Jonas Ridderstråle

Topics

In Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance, Kjell A. Nordström & Jonas Ridderstråle launch a manifesto for the new world of business. Forget what has come before; this is the future for organizations and leaders. We are all condemned to freedom. We cannot delegate the understanding of what drives tomorrow's society to politicians and executives. The funky future is here and now it's all up to you. Funky Business is essential reading for those trying to learn the language and recipes of the new economy.

Chapters
1. Funky Times
2. Forces of Funk
3. Funky Village
4. Funky Inc.
5. Funky U
6. Feeling Funky

Funky Business tells us that the new world is different. Forget the old world order. Forget what you knew yesterday. The revolutionary reality is that 1.3 kilograms of brain holds the key to all our futures. Competitive advantage comes from being different. Increasingly, difference comes form the way people think rather than what organizations make. Today, the only thing that makes capital dance is talent. In such times we cannot have business as usual--we need funky business.

Technology, institutions and values are being subverted and overturned. They are the triad, the inter--linked drivers of change, transforming each other and creating a global village of turbulance, tribes and fusion. We are deregulating life for ourselves and our children. Whether you like it or not, we are all condemned to freedom-- the freedom to choose.

KARAOKE CAPITALISM:
In the long-awaited follow-up to the international bestseller Funky Business, Jonas Ridderstråle and Kjell A Nordström launch a new manifesto for how to make it in the world of Karaoke Capitalism. The karaoke economy is dominated by individuals with endless choice. The trouble for business is that the karaoke club is also home to institutionalized. Copy-cats abound. Only imagination and innovation place societies, organizations and individuals center-stage.

Karaoke Capitalism is a call to arms. Kjell and Jonas are rebels with a cause. With their unorthodox combination of academic rigor, forceful logic and funky free-thinking they once again re-write the rules for revolutionaries. This is a true work-out for the wits. Free your mind! The book teaches us how to successfully compete on competencies, create capitalism with character, and how to have a great life while also making a living. It is required reading for all those wanting to be a first-rate version of themselves rather than a second-rate version of someone else.

"If you loved Funky Business as much as I did, you'll love Karaoke Capitalism. Weird - Most certainly. Different - Most definitely. But, if you want to re-imagine your organization and your career it's a thought-provoking place to start."
-Tom Peters

KARAOKE CAPITALISM: DARING TO BE DIFFERENT IN THE NEW WORLD OF BUSINESS (half day session)

We live, work and do business in a world of constant change and turmoil ? a surprise society. Today, as an executive you better expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, at the very same time, business schools, benchmarking and best practices have transformed a large part of the business community into a super-group of karaoke copying companies. Still, we know that imitating someone else will never ever get you to the top ? merely to the middle. Competing by copying won?t work in the hypercompetitive economy of today and tomorrow. Instead, managers must begin by developing their contextual intelligence in order to profit from the sources of all this change.

In his session, Dr. Jonas Ridderstråle claims that the current world of business is being reshaped by two key forces. No 1. After the collapse of communism and the rise and fall of dot.comunism, the only ism left, it seems, is individualism. We have deregulated life for ourselves and our children. When people - talent, customers, and investors - are increasingly free to know, go, do and be, corporations better start preparing themselves for the challenges and opportunities opened up for by 10 mega trends of freedom:

. Democratization
. Meritocratization
. Globalization
. Migration
. Customization
. Personalization
. EVEolution (Women as a force to be reckoned with)
. MANipulation (On the web and our bodies)
. Fragmentation
. Tribalization

No.2. Jonas explores the key reasons why global markets rule and reign - even more so in the future. He covers the impact of:

. IT-development
. Institutional changes across the world
. Identity creation based on consumption

Markets are mechanisms for sorting the efficient from the inefficient, so slowly but surely, the bubble economy has given way to the double economy. Here, the flourishing middle-class and mass-markets are on the list of endangered species. Also in another sense corporations will have to deal with a double economy; held hostage by talent who control the most critical resource of the brain-based economy and under siege by consumers who can use global and often over-supplied markets to their advantage. To thrive, Jonas claims, organizations must learn to master the arts of capitalizing on competence, confidence and customer creation.

