
Today, the overriding problem for every organization is how to change, deeply and continually, and at an accelerating pace.
The large, hierarchical corporations that dominated business in the 20th century will not completely disappear, but they will become less important. In their place will be new, more flexible ways of organizing large-scale work that provide great freedom and take advantage of people’s energy and creativity. All of them will depend on the Internet.
The history of business in the 20th century is, in many ways, the history of public companies. Will the same be said of the 21st century? Not necessarily.
There is a lot of evidence that groups make better decisions than individuals, especially when they are selected from among the smartest and most interesting people.
The Net Generation, now coming of age, will shape the corporation for decades to come. Attracting sufficient numbers of Net Generation workers should be a top priority, since their talents will be critical to how companies adapt to future change.
Technology is radically shifting the balance of advantage away from the mighty corporation and toward markets and individuals. Tiny organizations can do the sorts of things once the preserve of mighty organizations.
Although jobs can be outsourced to vendors or contractors almost anywhere on the planet, there’s a growing global demand for these tasks and the workers who can perform them. What will it take to win on this global talent battlefield?
Any legendary organizational performance is the result of emotionally committed managers. The question is, how can companies get more of them?
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McKinsey's Lenny Mendonca discusses on Big Think, a global online forum, how companies can learn from the current economic crisis and build better businesses for the future.