The Visionary's Handbook: Nine Paradoxes That Will Shape the Future of Your Business

by Jim Taylor, Watts Wacker, Howard Means

Building upon the Age of Possibility first espoused in their provocative and acclaimed The 500 Year Delta, Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor now welcome readers to the Age of Uncertainty, where, because life has never been easier, it has never been more difficult.

In this unprecedented new book, Wacker and Taylor present a vision of the present and future that goes beyond all the chaos and complexity of our times. With a clear and firm grasp of their material, they proceed to chart a method for readers to create a personal course for the future.

This navigational route is premised upon the authors' profound understanding of nine mind-boggling paradoxes that capture the imponderables of modern life, and define the business and social climates of the world as we move forward into the new millennium:

The Paradox of the Visionary The closer your vision gets to a provable truth, the more you are simply describing the present. In the same way, the more certain you are of a future outcome, the more likely you will be wrong.
The Paradox of Value The value of any product becomes inseparable from a buyer's perception of worth. Instead of intrinsic value, we have relative value only--the products that a business makes bear diminished relations to the physical content of the offering.
The Paradox of Size The bigger you are, the smaller you need to be.
The Paradox of Time To succeed in the short term, you need to think in the long term. Yet the greater your vision and the longer the time interval over which you predict results, the greater the risk that you will be unable to take the necessary steps in the short term to achieve the long-term goals. The tension between short- and long-term planning has never been more tormented.
The Paradox of Competition Your biggest competitor is your own view of your future; competition comes from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
The Paradox of Action You've got to go for what you can't expect to get; nothing will turn out exactly as it's supposed to. You must act intuitively and be equally ready to take resolute counter-intuitive action.
The Paradox of Leadership To lead from the front, you have to stay inside the story. In an inherently inconsistent world, consistency is not the virtue it once was in our leaders.
The Paradox of Leisure Play is hard work; play and work are blending and becoming indistinguishable.
The Paradox of Reality Every person on planet Earth today has the potential to be connected to every other person, and every single one of us inhabits a world of our own and is a marketing segment of absolutely one. As our links become stronger, our individuation becomes starker.

A bold, incisive book, The Visionary's Handbook captures the interlocking web o paradoxes that abound in everyday business life, and provides an essential map to help make the future work for every individual and every company in the challenging and uncertain times ahead.

Genres: Business, Management

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Derek Ludwig · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. book recommendation from Manward from Joel Salatin
2. this is about paradoxes in the corporate world - it wasn't that I didn't like it, it was just difficult to relate to and a bit abstract at time where I felt like I was just reading and not comprehending
3. The Paradox of the Visionary
1. the more certain of the details of the future, the more likely we are to be wrong
2. whatever we expect to be in the future, we must anticipate we won't be
3. the more we come to understand our future, the more we alienate ourselves from the present and those who live it
4. The Paradox of Value
1. how much something is valued depends on the context it is in -- hotdog is worth $0.25 but if you are running through an airport and are hungry you will pay $5 for it
2. presented the idea about college tuition
1. first 10 slots are for people willing to pay $100,000 per year
2. next 25 slots are for people willing to pay $75,000 per year
3. etc etc
5. The Paradox of Size
1. the bigger you are the smaller you need to be -
1. huge companies need to be small enough to be nimble and able to adapt to change
2. tiny companies need to appear larger so they can play with the big boys
6. The Paradox of Time

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on competition for knowledge workers who want to be in executive role and entrepreneurs.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thought provoking vision of paradox. Exposition of the neotribe. Individuals seeking meaning through singularity.

[Jeffrey Fike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas and concepts, but very dry, difficult to read, seemed text-booky to me.