INNOVATION / CHANGEMENT / CRÉATIVITÉ• NOVEMBRE 2000 • N° 102

THE AUTHORS
Funky Business.
Talent makes capital dance
byJonas Ridderstrale
and Kjell Nordstrom
Prentice Hall Publishing, April 2000
French edition to be released by Village Mondial in November 2000

Kjell Nordstrom, a PhD from

Sweden, is with the Institute of
International Business of the
Stockholm School of Economics.
He founded the prestigious
Advanced Management
Program. His research focuses on
globalisation. Also with the
Stockholm School of Economics,
Jonas Ridderstale, who holds an
MBA and a doctorate, heads the
new generation of European
economic gurus. He is an advisor THE KEY IDEAS
to many multinationals, helping
them to look at the future in a Make room for grey matter.
creative way. He still finds time With the new technologies in information and communication we
to be an art collector and to own have moved into the era of the intellect. In the "world village", a com-
one of Swedens "funky" art pany’s future depends on the intellect of its team members. The
galeries! consumer, who is more and more demanding, wants a dream, evasion,
emotion, rather than products and services.
Only the best rake in the pot.
Impossible to decipher with traditional charts and tables, this new era
THE EXPERT is one of overabundance, upheaval, speed, the expansion of space.
Globalisation increases competition while at the same time standar-
Elisabeth Laville dises and fragments the world. In order to succeed a company must be
A graduate of the HEC, #1 in its field. Or even better, unique.
Elisabeth Laville founded
Utopies in 1993, whose vocation
Permanent Innovation.
Creativity leads to the redefining of the company and its markets. But
is to promote a vision of busi-
permanent change in the environment implies the constant search for
ness which is more responsible
innovation (ongoing AND revolutionary). Innovation is a state of
and more committed in its daily
mind. Each team member must be aware of this.
practices, to the French and
European population.
* www.utopies.com

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 THE RESUME
et ready to be surprised. We han first mentioned in the 60s, is

G are not talking about the

future. We are talking about
the present. The funky world, a "cute"
coming to life. Capitalism is on the
move almost everywhere in the
world. Eastern Europe and Asia have
and "fun" place in which all the rules started to trace their development on
have been changed, is at your doors- the image of the Occident. The
tep. With the help of strong personali- exchange of knowledge between uni-
ties who come from different specialities, areas conduci- versities is growing. The student elite can today choose
ve to originality have been visited. The objective: to from the best universities the world has to offer (in
pinpoint the structure in the apparent disorder of this Germany, Great Britain, France, the United States and
new environment, to understand the mechanisms of the soon in Asia, South America or cyberspace)! The indus-
new universe – a world within which new types of com- trialised countries are taking out a monopoly on know-
panies (Funky Inc.) are developing, and which require ledge. And companies look for the best candidates or the
new ways of organising, of operating and of thinking. best supplier wherever they may be found on the pla-
Welcome to the world of ongoing innovation, of the net. Competition is global. Products, markets and custo-
dream, of emotions. mers are multiplying. More, more, more: a true society
of over abundance. The really hard job: to stand out
Funky Times amongst such stiff competition, when a new product is
After land,capital and machines,the new means of pro- copied - or even improved upon – in a matter of weeks.
duction is grey matter. ■The individual reclaims his free- The only possibility: total AND ongoing innovation.
dom and his power.We are living on the planet Knowledge. Complete differentiation. The funky world is a world in
In the global village. perpetual motion. Use and abuse the grey matter.

