Harvard Business Review - 2009.07,08.pdf

10 Harvard Business Review|JulyAugust 2009|hbr.orgFrom the Editor|Whats Changed?ONCE A crisis has exploded in our midst,spread across the globe,devastated mil-lions,and then fi nally receded,how does it leave us?Mostly yearning for what Warren Harding,29th president of the United States,called a“return to normalcy.”Everyone recognizes that curious phrase,but let s also re-call its context:Harding was campaigning(here in Boston,as it happens)in the aftermath of the First World War,while the treaties that would re-shape Europe were still being signed.Think how his message must have resonated with voters sick of chaos and longing to go back to life as it had been.Talk to corporate executives today as the world struggles to emerge from recession,and you ll fi nd few of them harbor-ing such fantasies.Instead,there s a widespread sense that there will be no going home again that the landscape of business has been forever al-tered.Thus the inspiration for this special issue of HBR:Hop-ing to put a fi ner point on those forebodings,we asked experts in many fi elds to explain what s really changed and how the shift will affect the practice of management.One very smart set of answers comes from economic historian Niall Ferguson,whom we re pleased to welcome to HBR s pages for the fi rst time as a feature author.Refl ecting on the evo-lution of fi nance he so elegantly charted in his book The Ascent of Money,Ferguson outlines here what might come after“the great dying.”Among his predictions:The U.S.fi nancial system will be a shadow of its former self,but America will be stronger than ever.Read“The Descent of Finance,”and you ll understand why.Other territories remapped in this issue range from the principles of economics to the composi-tion of the workforce.Dan Ariely of Duke believes that the crisis has driven the last nail into the coffi n of Homo economicus and that managers will now devise better approaches,having dis-pensed with the faulty assumption of rational be-havior.Sylvia Ann Hewlett and her colleagues at the Center for Work-Life Policy have discovered that advancing Gen Y workers are on the same wavelength as lingering baby boomers when it comes to what they want from a workplace.And because those cohorts are each about twice the size of different-minded Gen X,they re bound to get their way.Wondering how economic power might shift among nations?Gary Pisano and Willy Shih,both professors at Harvard Business School,say the news isn t good for the United States.When boom followed bust a decade ago,people stopped worrying about America s“competitive-ness problem,”but all the while the country s operational competencies were wasting away.Meanwhile,as HBR senior editor Anand Raman reports in“The New Frontiers,”emerging mar-kets have come into their own.He explains why the companies based in developing countries will be best positioned to make hay when the sun shines again.Suffi ce it to say,in assembling this issue,HBR s editors with strong leadership from spe-cial issue editor Julia Kirby peered into every corner of the postcrisis world.Will your custom-ers behave differently?Read“Understanding the Postrecession Consumer,”by Paul Flatters and Michael Willmott.Will organized labor survive the postindustrial age?Consider the case study,“The Knowledge Workers Strike,”by Jon Healey.Will you be able to deal with“Government in Your Business”?See the article so-named by former U.S.labor secretary Robert Reich.And fi nally,be aware that there s even more insight to be gained from our website,www.hbr.org,where we ve added content that expands on many of the articles in this issue.If nothing else,a visit to the web will remind you that new worlds can be wonderfully rich and inviting and that too much would go undiscovered if we could only return to normalcy.Adi Ignatius1272 JulAug09 EditorLetter Layout.indd 101272 JulAug09 EditorLetter Layout.indd 106/4/09 4:09:44 PM6/4/09 4:09:44 PMSTRATEGIC HUMOR“14 Harvard Business Review|JulyAugust 2009|hbr.org”Thomas Cheney,Roy Delgado,and P.C.Vey“and at this point,we began to be unsure of where it all began and where it s all going to end.”“I hate limits on compensation that s where our company was most creative!”“It must be pretty bad if they ve brought in the cash whisperer.”Next?We have to accept what we all know to be elemental that taking a defensive position can,at best,only limit losses.And we need gains.Peter F.Drucker“This Competitive World”Harvard Business ReviewMarchApril 19611272 JulAug09 StratHumor Layout.indd 141272 JulAug09 StratHumor Layout.indd 146/4/09 4:05:14 PM6/4/09 4:05:14 PM16 Harvard Business Review|JulyAugust 2009|hbr.orgA survey of ideas,trends,people,and practices on the business horizonThomas BoucherGRISTHeed the Calls for Transparency by Sam WilkinAs a consequence of the global crisis,fi-nancial services executives are preparing for a regulatory overhaul.But few have probably considered how to deal with the intensive scrutiny of their sector that s no