Future Perfect
by Stan Davis is an insightful work originally published in 1996 describing a more productive way to look at time, product development, and the role of information in the product lifecycle. 4-out-of-5 [NordicTrack] Stars.
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p.12 Informationalized business means that the economic value that comes from creating, processing, communicating and selling information grows significantly faster than the value added by traditional goods and services. Informationalized businesses often become worth more than the parents from which they sprang. Imagine Psychic Pizza delivered to your door 15 minutes before you knew you wanted one, or your money back.
p.32 We are not merely suggesting alacrity. We are talking about instantaneous products and services. If you can imagine this occurring then the product is in research, development, manufacture and being consumed virtually all at the same time. This is truly a holistic conception of the product.
p.42 Lead from a place in time that assumes you are already there, and that it is determined even though it hasn't happened yet.
p.44 Organizations that foster innovation are not to be wedded to strategy as formal planning, but to strategy as intuition.
The three sentence course on business management. "You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start at the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it."
p.46 Given the kind of business that we want to be, what are the appropriate structures, systems, people and corporate values for that business?
p.51 All effort, whether it be good works in religion or outstanding achievement in business is an overlay of the fundamental belief that, currently, "This is not it."
People discover their humanity. They don't invent it. Michelangelo's approach to sculpture was similar to the act of discovery. He began with the assumption that the figure was in the stone before he touched it. His job was to uncover the figure that was already there.
p.70 Consumers who create and control the manufacture of their goods and services are likely to consume more than those who do not. Finding ways to move the end of production downstream into the space of the consumer will result in renewed growth for the product.
In the post-industrial economy, the market is no longer a physical place, but rather an identified need.
p.114 Resources are generally finite, but information is infinite and the greatest value added in today's economy. Although there are limits to growth in finite resources, there are no limits to learning, the ultimate renewal resource. The more information you add to a finite resource, the more valuable it becomes.
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