Marx, Mao, Lenin, Ho Chi-Minh were right – at least in

part. The workers now own and control their means of
production since for the most part it consists of their The 7 Characteristics
grey matter. It is the brain which allows us to create, to
feel the upheaval taking place in the world and to adapt
of Funky Inc.
to it. The brain is a wonder tool, better than any of the
others; land, capital or machines. A companies capital
belongs to each of the collaborators. On a planetary ❶ Funky In.is the smallest of traditional companies
scale, the new cold war would be a confrontation of This tends to allow greater creativity from its colla-
brains. Knowledge has gone through three revolutions: borators.
the first took place in 1455 when Gutenburg invented ❷ Funky Inc.is less of a bureaucracy,less procedu-
the printing press, the second happened in the middle of ral. The putting in place of solutions is rapid.
the 20th century with the appearance in the home of
❸ Funky Inc. is transitory. The collaborators work
radios and television, the third dates from the early 90’s "on a project" not "for a company"
with the exponential increase of web sites. Today, more
than ever, knowledge is the source of real power. It is ❹ Funky Inc. is more horizontal. There is no strictly
THE new battle field. And since information is now vertical hierarchy.
available to anyone anywhere, thanks to the Internet, ➎ Funky Inc. is "circular". A 360° view of all that is
power can be found in the most out of the way places. happening is possible.
➏ Funky Inc. is open. It organises networks with its
Marx, however, was wrong since today riches attract collaborators, clients, suppliers and even its com-
riches and capitalism is king almost anywhere in the petition.
world. At the same time, this new peaceful revolution is
turning the very nature of societies, economies, compa- ❼ Funky Inc. uses information systems which mea-
sure its performance.
nies, work and our lives completely upside-down.
Although it is difficult to apprehend, it questions the Caution: all of these characteristics are necessary
very role and methods of traditional thought. In this but insufficient for success.Even with the best reci-
pe in the world, bad cooks will continue to make
new world, economics (funky business) know no
bad meals...
bounds. The market is the entire world. Thanks to these
new technologies, the global village that Marshall McLu-

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 “On the
Funky village village (the Internet, much stiffer. And the consumer becomes
cute global village…)
Globalisation goes hand in hand with standar-
consumers more demanding. Behold, the new dictator!
The individual has taken power. On the
disation.■ Companies and products look more
and more alike,competition levels the playing
from all Internet, consumers from all over the world
can get together to defend themselves or to
field.■The new challenge is to capture the over the get discounts (through collective buying),
and can, in short, control the market. Com-
consumer’s attention.
world can panies struggle to get a few seconds of atten-
☞ Three major changes coincided in for-
ming this new universe: technological
get toge- tion from the individual. Some brands don’t
hesitate to up the ante. In the United States a
changes, institutional changes (capitalism,
nations, political parties, education systems),
ther to TV commercial for Mercedes Benz shows a
woman who loves her car so much that it
and the evolution of values (democracy, soli- defend gives her an orgasm!
darity, religion, family, sexuality, culture…),
which were particularly unsettling. them- A blurred society!
➥ Our planet was one big stage on which com-
selves.” The computerised world has modified our
relationship to time,to the human being and
panies acted out their part. This part now to space. ■ But if this new and unstable envi-
appears to be improvised and the individual (consumers) ronment seems to be lost in a fog it is because we are trying
can take their turn on stage. This will require taking a to play by the old rules.
long hard look at oneself and reinventing who you are –
as difficult as that may be – in a world of constant evolu- ☞ Passage into the funky village underscores three
tion, full of uncertainty and the unknown. But by aboli- types of evolution:
shing geographical, temporal or tariff borders, you freely
choose your route – which increases your responsibilities. ➥ The relationship to time. A new reality: speed. What
Funky challenge, isn’t it? previously took days, even months, can be done almost
instantaneously. (This is the CNN society, the real time
➥ This is the era of the surplus: more products, more choice, society.) Why do companies persist in publishing annual
more information, more publicity, more consumers, more reports? In an on-line economy everything is updated
competition. Norway has 20 TV networks for a popula- and available 24 hours a day. Prices adjust automatically
tion of 4.5 million. In 1996, Sony introduced 5,000 new following the laws of supply and demand. Coca Cola
products. Seiko has 5,000 different models of watches. has automatic distributors which offer products whose
Disney develops a new product every 5 minutes. At the
age of 18 you have already seen 350,000 TV commer-
cials. What will the new generation be like, the genera- A new itinerary for a
tion that grows up with the Internet? new economy
☞ There are three underlying forces to this society of
excesses: Contraction You are here

