Jonas Ridderstrale

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.

Capitalism has won. There is only one small problem. Is this what we want? Perhaps we should ask ourselves what price we are prepared to pay for prosperity. The opportunities for a richer life and for societies in which people have a genuine chance of realising their dreams have never been greater. It is an entrepreneurs heaven.
The democratic market economy is now the preferred choice. However, global market capitalism is not a political ideology. It is neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong – it just is. It is a set of principles or rules of the game. For most companies this new reality means that they are both under siege by increasingly powerful customers and held hostage by competent individuals who are free to know, go, do and be. To thrive, organisations need to take on the simultaneous task of taming talent and creating new customers.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Ridderstråle will:

•  Outline an overview of the present socio-economic landscape.
•  Highlight the key drivers behind this development.
•  Analyse and discuss the overall implications for business firms.
•  Doing business in a bazaar – economy.
•  Provide an overview of how the formation of competitive advantages has changed over time. The art of earning money is truly a moving target.

Only by truly understanding why the socio-economic landscape is changing so rapidly can you respond to the new challenges in a constructive way. The best leaders have always been business sociologists. They understand that by analyzing the context, you can see opportunities while those who not do so only spot threats.
Dr. Ridderstråle has written and thought extensively about the seismic impact of changes in;

•  Technologies
•  Institutions
•  Values
In his speeches, Jonas talks about the how we can benefit from advances in IT and telecommunications – as an individual or a leader of a corporation. Dr. Ridderstråle also discusses the implications of institutional deregulation – on capitalism, nation states, political parties, companies, families, etc. Finally, he outlines the shift from a geographically structured world to one dominated by global biographical tribes and how this will influence life inside and outside our organizations.

?Today, most people live, work and have to do business in a deregulated global economy. More and more individuals enjoy the freedom of choice. In effect, a number of trends with a direct impact on what it takes to succeed in the new world of commerce are arising. Among other things, Dr. Ridderstråle discusses how we can capitalize on these freedom movements by understanding the shift toward increased calls for:
•  Democratization: Information available at your fingertips
•  Meritocratization: Why talent makes capital dance
•  Migration: Winning the great global attraction game
•  Customization: The customer as a co-designer/producer
•  Feminization: The new world of Shenomics
•  Personalization: When one size no longer fits all
•  MANipulation: Nip/Tuck and why 80 is the new 60
•  Fragmentation: Why we are Bowling Alone
•  Tribalization: Profiting from the Peoples Republic of Paris Hilton
•  Polarization: Get ready for the double economy

The successful corporation of the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the one that dominated the industrial era. Gone are the days of the local and bureaucratic conglomerate.
Today, wealth is made with wisdom, and customers are more demanding than ever. In a world with a surplus of products and services of similar prices and quality, the future firm must thrive on its ability to be different and add value in new ways.
Dr. Ridderstråle outlines where we should expect to find the firm of the future, what it will look like, and how it will operate. Learn more about how the company of tomorrow profits from the changing circumstances and the unpredictability of our times. Find out why the winners must be;
•  Focused 
•  Leveraged  
•  Innovative
•  Heterarchical

and how the best organizations are already working hard on re-inventing the corporation as we know it!

We remember the likes of Dell and Dylan for their ability to innovate and then continuously re-invent themselves. Successful corporations and individuals perfect the art of creating imperfections – monopolies in time or space – the Holy Grail of commerce. In a deregulated world, the new business reality is a “double-economy” with increasing differences between the rest and the best – between countries, within countries and in business.
?Forget about normal. Think abnormal. Now, instead of appealing to the average, success is a question of exploring the extremes. Those staying in the middle-of-the-road will be run over by modern monopolists.
Using examples from some of the most successful contemporary business organizations, Dr. Ridderstråle describes two ways in which to build sustainable competitive advantages:

•  Adapt to the new business environment by developing business models that are incredibly fit– exploiting the imperfection of markets.
•  Compete on sex-appealthrough taking advantage of the imperfections of man by competing on moods.

In today’s topsy-turvy times, a company is either quick or dead. A function of mass and energy determines velocity – the lower the mass and the greater the energy the faster an object moves. Since the early 1990s, most companies have been more or less obsessed with processes focused on de-massification. Managers have out-sourced and off-shored, downsized and right-sized.
At the same time, many organizations have neglected the other variable of the function – energy. The new challenge is the one of re-energizing the corporation. The 1990s gave us a competence-based view of the firm. Now, the time has come to move on and profit from a new perspective that boosts the energy level of the enterprise.
Dr. Ridderstråle talks about how you can lead change by:

•  Envisioning the future:use your competence to analyze the context and challenge the organization
•  Engaging people: build confidence by managing all critical relationships individually and commitment will follow
•  Executing strategies: combine personal courage with an uncanny ability to secure both the capacity and capabilities necessary to make change happen.

People can be extraordinarily courageous and take tough decisions only when they have something to believe in. The most successful organizations on our planet are all systems of faith. Securing the capacity and capability to produce change therefore requires a “corporate religion”. This overall purpose guarantees a clear direction and coordinated action.
Dr. Ridderstråle outlines the key elements that you should find in a great business bible and poses a series of questions with a patented impact on the competitiveness of any organization:

•  Ideological – Your Dream: Do you have a dream, or just five year plans?
•  Mythical – Your Stories: Do you have a CSO – a Chief Storytelling Officer?
•  Ritual – Your Ceremonies: Do you hold ceremonies for triumphs and tragedies?
•  Ethical – Your Values: Do you tolerate mistakes and failure?
•  Emotional – Your Experience: Do you have personalized EVPs – Employee Value Propositions?
•  Material – Your Things: Do you have a place enabling talent to play at work?
•  Organizational – Your Structures: Do you have arrangements ensuring collective intelligence?

To stand a chance of truly turning up after the downturn, we must radically rethink the traditional recipes for business success. The best leaders apply a positive logic of PLUS – moving beyond the person, the present and the existing paradigm of management.
Using examples from some of the most successful contemporary corporations, Dr. Ridderstråle presents four key ideas to help us turn up the volume and expand our businesses:

•  The enterprise+:How your corporation can effectively mimic the principles of self-organizing systems – compete on we rather than me.
•  The entrepreneurial+:What it will take in terms of re-inventing management practices to be able to lead a corporation that is as good at innovation as the organization of the past was at exploitation.
•  The evolutionary+:How successful competitive strategies must evolve to reflect new customer requirements in a world where most people feel stressed, bored, lonely and anonymous.
•  The emotional+:What you need to do to effectively deal with the challenge of utilizing the full potential of also the emotional capital of the firm.