Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance

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Summary: a manifesto for the human economy
Review: A really stimulating book this, and the vanguard of the fresh Scanadanvian business perspective we keep reading about. I was attracted by the funky jacket, and this impulse purchase paid off. This book is all about immersing yourself in the underlying spirit of the human economy - think of it as the new manifesto for companies and individuals who can compete on being different and compete on economies of soul. What it is not is a bandwagon book about the dot com "new economy". This is about diversity, creativity and competing on personality. Like the Cluetrain Manifesto and No Logo, this won't deliver a big checklist, but it will make you think differently about business. Funky Business might even just make you feel excited about business life again. When's the last time a business book made you feel that?

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Summary: It is an appetizer!!
Review: I am no business woman...in fact, i am in an entirely different professional field...but the book just lure me into buying it once i set my eyes on it in a bookshop. I read the comment of the front and back of the book....nothing stimulating or inspirational....just the usual type of appraisal- writing a lot but telling very little. Still, I just had the impulse to have the book....i guess it is the word 'funky' that got me.....'funky' and 'business', two seemingly irrelevant words, together, they made a very nice couple....enough to urge me to read it immediately after buying once i got down in a nice cozy cafe. And there i was, kept turning the pages. Frankly, this is no book telling us how to do business in this funky world...at least not in the form of guidebook with 5 steps to success or 10 ways of managing your business....and that is not what i looked for in this book. The reason that i chose the book is because of the inner urge that keeps telling me that the world is changing, every day, every hour and even every minute, in tremendous ways that's beyond our imagination. I know i probably won't be the one making the change, at least not now, and i may not be able to keep in pace in every aspect of changes...but i have absolutely no desire to be the last one to notice the difference...to be told i am already obsolete. And this book, serves very well to let me know a bit of every new revolution that is happening in different parts of the world..and most important of all...it clicks my mind to think differently, about the world, about the people and about me, myself. I still have not generated the funky idea to work for my future...but i am working on it now...every moment since then, I have been asking myself : what can i do?! what can i sell?! So, if you ask me, I would say, this book is a starter...an appetizer for your new-self - in reasonable portion, nice to look at and easy to digest. And i am still looking for the main course. Maybe, i should make it myself.

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Summary: one of the top 10 business books of all time
Review: I have reread this books many times, i have done a book review on local magazine and i think this is a different kind of business book that must be read by all business people.

The book is very DELICIOUSLY WRITTEN, ENJOYABLE TO READ. it is almost impossible to put down if you are in the same though-principle with the writers. This is new economy book that should open the mind of people and show the direction of the future.

Note that some words are very strong and impolite, but is is damn good and enjoyable. And in europe the two people are very2 famous ala superstars (hmmm, so said my norway friends).

The books talked a lot about the FUNKY-ALL-THINGS and give a lot of advices. But the most interesting thing is how they say it, it is definielty different than the normal business book of america, hence the distinction and the unique benefit of it. A lot of the story even are not american, but you have to read it to know how powerful this is.

I wrote this on my (at least) 3rd reding of the book on my second book (the first one was borrowed and never returned, so i bought again! from amazon, sent dhl with other books to indonesia). i LOVE this book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Idiosyncratic
Review: Ridderstrale and Nordstrom have written a witty, but substantive treatise covering the impact of change on the global business world and institutions. These are highly underrated authors deserving of much more global respect and attention. It is no mistake that the authors are highly respected academics and consultants in Scandinavia. I believe their views and concepts mirror those of many of the leading edge Nordic companies who have forged ahead in the wired world. I look forward to their next work with great anticipation. I read this book in one day although it's about 250 pages, and often find myself reviewing chapters.

I highly recommmend this work along with Kilmann's Quantum Organizations and, to a lesser degree, Himanen's The Hacker Ethic. These works are the antithesis of highly academic and turgid business books.

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Summary: Twisty language beguiles the easily amused
Review: The influences are clear: rock journalism, pampleteering, dot-com uber capitalism and some basic ideas about markets. Spice up some old ideas from Tom Peters and Charles Handy with energizing language and lo and behold a bestselling book. This is an example of style well over content, language used to beguile and entrance without saying anything at all. Reading this thoroughly i cannot find a single original idea in this book. If this is cutting-edge thinking, business is in serious trouble.

Rating:
Summary: Funky Is As Funky Does
Review: 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 or an organization, but rather, by adapting to the world we take advantage of the frictionless "free" market (pp.128-130). "The spirit of capitalism is on the move" (p. 98) and the ghost of Hegel and the belief in process arise out of the sweat of "funky people work[ing] smarter" (p.86).

Or, I could note snippets that are applicable to management competencies (as well as illustrate, at the same time, the authors' tone and writing style). First, strategic thinking: "Sensational strategies capture the attention of the people with whom we want to do business. Sensational strategies appeal to all five senses of man. They embrace our emotions. Competitive strategy means being one step ahead. Sensational strategy is about playing a different game" (p.235), a customer-centric game. Second, experience modeling: "In the funky village, real competition no longer revolves around market share. We are competing for attention - mind share and heart share. If you cannot capture the attention of prospective customers or employees, you are out. To attract them, you need to provide experiences that are immediate, intense and instant" (p.83). Third, the technological effect: "The central contribution of technology to funky business is in creating information systems. The impact of information technology is omnipresent. Today, information flows freely. You can't avoid it. It's like getting sand in your swimming trunks - a little annoying and close to impossible to get rid of" (p.43). Fourth, organizsational change: "Funky Inc. is neither homogeneous nor heterogeneous; it is both. Successful companies will evolve into organizational tribes - biographical organizational tribes. And in a tribe people get the energy from one another. The Zulus have a word for it: 'ubuntu' ..." (p.165).

Funky Business is full of other insights; I have only touched on a few. The book is a vivid interpretation of our hyper-capitalist, digital and inter-connected world, and some thoughts on how to go about management and doing business in that world. Compared to many business books on the market today, it is inspiring, provocative, and adaptive to local geographies notwithstanding its global perspective! So, knowledge workers of the borderless world unite - and make business funky!

Rating:
Summary: Do not stop in thinking if funky is good or not...funky is
Review: Until today my concept for being the best have changed 180 degrees.
Funky business bring to all managers and people in general a new way of thinking...people driven...people focused. 1.3 kgs of human body made the differnce, not your high tech machines or your nice buildings and logos.
Today`s managers should take this book and use it to create a new way of make business focused in the prime good of all processes, humans, brains, minds.
Thank you Jonas and Kjell...hope to have the plasure to meet you.
Funkster 964