To get to the future first, companies will need speed. In physics, velocity is a function of mass and energy - the lower the mass and the greater the energy the faster an object moves. There is a business translation of the equation. In recent years, most companies have been more or less obsessed with processes focused on de-massification. They downsized and rightsized, out-sourced and off-shored, until only the core competencies remained. The main ingredient of the dominant business recipe has been spelt re-engineering. Yet, at the same time, many organizations have by and large neglected the other variable of the function. In fact, as companies worked hard to become more efficient, they often suffered from energy-leakage.

Dr. Ridderstråle argues that the next challenge is therefore the one of re-energizing the corporation so that it can continuously surprise the markets with strategies, products and services that are either hyper-fit or super-sexy. The 1990s gave us a competence-based view of the firm. Today, the time has come to move on and profit from a psychology-based perspective that boosts employee engagement and the energy level of the enterprise. Remarkable results means combining skill with will. Consider work-related performance. Experience and education - the intellectual capital - still matter, but confidence, hope, optimism and resiliency - the psychological capital of people - matter even more.

Management, as we knew it during the 20th century, was defined as the art of stamping out deviance -primarily negative deviance, but if a couple of positive deviants were killed in the process that was a sacrifice that most companies were willing to make in the name of professional management. The definition still prevails. A modern management technique such as Six Sigma literally means 99,9997% no deviance. While the standardization approach ensured that the corporation was never inefficient, the negative side effect was that in the face of radical and revolutionary change the organization almost by definition became irrelevant. More old-style management will not lead to the agility necessary for being a wealth-creator in a surprise society. In fact, it seems, the cure can actually be worse than the decease. From this perspective, good management - not bad - is to blame for most major failures in corporate history.

Dr Ridderstråle points out that research even indicates that over time, less than 2.5% of the largest and most global of the companies that inhabit this planet are capable beating the market index. Unfortunately, the road from good to grave is both wider and more travelled than the one from good to great. Conclusion? As the leader of a business you can either borrow the strategy of James Dean - live fast, die young - or you must focus on Just De - de-structure, de-layer, de-routinize and destroy to build. Energy, by nature, is a force of destruction and creation.

Future success is increasingly dependent firstly on an organization's skill and will in recruiting and rewarding positive deviants. Jonas introduces the distinction between three types of deviance that characterize successful leaders and teams:

. Cognition - Mastering the envisioning process
. Emotion - Mastering the engagement process
. Action - Mastering the execution process

Secondly, the organization must create and nurture a corporate religion that keeps this diverse group of talent moving in the same direction. Dr. Ridderstråle outlines seven key dimensions of such a model for re-energizing the corporation, using examples from business and elsewhere:

. The dream
. The stories
. The rituals
. The values
. The experience
. The objects
. The structures


From Microsoft to Madonna, temporary monopolists have found the way out of the karaoke bar. But the traditional strategic recipes no longer work. In a world of economic Darwinism ruled by empowered man and efficient markets, survival is a question of boosting innovation to become increasingly fit or sexy - adapt, attract, or become extinct. Jonas uses a biological metaphor to explain why these days this is an absolute necessity and gives numerous examples of how modern corporations compete on models and moods. Fitness boils down to using market imperfections in the development of a unique business model to your advantage. Using economic theory, Jonas distinguishes between those models based on transactions, trust and talent, respectively. Masters of mood exploit the imperfections of man by seducing or sedating the consumer. Dr. Ridderstråle discusses the merits of such strategies relating them to what we know about the functioning of the human brain.

Jonas concludes by arguing that excellent companies must re-invent innovation, management and leadership. They accept no imitations - no limitations. They realize that it is always better to be a first-rate version of yourself rather than a second rate copy of someone else. Competitive advantages must be based on strengths. Kick-starting the re-energizing process boils down to thinking, feeling and behaving more like a deviant. This is business as unusual. Don't be surprised - be surprise!

After the session people should:

. Understand the drivers of change and their impact on our society and business.
. Have a firm grasp on the overall challenges facing them from an organizational, strategic and leadership point of view.
. Know what it takes to re-energize the organization and to constantly re-invent the corporate religion.
. Comprehend the challenges and opportunities associated with formulating and implementing strategies in a saturated and split society - a business world of economic Darwinism.
. Leave the room with a can-do attitude and confidence.