➥ The growth of the markets and the resulting marketma-

nia (market deregulation, economic domination). Time
➥ Ongoing (and nonsensical) overabundance of supply,
which has exceeded demand since the 90s and which Expansion
seems to know no boundaries.
Contraction Expansion
➥ Technological progress which lowers the cost of infor-
mation. The whole world is at our doorstep.
This is your itinerary in the new environment.
Notions of time and space are gone: the
The problem is that this society of overabundance, this
delays diminish, markets expand.
funky village, develops uniformity in all things. Compa-
nies, partners products all look alike. Competition is that

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prices vary according to the weather with its exploding growth), by way of
(prices will drop if it is raining…). Eastern Europe. The centres of gravity
are multiplying. The rivalry of the
➥ The relationship to Man. Grey mat- brains is heating up.
ter dominates the world. Microsoft is
the brainchild of only a few minds. ☞ Two ways of looking at the world
The intangible makes all the diffe- then become possible:
rence.
➥ Globalisation creates chaos (And
➥ The relationship to space. The Inter- you get lost in it).
net has created one big bazaar! What
is the expression "made in" worth ➥ Globalisation opens up enormous
today? The Finnish Nokia has people in Japan, in China, markets (and you get to work = 3 billion people to
in Australia, In the United States, in Great Britain, in conquer). And of course, there is as much competition as
Germany, they send trend scouts to Los Angeles, to Lon- there are opportunities.
don…. The old "made in" has become "made by". On all
continents the same ways of operating are developing, In Europe, the point is to not miss the mark. The unex-
from the Far West (where the Unites States dominate pected is at our doors. Some multinationals have unders-
with their information society) to the Far East (in Asia, tood, and are more concerned about the performance of
their collaborators than their passports.
Some not so crazy advice for a
crazy world With the abolition of all borders, the uncertainties, the
upheavals, the speed… Society has become blurred. Eve-
❶ Be the best, number one in your field. Even ryone is drowning in the mist; the industrial sectors, rela-
better, be unique (and excellent!) Then live by tionships between companies, products and services, the
using and abusing the grey matter of your col- distinction between work and leisure. But this lack of
laborators. visibility stems solely from the fact that we are looking at
❷ Look for the best possible employees, this new world in the old ways, using an outdated frame-
recruiting them throughout the world. Aim for work. So be creative. Think re-organisation instead of
cultural, educational diversity including back- chaos. Think innovation instead of confusion.
grounds, even dress codes!
❸ You are lost, can’t find your landmarks? No. 1 or nothing
Think re-organisation instead of chaos. Think Globalisation contains the seed for both the standardisa-
innovation. tion and the fragmentation of the world.■ PTo impose your
ideas,you must be the best,incontestably.A world-wide
❹ Live for intelligence. Form teams to work on star.
a project from A to Z.
➎ Think lean: get back to your professional ☞ Paradoxically, globalisation has also fragmented
basics, get the best out of your team, try to win the world due to the increase in power of three fac-
over your own market niche, a consummate tors:
tribe.
❻ At the same time personalise your products ➥ Polarisation. The new "apartheid" is binary (a graduate /
and services to the maximum. It is the age of not a graduate, computer literate / not computer litera-
the one-to-one consumer. te…).
❼ Mix existing values with new ones.
➥ Tribalisation. Members of a tribe (MBAs, Hell’s
Recombine to create. Always aim for innova-
Angels, Green Peace members…) recognise each other
tion (total and ongoing innovation)
through their language, their dress codes, their symbols,
➑ In sales, play to the emotional theme. etc., no matter the distance that separates them.
"Touch" the human being. Offer sentiments,
emotions, dreams. ➥ Individualisation. The new world offers greater
opportunities for personal development.

