Lets look around. What do we see? Market rules but protestors are ready to fight against global capitalism. Accidents and catastrophes are usual phenomenon. Corporations are in danger every day. Revolutions and wars continue in many spots of the world.

Shortly, the reality is as follows: bullets and tear gas, Bin Laden, ‘big brother’ (cruel almighty authority) and totally rotten bosses. No logic, no method, no morality, no pleasure, no originality – this is how karaoke capitalism looks like.

The aaim of the authors of this book (as they state it) is to make an excursion through the world of commerce and society and to make us acquainted with commercial inspiration. This journey is based on perception that we all are a part of the world in which markets dominate and it does not matter weather we like this or not. We live in the world where money is the meaning of everything, where freedom not always means happiness, and wwhere technological capabilities not necessarily bring profit. This book was an attempt to light up darkest corners of capitalism in hope to find there mental food for inspiration.

So we live in the new world where impossible things are becoming possible. MMany features show that things are changing: the best singer of rap music is white, the best golf player is black, the French blame Americans for arrogance, and Denmark sends its submarines to war in ‘Desert storm’.

In such strange, magnificent, and at the same time troubled time, when everything is possible, the only thing which one should be afraid of is to be afraid of ourselves. It is the book of different perspectives. It is about people, about governing for people’s sake, about individuals who are ready to make others hear them. This book shows that the essence of modern way of living as well as modern company is cultivation and expression of our individuality, singularity, and diversity. Finally we aall are individuals. We can choose ourselves but we also have to face the responsibility for our and other lives. Freedom is followed by responsibility.

Authors of this book write about what they see, read and hear. Not about the world which they would like it to be. They do not argue if things which are happening are wrong or right. They only state that they are happening. ‘There are no good and bad things. Such makes them our thinking’, – SShakespeare said. This is why authors leave possibility for the reader to choose. They offer horizontal analysis joining changes in various areas of life into one whole creating vast view of present time.

Authors invite us to think instead of telling what to think (good questions open the doors and answers shut them down). They think that before trying to create better life, how to work and create competitive corporations successfully, one must have hypothesis about how the world operates.

ONE: INDIVIDUALS: ENDLESS SOLOS

In the world of karaoke capitalism possibilities of individual choice are endless. But it costs. You can pay bay cash or by your competence. Regions, companies and individuals face dilemma: to copy others or to create future of their own. Attempt to copy others and strive to follow the best practices will lead you only to mediocrity. Thus it is better to innovate, not imitate.

Everything what you say or you do not say, everything what you do or you don’t, according to the new laws of commerce, may be used against you. Times are changing. We can use our rights but we can also misapply them. We can act as we like but we must remember tthat we are not alone.

In the whole world people start to use their right to express themselves.

After downfall of communism, after rise and fall of internet communism, only one ‘ism’ is left – individualism. Individualism is endless. It has no limits. Authors of this book state that birth of the individualism was 31st of October year 1517 when Martin Luther King nailed up 95 theses to the door of the church of All Saints. Instead of the right of church to interpret bible, he gave this right to all people.

OPEN and CLEAR. Everyone should hang those two words near the bed and repeat them in the morning and evening because they are the essence of nowadays life. If you try to go against openness you’ll be doomed.

Choose. If a person dances according its own rhythm, and makes others to dance according his own rhythm, this means the victory of choice against coincidence and control.

We managed to make a very long way in a very short time. Nt so long ago our life was controlled by coincidences and now we can choose our sex, were to work, what to eat, where to live, what colour of hear to have etc. CChoice rules. Nothing can stop us. Individual choice is the Holy Grail of market forces. Demand is just a reflection of millions of individual decisions. And market forces – is the strongest religion of present time. Consumption is like act of faith. And priorities become more and more personal. Compromises are at the edge of disappearance. Freedom is followed by decomposition and fragmentation.

