How to Thrive in the Next Economy

Author: John Thackara
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0500292949
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
“Enlightening… In thoughtful vignettes, Thackara examines numerous grassroots initiatives around the world [and] proposes ‘an economy based on social energy,’ that uses a very small percentage of the resources presently used… Recommended.”—Choice Are there practical solutions to the many global challenges—climate change, poverty, insufficient healthcare—that threaten our way of life? Author John Thackara has spent a lifetime roving the globe in search of design that serves human needs. In this clear-eyed but ultimately optimistic book, he argues that, in our eagerness to find big technological solutions, we have all too often ignored the astonishing creativity generated when people work together and in harmony with the world around them. Drawing on an inspiring range of examples, from a temple-led water management system in Bali that dates back hundreds of years to an innovative e-bike collective in Vienna, Thackara shows that below the radar of the mainstream media there are global communities creating a replacement economy—one that nurtures the earth and its inhabitants rather than jeopardizing its future—from the ground up. Each chapter is devoted to a concern all humans share—land and water management, housing, what we eat, what we wear, our health, how and why we travel—and demonstrates that it is possible to live a rich and fulfilling life based on stewardship rather than exploitation of the natural environment.

How to Thrive in the Next Economy

Author: John Thackara
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0500518084
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A visionary yet practical guide to building a more sustainable future, by one of the most important voices in environmentally aware design Are there practical solutions to the many global challenges—climate change, poverty, insufficient healthcare—that threaten our way of life? Author John Thackara has spent a lifetime roving the globe in search of design that serves human needs. In this clear-eyed but ultimately optimistic book, he argues that, in our eagerness to find big technological solutions, we have all too often ignored the astonishing creativity generated when people work together and in harmony with the world around them. Drawing on an inspiring range of examples, from a temple-led water management system in Bali that dates back hundreds of years to an innovative e-bike collective in Vienna, Thackara shows that below the radar of the mainstream media there are global communities creating a replacement economy—one that nurtures the earth and its inhabitants rather than jeopardizing its future—from the ground up. Each chapter is devoted to a concern all humans share—land and water management, housing, what we eat, what we wear, our health, how and why we travel—and demonstrates that it is possible to live a rich and fulfilling life based on stewardship rather than exploitation of the natural environment.

The Purpose Economy

Author: Aaron Hurst
Publisher: Elevate Publishing
ISBN: 193749845X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A series of shifts are happening in our economy: Millennials are trading in conventional career paths to launch tech start-ups, start small businesses that are rooted in local communities, or freelance their expertise. We are sharing everything, from bikes and cars, to extra rooms in our homes. We now create, buy and sell handcrafted products in our local communities with ease. Globally recognized entrepreneur, founder of Taproot Foundation and CEO of Imperative, Aaron Hurst, argues in his latest book that while these developments seem unrelated at first, taken together they reveal a powerful pattern that points to purpose as the new driver of the American economy. Like the Information Economy, which has driven innovation and economic growth until now, Hurst argues that our new economic era is driven by connecting people to their purpose. It's an economy where value lies in establishing purpose for employees and customers through serving needs greater than their own, enabling personal growth and building community. Based on interviews with thousands of entrepreneurs, Hurst shows this new era is already fueling demand for a whole host of products and services and transforming how millennials view their careers. A new breed of startups like Etsy, Zaarly, Tough Mudder, Kickstarter, and Airbnb are finding new ways to create value by connecting us with our local communities. At the same time, companies like Tesla and Whole Foods are making the march from just appealing to affluent buyers to becoming mainstream brands. Hurst calls these companies, along with the pioneering entrepreneurs who founded them, the Purpose Economy's taste-makers. This book is at once a personal memoir of Aaron Hurst’s own awakening as a purpose driven entrepreneur, when he left a well-paying tech job in 2001 to launch Taproot, creating a pathway for millions of professionals and Fortune 500 companies to volunteer for nonprofits. It's also a blueprint for a new economic era that is transforming companies, markets and our careers to better serve people and the world.