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 "The new
☞ At the same time, society has become a
"apar- shells, in the sense that they do not manu-
society of upheaval. The "old" has been com- theid" is facture anything. Their strengths lie with
bined with newly emerging values. Examples: their collaborators, who reinvent markets,
e-mail, the corporate university, edu-tainment binary (a develop new and unique processes, pro-
(education + entertainment), bio-technolo- ducts or services just as Michael Dell, Char-
gies, but also the Kodak photo-disk or BMWs graduate / lie Parker and Andy Warhol were able to do
(mechanics x electronics x design). In order to
dissociate themselves from standardisation not a gra- in their own fields. There is a "before" and
an "after" the ideas of great creators.
companies must offer the consumer an added
value which is both new and surprising. The
duate, ☞ The new company (Funky Inc.) has redefi-
German painter Michel Majerus combines
Watteau with Warhol and Disney!
computer ned its activities with tree aims:

☞ Caution: in order to succeed in the new

literate / ➥ to be completely centred on its profession.
To have a speciality and to be the best.
world one must be the best. Because only not com- Many companies have realised that they did
number 1 (Microsoft, Madonna, Pavarotti) not correctly define their real abilities:
take home the pot of gold. Why would a true puter lite- General Electric, IBM and Xerox are, in fact
hockey fan watch an AHL game when he service suppliers (expertise).
could see the Penguins and the Bruins face off rate…)"
against each other? Why would he buy the CD of an ➥ to no longer have its image for excellence based on its
opera sung by unknowns when he could get the same best collaborators. The strength of the largest of compa-
opera with the best voices of our times – and probably nies is often in their "brains", these few people without
pay less for it? In a world without boundaries, only the whom they (example: Microsoft) would not be them-
stars attract attention. This is why the biggest names on selves. You must strive to remain at the peak of excel-
the Internet (Amazon, Yahoo) try to walk away with lence. Always strive for improvement or you will be
100% of the market by lowering consumer entry requi- overcome. Always choose the best of suppliers, as Nike,
rements, even offering him free products and services. Timberland, Dell, etc do.
They choose growth over short or mid term profit.
➥ to attract the attention of an entire tribe. Try to create
In a universe where any kind of information is available a very narrow niche in which you capture 100% of the
24 hours a day, where the competition succeeds in cat- market by responding exactly to demand. Define your
ching up to each other, from Rome to Singapore, from tribe, wherever it may be in the world. Forget the ave-
New Delhi to Los Angeles. Since the ingredients are the rage person. One of our friends started an insurance
same for everyone, it is imperative to create the best company for alcoholics, drug addicts and criminals.
recipe in the world. A unique recipe
which combines the ingredients in
A few quotes chosen by the authors
new and interesting ways. A recipe A few quotes chosen by the authors.
which will catch the consumer’s eye, Man is still the most extraordinary of computers"
which will give him a real and new (John F. Kennedy)
benefit and which will be difficult to
copy. "Today, the decisive production factor is man himself, that is to
say his knowledge" (Jean-Paul II, en 1991)
Funky Inc. (the cute new "It is better to burn, to be consumed , than to fade away in sinen-
company…) ce" (Neil Young, rock star)
The new company reinvents itself and
"The Internet is not out done by telepathy." (Michael Dell)
reinvents its markets thanks to the grey
matter of its collaborators. ■ It is "Destroy in order to build" (Mao)
constantly in search of innovation. "We must be the change that we whish to see happen in the
world" (Gandhi)
The 300 largest multinationals (Gene-
ral Motors, Ford, Wall-Mart, Exxon…) "All business is show business" (Jan Carzon)
control 25% of the assets on this pla- Even out of context they are worth thinking about…
net. Yet they are nothing but hollow

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☞ The new company uses leveraging in Levi’s tailored to anyone’s measure-
three ways: ments – for only $10 more.