And here are the bad news. Karaoke club is opened not for everybody. Even in the world of choice, money is the greatest force. Capital rules, celebrities dominate in the karaoke club. Capabilities is one more way to enter the club. Our lives are stronger and stronger influenced by competencies or their absence. Absence of education can equal to economical dath sentence, while unique talent equal to global passport.

TWO: TECHNOLOGIES: FREED BY ROBOTS

Technology creates opportunities and opens up possibilities for longer and richer lives. Technology frees us to be ourselves – but only if we have the cash or competence. Power is transferred from those who used to control information to those who control knowledge.

Lets discuss a broader view. How did we enter the world of individualization? Changes and variations of technology, institutions, and treasures were

always driven by three main forces – means, rules, and norms. If we do not form change of these forces, then they form us.

We can describe development of technology as a liberation from the main conditions of life given us by God or evolution. Today many people in post industrial world can live independent from many factors such as temperature, rain, etc. Competence overcame climate.

Development of technology doesn’t stop. One good idea generates another. Technology like capitalism moves fforward all the time. Biotechnology and nanotechnology came after informational technology.

It might seem that the robots prevail. But it is not true. Persistent development of technology makes us better understand ourselves as people, as unique individuals. It is amazing that it individualizes us.

It is important to stop blaming technology. People, not technology make decisions. Technology is dedicated to people. What is peoples’ position – this is the question. Whether they are with, or against human kind.

THREE: INSTITUTIONS: CHANGING TTHE RULES

The institutions of the past are being reshaped. Fragmentation and disappearing social capital require that we all become individual institutional innovators. Power is transferred from the rule-takers to the rule-breakers and rule –makers.

Old religions disappointed us. The second step wwill be demolishing of institutions which ruled before. Traditional institutions become a history. In short we can say that social capital, which took the west world 200 years to create, may now be destroyed during one generation. New reality is decomposition, fragmentation, individualization, and isolation.

It may seem that recession of social capital is a bad thing. However recession of social capital is not necessarily catastrophic in economical sense. As it usually is everything has positive and negative aspects. Weak social bonds stimulate innovations and economical growth.

Another interesting aspect is that the best guaranty of weak social capital and at the same time high level of innovations, is regions openness to diversity and cultural activity. The more there will bbe homosexuals, architects, artists, dancers, etc. the bigger will be the ability of the region to renovate, thus creating competitive products and services.

Nonetheless some people are trying to preserve or even reproduce what is already gone – the world with closed geographical zones, family values, religion, same job for the whole life, etc. However they do not realize one thing: whatever they do, the future belongs to individual institutions innovators, rather than fanatical fundamentalists. The power passes from performers of llaw to those who create and break it.

FOUR: VALUES: MATERIAL GIRLS AND BOYS

Meaning is no longer given – by church or state. Materialism rules! To move beyond the meaning of life we have to create our own communities. Power is transferred from local citizens to global tribesmen and women.

Technology and institutions are not the only factors of changes. The third and final factor is our treasures (or their absence). Modern personal Me is not a strong foundation which we build from small pieces, dogmas, articles read in newspapers, casual remarks, old movies, small victories, people which we hate or used to love. So it is natural phenomenon that search for meaning continues.

Our ancestors considered the meaning of life and work as a natural one. Religion played significant role. Christianity is perhaps the most karaoke like phenomenon. God even send his son to the earth in order to give the best example of behavior. Later Protestantism equated hard work to a prier. Work created sense.

Now money is the meaning of everything. Identity is related with consumption, not with production. If you buy – you exist. Our right to exist, right to choose, and right to consume are the most important ffor our existence. We have an ability to create the meaning for ourselves.

In this new world individualism, choice, and markets intertwined relentless and even delusively. This is our new reality. Churches emptied however shops are crowded. Meaning of emptiness changed the meaning of life.

People do not like loneliness. Warily, apprehensively they are looking for other people with similar values. They create communities which have no structure in geographical sense. These are specialized academic global communities.

