Futurists' Bookshop

The Neville Freeman Futurists' Bookshop is hosted by the UNSW campus bookstore that source and stock all titles for us. To purchase a BookClub title, email bookshop@nevillefreeman.com using the BUY link at the end of any review.Credit card is the only form of payment we can accept; listed prices include GST. Freight & packing within Australia is $8 for the first book then $3 for each subsequent book in the same parcel; for overseas delivery, it's $20 for the first book and $10 for each subsequent book

You can link to past Bookshop offerings from here:
Futurists' Bookshop 2002 Installment II
Futurists' Bookshop 2002 Installment I
Futurists' Bookshop 2001 Installment II
Futurists' Bookshop 2001 Installment I
Past GBNA BookClub Review Archive

2003 Installment I

The Sixth Sense by Kees van der Heijden, George Burt, et al
What's Next by Eamonn Kelly and Peter Leyden (eds.)
2025 by Joseph Coates, Andy Hines, John Mahaffie
Living Networks by Ross Dawson
Six Degrees by Duncan Watts
What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis
Holy Cow! by Sarah Macdonald

The Sixth Sense: Accelerating Organizational Learning with Scenarios
By Kees van der Heijden, Ron Bradfield, George Burt, George Cairns, George Wright
ISBN: 0470844914
Publisher & date: Jossey Bass, August 2002
Format: Hardcover
Price: A$59.95

This book is about organizational survival: the reasons why organizations do not always survive, and what can be done about it.

Survival means creating value for stakeholders, and the survival problem starts with uncertainty, change and the need for organizations to adapt to shifting needs and market conditions. The key question is 'Why are organizations slow to change and adapt?' Unsuccessful organizations are distinguished by their failure to overcome thinking and behavioural flaws at personal, organizational and community levels. In this book, we explain what these flaws are and how the scenario approach helps senior managers and organizations to overcome them. Our approach is based on reasoning, research, real world observations - and a long track record developing scenario-based thinking, combining the most effective elements of the many scenario approaches that have been tried over time.

Here's what two of our colleagues have had to say about 'The Sixth Sense':
'Organizational learning and scenario planning are seen by many business people as two separate disciplines, with different programmes and communities of practice. This book builds a bridge between the two. I believe this is important. It will invite the organizational learners to develop a deeper perspective on the longer-term business environment, and it will invite the scenario planners to consider their work in the context of organizational survival and development. Both will be better off, to the benefit of their organizations.' — Arie de Geus, author of The Living Company

'Helping organizations learn their way into the future in a world of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity is what The Sixth Sense is all about. The book is a deep, insightful and practical guide to the tools an organization needs to break through the limits of its own thinking. Scenario thinkers and planners working to make their organizations adaptive learners will find invaluable tools and examples to guide their own development.' — Peter Schwartz, co-founder and chair of Global Business Network and author of 'The Art of the Long View'. BUY

What's Next - Exploring the New Terrain for Business
By Eamonn Kelly and Peter Leyden (eds.)
ISBN 0470849584
Publisher & date: John Wiley & Sons, September 2002
Format: Hardcover
Price: A$59.95

Our GBN counterparts have outdone themselves with this one. This book lays the foundation for a deeper understanding of geopolitics and governenace; cultures, values, and belief systems; science; and the much longer term issues of environment and civilizations. In essence, this is a series of conversations with 50 remarkable thinkers on 'increasingly important fields': Brian Sager on the amazing potential of biotech; Rob Carlson on responding to bioterrorism; Steve Weber on Europe's leadership; and Peter Schwartz on the next scientific revolution.

Kelly and Leyden contextualise the individual contributions to propose that the 21st Century's successful business (and public sector) leaders will be those who develop an 'adaptive advantage' over their competitors, learning to gauge the culture as effectively as the marketplace. They suggest that such corporate-minded entrepreneurs will be the most likely candidates to develop creative solutions for the world's toughest problems. The Independent, (London 11/2/02) recommends the book as 'Genuinely different...like giving individual readers the impression that they are attending a rather grand seminar at a prestigious resort.' So save a buck, and buy the book! BUY

2025: Scenarios of US and Global Society Reshaped by Science and Technology
By Joseph Coates, Andy Hines, John Mahaffie
ISBN 1886939098
Publisher & date: Oakhill Press, 1998
Format: Hardcover
Price: out of print

Written in the form of a history book, 2025 is an engaging retrospective of the years 1990-2025. Examining trends in medicine, housing, food service, economics, entertainment, industry, education, and other key aspects of society, this book paints a fascinating picture of the future.