➥ At the internal level. Create a lear- Finally, Funky Inc. aims for diversity,
ning company. You must succeed in heterogeneity and nuance; reflec-
passing on your ideas and knowledge tions of a complex environment.
at the intellectual stage, the oral stage
and into realisation (activities, pro- ➥ Funky Inc. abolishes the pyramidal
ducts, services). Make it a reality! hierarchy which implies that the
ideas coming from the top are better
➥ On a domain level. You can use than those from farther down. This
your Knowledge-capital to penetrate classical hierarchy was appropriate in
new markets, by sub-contracting the process. This is a stable and predictable environment.
what Coca Cola, Marlboro, Disney, Virgin, Honda…,
do. Funky U (you)
The new leaders and the funky people provoke creativity.
➥ On an international level. Even a small company can ■They are attentive to variety, to the different, to the
sell its product to a tribe which is spread out over five nuance. ■They sell the dream and emotions.
continents.
Today, a leader has to know how to create disorder from
☞ To make itself stand out the new company innovates. order because too much order stifles creativity. He must
Innovation is a state of mind. A philosophy which encourage a degree of risk taking within the company,
should be drilled into everyone. To innovate first allow his collaborators to experiment with their ideas,
requires the ability to rethink all of your activities: accept the consequences (flops, etc.). Scientists invented
from product design to administrative or marketing Viagra while trying to develop an entirely different type
organisation. To innovate also requires knowing how to of medication! A good leader will also pay as much
listen to the consumer AND how to ignore him attention to his employees’ suggestions and questions as
(because he can only ask for what he can conceive of he does to their demands and complaints. A leader must
and not the unimaginable). To innovate also means to recognise and even encourage heterogeneity among his
know how to combine extremes but definitely not to employees (motives, attitudes, languages, dress codes).
seek a tepid consensus, which will satisfy the "average And why not, therefore, pay them and reward them dif-
consumer". ferently, according to their personality? Go places you
don’t usually go to, read magazines that you are not
➥ Funky Inc. innovates by reinventing its strategy. familiar with, go to the opera, surf the Internet, talk to
an alcoholic, etc. You will be surprised.
➥ Funky Inc. innovates by shortening all delays.

➥ Funky Inc. innovates by its search for perfection.

THE AUTHOR'SOWN WORLD
“True leaders will challenge other people,
To innovate is also, paradoxically, knowing when to get they don’t control them. True leaders liberate
rid of customers who cost money. And it is knowing Man”
how to personalise your products and services (the “We all need a recipe which is original
Post-it is offered in 18 colours, 27 sizes and 56 shapes, enough to capture the attention of difficult
etc.). We are in a one-to-one society. Move on to one- consumers who are saturated with offers, a
to-one manufacturing and to one-to-one consumers. recipe which has a real added value, a reci-
On the Internet, Custom Clothing Technology offers pe which is difficult to copy. In a society
where only #1 carries off the pot of gold, we
all have to understand that if we can’t come
The "key Ideas" and "Summary" sections are intended to be the most faithful pre- up with a better recipe, we risk sitting down
sentation possible of the ideas and reflection of the author of the original book, to a Last Supper.”
without any form of critical interference. These sections, which are original des-
criptions for which we are wholly responsible, are intended as summaries: they
are neither extracts from or abridged versions of the book by Gary Hamel. We
recommend that the reader turn to the original book.

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 Detect funky people: These are the creators, the ones
who will move your company forward. They are
constantly updating their aptitudes, reinventing them-
selves while they reinvent the market. They even have
their own slogan. They try to attract attention, to seduce.
They are "connected": the number of ideas they have is
related to the size of their network. Today, anyone can
become a leader, even if it is only as the leader of his
own experience. Anywhere and at anytime, there is
someone to convince and to make dream. This is what
Marx, Martin Luther King, Kennedy, Bill Gates unders-
tood and did.