Here interaction of all three forces is observed. Technology gives them ability to join together and communicate. The consequence of biographical aspect is that treasure systems are changing not only in respect to space, but also other two dimensions. There was time when they were immortal. Today treasures are impermanent.

Companies are already aiming at global geographical tribes. Trade is the first normal institution forced to readjust to changing treasures. Corporations are always forced to get results. Market forces make them move forward all the time weather they like this or not. The power is passed to the members of global tribes.

FIVE: SOCIETY: THE AGE OF ABNORMALITY

Abnormal is the new normal. The bubble economy has given way to the double economy of graft aand grief, misery and opportunity, making a living and having a life.

Dividing into those who have and those who don’t is a natural consequence of blind trust to market mechanism. Markets separate the effective from the non-effective. This is their essence. But it is the only thing which they can.

SIX: RESOURCES: TALENT TAKES OVER

Talented individuals are mobile monopolies with global passports. They control the key to competitiveness, the scarcest resource: competence. Directors and politicians will have to learn how to behave with people who have freedom to think, do, and be.

In karaoke world one has right to choose. There are two ways to enter karaoke club – by playing in lottery or by developing own skills. Do whatever you want but try to do it as good as you can. Competence will allow you to choose. This will increase your power in relations with politicians, bosses, and capitalists.

Competents – are mobile monopolists. They stay only until they get what they want. And if they don’t, they just leave to work for others, or perhaps create their own companies.

The power is passed from those who control financial capital to those who control intellectual capital. Companies no

longer dictate prices. They are dictated by talented men and women. Poor are those who are not talented. But those who are will get even more.

SEVEN: COMPETITION: CUSTOMERS IN CHARGE

Friction-free commerce is a shopper’s paradise. A profusion of markets, surplus supply, continuous commoditization plus inexpensive information = perfect competition.

EIGHT: MARKETS: CAPITALISM IS CRYING

Companies face a two-front war: held hostage by competent individuals and under siege by demandind customers. The number one characteristic of a well-functioning market economy is low average pprofitability. To thrive, organizations must learn to master the art of capitalizing on competencies and customer creation.

NINE: COMPANIES: KNOWLEDGE INC.

Organizations which maximize competence are organized in innovative ways to do things – everything – differently. Knowledge is everything.

TEN: PEOPLE: TALES AND TRANSFUSION

To attract talent you need a seductive story. Stars will not settle for XM (extra medium) when they can get XMe. Personalize or perish.

ELEVEN: PERSPECTIVE: DIVERSITY AND DECENTRALIZATION

In a world of abnormality, sameness sucks. Deviance is good. Recruit deviants aand then set them free to create tomorrow.

TWELVE: PURPOSE: MAPS AND COMPASSES

Even deviants need to know who they are, where they are going and be given the incentive to get there.

THIRTEEN: PROCESS: THE DIALOG OF DISCOVERY

Creation is not a single vvoice in the darkness, but a conversation, a process of dialog and discovery.

FOURTEEN: PERSISTENCE: THE RULES OF CREATION

Beyond the quick fix lies continuous commitment to doing things differently. Experimentation requires persistence as much as imagination.

FIFTEEN: MONOPOLIES: THE HOLY GRAIL OF BUSINESS

From Picasso to Michael Jackson, temporary monopolies are karaoke heaven. Lie back and monopolize.

SIXTEEN: MODELS: RATIONAL INNOVATION

What do we want to do for the customer? What’s your customer value proposition? Go forth and exploit the imperfection.

SEVENTEEN: MOODS: EMOTIONAL INNOVATION

In a world of mood swinging markets, understanding emotions may lie at the heart of economics.

EIGHTEEN: THE CHALLENGE: MANAGING MOODY MODELS

Leaders relate to others and themselves. Love them and lead them.

NINETEEN: BREAKING FREE FROM KARAOKE: MANAGEMENT FOR MANKIND

In the Viagra and PProzac world it seems we can choose or lose. But management for mankind requires that most elusive of talents: balance.