Nine visions of capitalism : unlocking the meanings of wealth creation

Capitalism has been in a state of crisis for nearly one hundred years. The effects of the stock market crash of 1929 were felt well into the 1950s. The turbulence in international currency markets in the late 1960s, which sparked worldwide street protests in 1968, was unresolved until the middle of the 1980s. The avalanche of financial crises that followed the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 is still falling on businesses, consumers and communities around the world. In the face of such evidence it would be easy to think that capitalism is a doomed system. Nine visions of capitalism: unlocking the meanings of wealth creation suggests otherwise. According to Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars capitalism does have a future, but only if the standard Anglo-American model of capitalism is radically transformed. As the authors point out, creating wealth entails much more than simply making money. Society is only better off when it creates wealth through the transformation of money into products and services and the transformation of these back into money via revenue received. The current model of capitalism has led to a situation where the net worth of the world's top 10 billionaires stands at over $500 billion, enough to end world poverty instantly twice over. But the global economy is not richer for the presence of billionaires if the money in their pockets has simply been transferred from those of other people. So how can this failing model be fixed? Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars argue that accommodating diversity is a pre-requisite for the reinvention of wealth creation. China's spectacular growth, despite its recent problems, the dynamism and flexibility of the Mittelstand of German-speaking economies, Singapore's hybridization of Ea This important book examines the values essential to wealth creation. Some of the world s most successful Capitalist economies have absorbed very different values from those espoused in the Anglo-American system. In East Asia, for example, East and West have mingled in a way rarely seen elsewhere. Hong Kong and Singapore are much influenced by the British, while Taiwan and South Korea are much influenced by the USA. Nine visions of Capitalism suggests that this holds the clue to their competitiveness. While many economies have only one cultural context, they have two and can switch between them. Context switching is vital to commerce in general since the views of producers and consumers, owners and operators, management and labour are far enough apart to be considered opposites. Nine visions of Capitalism examines 9 very different forms of free enterprise, all of them effective: 1. It begins with the Anglo- American Linear-Active Model and explores what happens when a winning combination is taken too far; 2. before considering in detail the values that make China, the fastest growing economy in world history, 3. Singapore, the privately owned Mittelstand B2B companies of Germany; 4. the Cambridge Phenomenon: the new economy that is transforming universities and centres of knowledge in a sleepy British market town, global centres of wealth creation. 5. Nations that are already affluent must innovate or face decline. 6. Nearly everything can be made more cheaply in the developing world. 7. Only our endless originality can save us. 8. Only our delight in the process of creation in itself and for itself can make our lives self-fulfilling and meaningful and restore our place in the world. 9. a profound and hopeful message to Western economies in a time of deep pessimism about the future of the global economy. Annotation Some of the world's most successful Capitalist economies have absorbed very different values from those espoused in the Anglo-American system. In East Asia, for example, East and West have mingled in a way rarely seen elsewhere. Hong Kong and Singapore are much influenced by the British, while Taiwan and South Korea are much influenced by the USA. This book examines nine very different forms of free enterprise, all of them effective