Bowie's personal public offering as evidence that financial markets are now ready to trade in intellectual capital.
The implications of these not-too-distant future scenarios are hardly desirable. Picture yourself having breakfast at McDonald's. You're thrilled because you bought your coffee right before the real-time price board bumped it up by a dime. Sitting with coffee and an Egg McMuffin at your table's Bloomberg terminal, you begin tracking your investments - including your own market cap, and perhaps that of your daughter, your friends and coworkers, and the latest addition to your stable: Keanu Reeves (the action movies fund). You are at one with the market, oblivious to the guy waiting behind you in line for the terminal.
Ultimately, a lack of attention to surrounding details is what unravels the silver lining from Future Wealth. If human capital is rolled into the financial markets, and individuals and groups are bought and sold like stocks and mutual funds, serious issues like insider trading, rampant speculation and daytrading addiction take on entirely new dimensions.
Is a phone call to your parents about a job offer considered insider trading if Mom and Dad are among your shareholders? Will office gossip dampen investor enthusiasm for your IPO? Will your stock tank if you're diagnosed with cancer? Will you be expected to file your medical records and diaries with the SEC?
On the book's last page, the authors address some real-world potholes in their vision: "Will daytrading replace caring? Will profit-taking replace philanthropy? Possibly." For a book built on assured predictions, this 11th-hour ambivalence begs for a reassessment of the preceding pages.
Future Wealth raises more questions than it can answer. Fortunately, as they did with Blur, the authors have created a Web site where the exchange of ideas can continue. Some healthy skepticism seems wise.
Harvard Business Review
Two consultants argue that human capital markets will become increasingly transparent and liquid, similar to the way financial markets have developed...they offer a provocoative scenario of the future of career management
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