Coates and co. assess the impact of four key technology drivers in describing change in a series of three worlds that represent broad population groupings - World 1 (First World), World 2, World 3 (Third World). The work is punctuated by intriguing sketches, provocative (and quite detailed) descriptions, timetables and forecasts. The book is highly informative, distinguished from your run of the mill speculative scenario publications by the predictions and forecasts that serve as a pretext for the scenario work: in total, 107 such predictions are defined and reasoned in the introduction. BUY

Living Networks: Leading Your Company, Customers, and Partners in the Hyper-Connected Economy
By Ross Dawson
ISBN: 0130353337
Publisher & date: Financial Times Prentice Hall, October 2002
Format: Hardcover
Price: A$poa

The networks are coming to life. Billions of humans and machines are linking as tightly as neurons in a brain, generating and exchanging ideas at unprecedented speed. In Living Networks, Ross Dawson offers a systematic executive's framework for taking advantage of this extraordinary transformation. Dawson shows how to lead organizations that leverage living networks as the most powerful source of new business value. He demonstrates how to use living networks to deepen relationships with customers and partners, promote "distributed innovation," and accelerate the creation of profitable new products and services. Finally, he shows how individuals can plug into living networks to liberate themselves from conventional organizations, earn more money, and achieve greater personal satisfaction.

Here's what some big-hitters in the area of networked communications are saying about 'Living Networks':
'Living Networks provides invaluable insights for decision makers wanting to prosper in an increasingly complex and demanding business environment.' - Don Tapscott, co-author of 'Digital Capital'

'Ross Dawson argues persuasively that leading economies are driven by the flow of information and ideas. The ideas in his own book can position any individual or company at the center of that flow.' - Thomas H. Davenport, Director, Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, and co-author, 'The Attention Economy' BUY

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
By Duncan Watts
ISBN 0393041425
Publisher & date: W W Norton, September 2003
Format: Hardcover
Price: A$56.95

Duncan Watts could be described as a 'network nut'. The guy is 'connect crazy', and his recent work on the structure of small worlds has triggered an avalanche of interest in networks. In 'Six Degrees', Watts moves to understand an increasingly connected planet, presenting a new generation of research that is revealing the rules by which networks grow, the patterns they form, and the way in which they drive collective behavior. From epidemics of disease to outbreaks of market madness, from people searching for information to firms surviving crisis and change, from the structure of personal relationships to the technological and social choices of entire societies, Watts weaves together a network of discoveries to tell the story of an explosive new science, the people who are building it, and his own peculiar path through it all. 'I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often end up somewhere that I needed to be...' Read this book. ORDER

This book is not due for local release until September 2003. In the meantime, you can participate in an experiment to Test Milgram's 'Six degrees of separation' theory through the web at Columbia University.

What Went Wrong? - An Approach to the Modern History of the Middle East
By Bernard Lewis
ISBN 0195144201
Publisher & date: Oxford University Press, January 2002
Format: Hardcover
Price: A$35.00

Bernard Lewis looks at the eclipse of the Middle East in the last three centuries and how the aftermath is felt to this day. As Emeritus Professor at Princeton University, Lewis is one of the America's lead authorities. He compares an early World of Islam at the forefront of human achievement to a Christian West of 'barbarism from which there was nothing to learn or fear', then looks at the subsequent Muslim retreat from modernity - a central piece of modern history that has become a major factor in international conflicts and diplomatic quarrels. A timely read on an important subject. BUY

Holy Cow! - An Indian Adventure
By Sarah Macdonald
ISBN 1863253262
Publisher & date: Bantam, 2002
Format: Hardcover
Price: $22.95

You may have seen this one on the shelves. I rate it as a modern pop classic. Hilarious and sharply written, Sarah walks us through India on a personal quest to (mis)understand Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and the local version of Christianity. It is included here because it is the Aussie way to not take things to seriously, to jest a little, and to be sometimes bedazzled by foreign culture - a way of life momentarily forgotten in our push to play ball with the big guys, and to take Basra Airport. Go girl! BUY

Books from Richmond