Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance

Move it. Move it fast. Move it faster. Move it now.These are the words, which summarize all the 245 pages of the book and energize them. Although casual in style and easy-to-understand in language, Funky Business is yet a profound and philosophical survey of the recent shift of basic values in social and business structures of the global society. Those, who understand the spirit and emotions of Mission Impossible II or Swordfish - Password Accepted, will definitely appreciate both the style and the message. For the `businessmen', who love ACID Jazz the message of the book is also easy to catch. The other guys may miss it out.True, none of the business concepts, exposed in the book is new to the business community. But the authors created the brand new vision of the modern business through hy-phe-nation (as they describe the phenomenon themselves) of the latest ideas. Only such a weird combination of ideas helped them to produce the most beautiful (and harmonious?) description of a competitive advantage I ever learnt: "Competitive advantages weigh no more than the dreams of a butterfly". I understood the vitality of this phrase when I heard one of businessman in Russia (not oil, timber or caviar tycoon) telling, that he is "dedicated to the quality of idea in his business, because the highest quality of idea is the only thing impossible to be replicated immediately". And this gives him a competitive advantage. Once again: it was asserted not from the sends of California, but from the woods of Russia. What else should be said or done to prove the unambiguous victory of Forces of Funk throughout the world?But above all, this is not the book to read, to learn and to forget. This is the ACTION book. It wakes up those who haven't yet understood that Future Just Happened. And it puts more pressure on those who are already awoken in order to move faster. My judgement is that Funky Business is a must-read for everyone in business: from an intern to the CEO. We already did it in our office. Every newcomer MUST read Funky Business in a bid to speak with his peers and bosses (very few, really) in the same language.

Some say they can't put a certain book down. This one I had to - regularly - in order to recover from the impact of the statement I had just read. I'm in the Internet business and thought I understood plenty about the New Economy. But this book didn't just open my eyes, it ripped them out and tossed them high in the sky!

This is the way business books ought to be. Michael Porter take cover. These Swedes have something to say, and they do so no holds barred. The contents might not all be white hot news to everybody, but all in all the book is a great place to start if you want to get up to speed on the immediate future and present. The books main attributes are:A very refreshing approach to the world, not just business/economics, including humans as persons. Very wholistic, and I admire the way these intuitives manage to link everything together in the cobweb we name the world.The style of writing is very intriguing in the way it is unheard of so far in this genre. It is like a machine gun in its rhythm and explosiveness.The chapters on how to live and maximize your potential as a worker in the future. Very useful to anybody.I reccomend this book to anybody that wants to know what this "new economy", "network economy" or "internet economy" means.

This book is a must read for the managers and knowledge workers of the new economy! Irreverent, timeous, reflexive, contentious, and informative, Funky Business is all of that and more - it is also a great read. Oh, yes, it is really funky!But my dilemma is: how can I do justice to the book in the space of a review? I could describe the narrative thread that produces a tapestry of business (and life) in the digital age - the weaving of the chapters from "Funky Times" (life in the digital age) through to "Forces of Funk" (the factors determining the present moment - changes in technology, institutions, and values), "Funky Village" (a commentary on our postmodern and "hy-phe-ne-ted" society), "Funky Inc." (the funky business model for the new economy - the organization which is focused, innovative, leveraged, and heterarchical), "Funky U" (the my.com mentality), to "Feeling Funky" (how the imagination in the "emotional enterprise" drives competitive advantage in the digital age). Yet, if one is lost in all this funk (a sign of American cultural imperialism in the new economy?), Nordström and Ridderstråle do provide an interpretative signpost: "Funkyism equals information mania plus the power of choice" (p.36).Or, I may reflect on some of the book's highlights. My best is the opening chapter's parody on Marx, Lenin and Mao. The authors' admit, without apology, that in this "age of capitalist triumph" (p.16) the Marxist inspired view of labor was correct. The sting of the Marxism was in the fact "that the workers should own the major assets of society, the critical means of production" (p.17). And Nordström and Ridderstråle go on to argue that that is a reality now, ironically, in the hyper-capitalism of the new economy. However, their argument continues, the basis of Marx's criticism of capitalism is overturned (the worker as oppressed) - today, in the knowledge-based economy the worker herself or himself is now an asset in the form of intellectual capital, owning the means (having the "brain power") to produce economic value in society. Of course, and with reference to the philosophy of Michel Foucault, now that power resides with the knowledge experts, we all have become oppressed by ubiquitous circulations and webs of digitalized information. While the workers may control the means of production, they do not necessarily have control over the nature of the new economy, even though the authors' rightly note that "we are condemned to freedom - the freedom to choose" within that economy (p.70). Yet, the relationship between the self, knowledge, and work is neither deterministic nor nihilistic in the digital age. In a "multi-centric" world of excess, abundance, difference, diversity, MTV, chaos, and self-realization the mode of the survival of the self, and the Funky Inc., is by means of emotive response and the creative imagination, in other words - talent. Today, it is not about molding the world to oneself o

Forget any preconceived notions you may have about business books being dull and dry. Funky Business is provocative, insightful and just as important - written in a lively, unconventional style. A must" for all "non-business" types and a definite thought-provoker for those who are business types. It leaves you energized and ready to pursue more knowledge and to take some action toward achieving Funky Inc.!