By: World Out of Balance: Navigating Global Risks to Seize Competitive Advantage By Paul A. Laudicina McGraw-Hill, November 2004 256 pages, $27.95
The future may be unknowable, but you certainly can take some educated guesses about what's going to happen, argues Laudicina, managing director of A.T. Kearney's Global Business Policy Council. To be specific, you should study what he calls the “five drivers” that are most likely to shape the business environment in the years ahead: continued globalization of markets; domestic worker shortages; increased fragmentation of mass markets; strains on natural resources; and growing regulation and activism. Laudicina spends almost all his time arguing why these are the five factors to pay attention to - pretty much leaving it up to you to plan the best way to deal with them.