The Next Economy

Author: Elliot Ettenberg
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 9780071405553
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
A powerful new approach to building customer commitment, loyalty, and market share Marketing guru Elliott Ettenberg has taken a close look inside scores of businesses, from traditional retail and manufacturing companies to sleek new dot-coms. What he has seen is an emerging trend that has many corporate strategists running scared. When baby boomers retire, the biggest spenders in history will dramatically cut back on spending, forcing retailers to duke it out that much harder for their shares of rapidly dwindling markets. To survive this dramatic power shift, businesses must adopt a new marketing paradigm based not on merely satisfying the customer, but delighting the customer. In The Next Economy, Ettenberg provides readers with just such a model and a set of powerful strategies that companies can use today to prepare themselves to thrive in the years ahead. With the help of many in-depth case studies, he schools readers in cutting-edge psychographic methods for identifying market segments in an economy driven by customer wants, rather than needs. He explains how to distinguish consumers from customers and describes proven techniques for forging long-term, highly profitable relationships with core customers. And he educates readers in the all-important "Four R's"Relationships, Retrenchment, Relevancy, and Rewardpowerful tools that can save any company.

The Passion Economy

Author: Adam Davidson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385353537
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
The brilliant creator of NPR's Planet Money podcast and award-winning New Yorker staff writer explains our current economy: laying out its internal logic and revealing the transformative hope it offers for millions of people to thrive as they never have before. Contrary to what you may have heard, the middle class is not dying and robots are not stealing our jobs. In fact, writes Adam Davidson—one of our leading public voices on economic issues—the twenty-first-century economic paradigm offers new ways of making money, fresh paths toward professional fulfillment, and unprecedented opportunities for curious, ambitious individuals to combine the things they love with their careers. Drawing on the stories of average people doing exactly this—an accountant overturning his industry, a sweatshop owner's daughter fighting for better working conditions, an Amish craftsman meeting the technological needs of Amish farmers—as well as the latest academic research, Davidson shows us how the twentieth-century economy of scale has given way in this century to an economy of passion. He makes clear, too, that though the adjustment has brought measures of dislocation, confusion, and even panic, these are most often the result of a lack of understanding. The Passion Economy delineates the ground rules of the new economy, and armed with these, we begin to see how we can succeed in it according to its own terms—intimacy, insight, attention, automation, and, of course, passion. An indispensable road map and a refreshingly optimistic take on our economic future.

Mutualism

Author: Sara Horowitz
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593133528
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
A profound look at the crisis of work and the collapse of the safety net, and a vision for a better way forward, rooted in America’s cooperative spirit, from the founder of the Freelancers Union “Read this essential book to see how we can and must build the future.”—Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin Mutualism: It’s not capitalism and it’s not socialism. It’s the future. The twentieth century changed every facet of life for American workers: how much they could expect to earn and what they had the right to demand. But by 2027, a majority of Americans—from low-wage service workers to white-collar professionals—won’t be traditional employees. Benefits like paid sick leave, pensions, 401(k)s, disability insurance, and health care will be nearly extinct. To meet the needs of this new generation of workers, the government has done almost nothing. In this book, labor lawyer, former chair of the board of the New York Federal Reserve, and MacArthur “genius” Sara Horowitz brings us a solution to the current crisis of work that’s rooted in the best of American traditions, which she calls mutualism. Horowitz shows how the future of our economic safety net rests on this approach and demonstrates how mutualist organizations have helped us solve common problems in the past and are now quietly driving rural and urban economies alike all over the world, inspired not by for-profit corporations but by labor unions and trade associations, religious organizations and mutual aid societies, and vital social movements from women’s suffrage to civil rights. Mutualism is for anyone who feels that the system is not working for them, and is looking for a new way to build collaboratively, create the new American social contract, and prosper in the twenty-first century.

