"Examining the world as it is, is definitely not a recipe for spiritual fulfilment, but it is a pre-requisite for sound business practice ... Rapid economic growth is not a stabilising factor, but a sure-fire prescription for political instability" Jonathan Story
Is our global village heading to One World governance, towards the disasters of the past, to a war of civilisations or to a boundariless world market?Business leaders have to think about the future because that is where expected costs and rewards are located. Frontiers of Fortune, looks at predicting capital prospects and casualties in the markets of the future. This wide-ranging and insightful book explores the dynamics or a changing world economic order and answers these questions:
What does the future hold for world markets? Now, more than ever, we need a more pragmatic and politically informed framework for pursuing opportunities in the new world order.
Politics drives the world economy, because history is made by humans. Can there be such thing as a politically neutral business decision?
Do economic prosperity and political tranquillity go hand in hand?
Will a homogenous order of political market economy prevail throughout the world?
Frontiers of Fortune suggests that nations, cultures and civilizations are all active participants in the economic world, and that business leaders and decision-makers ignore this at their peril.
Frontiers of Fortune examines the idea that economic policy within and between states is about different conceptions of politics, that politics drives the world economy because history is made by humans. States change over time, companies adapt, and both alter the context within which the other operates.
Frontiers of Fortune introduces the concept of
world and
local time. World time is instantaneous, tied to the expanding reach of modern communications, future-oriented and trade-off based. It also contains local time, the inherited sphere in which most people live. Most people are also parts of cultures and civilizations, with their own mental landscapes and holy places. The US stands as the lone power. Japan is the sick man of Asia. Russia's economy is smaller than Indonesia's. China is a distant challenger and India has to pick up China's gauntlet. The EU contains the wealth, but its political logistics are byzantine. Is our global village heading to One World governance, towards the disasters of the past, to a war of civilisations or to a boundariless world market?
Praise for Frontiers of Fortune "Jonathan Story provides a sparkling array of ideas and ways of thinking to help make sense of what is happening every day and to develop more appropriate measures of business risk. His racy style draws the reader painlessly into complex arguments".
John Stopford, Professor of International Business, London Business School "Jonathan Story's range, imagination and scholarship are remarkable, and he has combined them all to write a provocative and stimulating account of the world's economic and political future. Whether predicting the stagnation of Japan or the rise of India, Story demands his readers engage in the globalizing world as it is, rather than resort to the simple market determinism of many economists or the wishful thinking of many business and political leaders. A welcome and overdue intervention in the argument."
Will Hutton, Editor in Chief, Guardian "Here is a book of unconventional wisdom--we need it. There is so much glib talk about globalisation as if it were only an economic force. Story sensibly and stylishly set economics in its cultural and political context. He manages to be both visionary and realistic, radical and reassuring, and above all it reminds us of the primacy of politics in economics. We have to reset the timetable of things to come: the vision of a predominance of Asia is 50 years too early".
Sir Peter Parker
