The New Pioneers: The Men and Women Who Are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace
by By Petzinger, Thomas
Category: Business & Economics , Development , Business Development

The New Pioneers is about a powerful revolution that is reshaping the face of American business and creating an opportunity-rich economy. It is not to be found in the headline-grabbing megamergers, takeovers, downsizing, fiscal crises, or bustups that command the front pages of the financial press. The vanguards of change are most visible not in the penthouse suites of the Fortune 500 but in spectacularly successful small- and medium-size firms.  With the compelling storytelling and keen insight that rank him among America's best-read business columnists, Tom Petzinger takes you inside this revolution to reveal how a dynamic generation of innovators and entrepreneurs is creating a collaborative new work-place, a value-added marketplace, and an economy over-flowing with opportunity. These new pioneers recognize that the command-and-control hierarchy of the twentieth century is no longer responsive to the economic forces sweeping the globe.  With the big-picture perspectives that have made his weekly Wall Street Journal column, "The Front Lines," famous, Petzinger draws from corporate case studies of companies in more than forty cities in thirty states, as well as accounts from overseas. His startling conclusions reveal not only a changing of the guard but far-reaching changes in the way business is being conducted.  Among the highlights:  * How technology is wiping out economies of scale while creating economies of scope and locality  * How today's entrepreneurs are redefining the meaning of "niche"  * The creation of radical new compensation and motivation strategies for a new kind of workforce  * What business is learning from complexity science in the search for fundamental laws governing natural and human systems  * How the family firm can serve as a model for all business  * Why the new ethos sweeping business signals a return to fundamental human values  Petzinger's brilliant blending of microscopic reporting and "macroscopic" insight promises to make this book a modern classic.