In order to sell, you have to "touch" the human being,

offer sentiments, fantasy, evasion, ethics (Body Shop),
aesthetics (Philips, Bosch). But, like the capacity to inno-
vate, emotions and imagination are above all states of
mind, attitudes which should be developed. Surprised?
Be surprising, funky instead! Its one of the conditions of
success in the funky world. Have fun!

from FUNKY BUSINESS

FOR FURTHERINFORMATION
by Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom JAMMING

Prentice Hall Publishing, April 2000 by John Kao

Harper Collins Publishers, July 1996
Resume in Business Digest no. 54 September 1998

INNOVATION, A VIRTUAL CIRCLE

by Tom Peters
Village Mondial, Septembre 1998
resume in Readers Digest # 81 December 1998

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 rance is not very adept in produ-

F
taking an audacious stance instead of
cing management books which a luke warm consensus.
are as stimulating as Funky Busi-
ness or as playfully provocative as the At first, we can agree, without too
more recent works of Tom Peters – much difficulty, with the optimistic
The Pursuit of Wow!, comes to mind; approach of Funky Business: the
published in 1994 and still not trans- XXIst century company is an exci-
lated into French. Home to the ting and enthusiastic adventure,
E.N.A. (École Nationale d’Adminis- where values and creativity count for
tration – National Business School) more than ability or position. A reso-
and the Economic Horror, it seems to lutely humane adventure compatible
be understood that management is a with self development. But his
serious thing, whose experts wear enthusiasm fails to mask the flip side
suits which are as serious as their lan- of the era which is not "funky" for
guage. Experts who apply themselves everyone, far from it, if the bottle is
seriously to serious matters and who
Elisabeth Laville half full, it is also half empty. True, as
sometimes forget not to take them- Graduate of HEC, co-founder of the authors claim, information is now
selves too seriously. Their books are Utopia, consultants in corporate "available to anyone anywhere, no
all too often enclosed in sad looking strategy and citizenship. matter how far afield they may be":
covers, their titles are forbidding and new technologies are already chan-
the lay out of the pages is as dour as ging our way of living, working,
the graphics with which they consuming or learning.
are peppered. Addressed exclu- A FUNKY ERA?
sively to the intellectual reader But most of the inhabitants of
these flowers of literary enterprise contribute, despite the planet are distanced from this revolution: 65% per
their content, to the promotion of an archaic vision of the cent of the people in world today have never made a
workplace: a mild daily torture (see the Latin etymology phone call. And this growing gap can be seen at all levels:
of "tripalium"), where it is unseemly to find a sense, plea- the gap between the rich (20% of the world population
sure or energy…. Only too rarely does a French text consume 80% of the resources) and the poor (20% of the
emerge from these flat lands to the success of, for world population who control only 1% of the resources)
example, Service compris (Bloch & Habaou) in 1986. has doubled in 30 years. In this context the "society of
overabundance" that Funky Business describes seems
But times change: they tell us that the world is moving somehow indecent: Sony introduces 5,000 new products
fast and that we are living in an age of unlimited opportu- a year but more than half of the world’s population live
nities and unprecedented uncertainty. As Bob Dylan put on less than 2 dollars a day. At the age of 18 a young
it, "everything which is not being born is dying" We have Occidental has already seen 350,000 commercials but our
to shake up our old habits and go beyond what is already unrestrained rate of consumption is exhausting the natu-
being done all too often and imagine what is not yet being ral resources which cannot recover fast enough. And if we
done. Funky Business shows us the way: overthrowing are "condemned to be free", this revolution risks leaving
established order is, above all, a radical change in approa- behind millions of people who are deprived of the educa-
ch. Here is a book with a dynamic title, an eye-catching tion and emancipation necessary to taking advantage of
cover (the shock of the two bald heads of the authors this freedom. Capitalism has shown the 20th century that
Nordsrtom and Ridderstale) with a refreshing page lay it had lots of energy, an enormous capacity for innovation,
out, short paragraphs, varied photos and catch phrases transformation and the creation riches: it is up to us in the
which will hook the readers attention. The authors of 21st century to enlarge upon these qualities and to put
Funky Business, begin by applying the precepts of which them to the service of people and the environment.
this book claims to be the bible to themselves, which
serves to increase the effectiveness of their demonstration: ELISABETH LAVILLE
to no longer offer a product but a dream and emotions; to
reinvent your market with creativity and intelligence; to
grab the attention of the over solicited consumer with a
real added value which is difficult to copy; to bet on hete-
rogeneity, diversity and a touch of confusion; to favour

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