Book Review

The Visionary's Handbook

Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, and Howard Means

HarperBusiness, $26.00

Reviewed by April M. Erland

     Want to gain a new perspective on what shapes businesses? Want to actually put the information you get to use? Well, forget your way of thinking and dive into this book "The Visionary’s Handbook: Nine Paradoxes That Will Shape the Future of Your Business". Authors Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, and Howard Means take an in-depth look at how we need to think about things in order to succeed. The more certain we are of the future, they say, the more likely we are to be wrong. The authors cite change as the reason most businesses don’t survive.

     Paradoxes are a main subject of this book. The authors describe the nine paradoxes, or broad trends they say are shaping businesses today. For instance:

     Paradox of Size—The bigger your company, the smaller it needs to appear.

     Paradox of Leisure—The more time we have to do absolutely anything, the less we absolutely do. The less time we have to do anything, the more we work and play simultaneously, and the more indivisible the work and leisure worlds become.

     In addition to the new philosophy of thinking, the authors provide numerous future exercises in which you answer questions about your current thinking and how you view your future and the future of your company. Just to sit down and put your thoughts into words helps strengthen the vision of your future and can add more structure in getting to that goal.

     The Visionary’s Handbook is a truly visionary book that actually trains you to think, instead of outlining steps that you should take. Everyone from entrepreneurs to business owners, managers to workers should pick up this book. It can give you the perspective and tools you need to change, survive, and conquer the volatile ISO world.

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