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 Free, Chris Anderson
Only 32 of the top 100 companies in the world today make things that can drop on your foot. The other 68 traffic mostly in ideas, or enable the markets for other’s goods. The more products are made of ideas rather than atoms, the faster they can get cheap – even free.
21st century “free” is different from 20th century “free.” While last century’s free was a powerful marketing method, this century’s free is an entirely new economic model.
 How the mighty fall, Jim Collins
In his two previous books, “Built to Last” and “Good to Great”, Jim Collins identified great companies and what made them great. Some of those profiled are no longer great, some no longer exist.
The danger to companies, says Collins, is that like human beings they can look healthy on the outside with a cancer-like disease growing on the inside. But unlike a cancer, with companies the disease is largely self-inflicted.
Knowledge worth having
Gateways Business Book Breakfasts have been held every year from February through November for the past 14 years!
Venue and Date:
Michelangelo Hotel, Sandton Square, WEDNESDAY 2nd September 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m
For more details contact:
Johannesburg office:- Telephone: 011 788 8903, Fax: 011 788 8908
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to email Seipati to make your booking.
Free, Chris Anderson
Throughout history, major advances have been made when factors enabling an economy became more abundant. The automobile was enabled by the ability to tap into vast stores of petrol which replaced scarce whale oil and made liquid fuel ubiquitous. The 80-foot container didn’t need a dock full of longshoremen to load and unload, making shipping cheap enough to tap abundant labour far away. Computers made information and ideas abundant, because everything that bits touch is also touched by their unique economic properties – faster, better, cheaper.
Free is not destructive to markets as it might appear at first. If you have fears about the disruptive effect of Free, you need to read this book to find a way you too can benefit. You can make money giving things away – the value of the Free economy is estimated at $260b a year, a country-sized economy. There is such a thing as a free lunch. Sometimes you do get more than you paid for. Those who understand the new Free will command tomorrows economy and disrupt today’s. They are already doing it.
Join me at breakfast and find out more.
How the mighty fall, Jim Collins
How the Mighty Fall is a description of a research project undertaken by Collins and his team to answer a set of very important questions: Are there clearly distinguishable stages of decline, and if there are, how can you spot them early? Can you reverse the decline and if so how? Is there a point of no return?
The research appears to be rigorous and the sample large enough to draw conclusions. As with his previous work he uses “a control comparison set” of companies – successes and failures - to arrive at a conclusion, a methodology that avoids the pitfalls of examining only failed companies. The result is a five stage model of decline, complete with indicators and the constant reiteration of the emergent fact: decline is not inevitable and is reversible.
We do ourselves a disservice by only studying success. There is much to be learned from discovering why great companies decline. The keys to sustained performance are more likely to lie in the understanding how greatness can be lost.
Venue and Date:
Michelangelo Hotel, Sandton Square, WEDNESDAY 2nd September 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m
For more details contact:
Johannesburg office:- Telephone: 011 788 8903, Fax: 011 788 8908
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
to email Seipati to make your booking.
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