The 4% Solution

Author: The Bush Institute
Publisher: Crown Currency
ISBN: 0307986152
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
Foreword by President George W. Bush With contributions from world renowned economists and Nobel prizewinners, The 4% Solution is a blueprint for restoring America’s economic health The United States is reaching a pivotal point in its economic history. Millions of Americans owe more on their homes than they are worth, long-term unemployment is alarmingly high, and the Congressional Budget Office is projecting a sustainable growth rate of only 2.3%—a full percentage point below the average for the past sixty years. Unless a turnaround comes quickly, the United States could be mired in debt for years to come and millions of Americans will be pushed to the sidelines of the economy. The 4% Solution offers clear and unflinching ideas on how to revive America’s economy. It sets a positive economic goal and asks some of the top economic minds on how to achieve it. With a focus on removing government constraints, The 4% Solution defines the policies that will allow Americans to save, invest, and create the jobs that the United States needs. The 4% Solution draws on the best minds in the business, including five Nobel laureates: · Robert E. Lucas, Jr., on the history and future of economic growth · Gary S. Becker on why we need immigrants in order to grow · Edward Prescott on the cost (to growth) of the welfare state · Vernon Smith on why housing leads us into and out of recessions · Myron Scholes on why we need to innovate in order to grow the economy

Meta-trends and the Next Economy

Author: Mark Parrott
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781628654547
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Book Description
Know the Knowable Future Meta-Trends and the Next Economy utilizes demographics to forecast the health of every economy/industry in the world. Meta-Trends allows you to know the knowable future i.e. * Know which businesses should you start today * Know which industries will survive and thrive in the next 15 years * Know which areas of the economy are worth investing resources in * Know future government trends from a threat perspective * Know why past trends happened and were actually predictableThe future breaks down into threats and opportunities. Meta-Trends motivates you to plan better so that you don't just survive, you thrive in the next 15 years.Change is happening so rapidly in society that the need for reliable forecasts is paramount. It turns out that demographics are the single most powerful ingredient in forecasting what the future will look like.Meta-Trends and the Next Economy, will answer the question: "What will the next five to fifteen years look like?" Among other topics, the book covers:* Why we got into our current economic situation and what has to happen in order to get us out it. * What is the future of taxation and regulation, and how does that impact not just medium-sized businesses but small and large.* How to survive and thrive in these most challenging times. * Are you or your customers future dinosaurs? * How to prepare your business to ride out the economic storm--and there is always a storm!* How to firewall your business against recession. * Which investments make sense during these troubled times. * Simple ways to protect your family and business Our approach is both easy to understand and to implement. As a former AM radio show host of "Money Talks," I am used to giving practical advice to both captains of industry and the average person. Readers of Meta-Trends and the Next Economy will take away tactical strategies to improve their net worth and the motivation to do so today. Most importantly, they will know how to protect their wealth and the health of their businesses in the next economy.

The Coming Economic Collapse

Author: Stephen Leeb
Publisher: Business Plus
ISBN: 0759567220
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Book Description
In this incredibly timely book,renowned economist Stephen Leeb shows how surging oilprices will contribute to a huge economic collapse bysoaring to over $100, and perhaps $200, a barrel- andtells how you can avoid the pitfalls of the upcomingcrisis.

The Crash Course

Author: Chris Martenson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118013123
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
The next twenty years will be completely unlike the last twenty years. The world is in economic crisis, and there are no easy fixes to our predicament. Unsustainable trends in the economy, energy, and the environment have finally caught up with us and are converging on a very narrow window of time—the "Twenty-Teens." The Crash Course presents our predicament and illuminates the path ahead, so you can face the coming disruptions and thrive--without fearing the future or retreating into denial. In this book you will find solid facts and grounded reasoning presented in a calm, positive, non-partisan manner. Our money system places impossible demands upon a finite world. Exponentially rising levels of debt, based on assumptions of future economic growth to fund repayment, will shudder to a halt and then reverse. Unfortunately, our financial system does not operate in reverse. The consequences of massive deleveraging will be severe. Oil is essential for economic growth. The reality of dwindling oil supplies is now internationally recognized, yet virtually no developed nations have a Plan B. The economic risks to individuals, companies, and countries are varied and enormous. Best-case, living standards will drop steadily worldwide. Worst-case, systemic financial crises will toss the world into jarring chaos. This book is written for those who are motivated to learn about the root causes of our predicaments, protect themselves and their families, mitigate risks as much as possible, and control what effects they can. With challenge comes opportunity, and The Crash Course offers a positive vision for how to reshape our lives to be more balanced, resilient, and sustainable.