Creativity and Leadership in the 21st Century Firm

In the wake of the dot-com shakeout of 2000, the time is ripe for a reappraisal of how information technology (IT) has created new environments for businesses and workers in the US and Europe. This book draws on the experiences of the 1990s to discern successful strategies for competing and winning in the New Economy. The lessons are most sharply defined in specific regional clusters of innovation. Accordingly, contributors are mainly on-the-scene observers and practitioners from Silicon Valley, New England and Europe. The common theme is the attempt to find innovative ways (in part through non-traditional business models) to create and build increasingly networked, flexible, participatory companies. Drawing on the notion of entrepreneurial behavior as "the pursuit of goals that are beyond the means currently available", the collection examines management, leadership, and innovation issues in start-up and established companies alike. While recognizing the hard realities of the new competition, the book highlights emerging win-win scenarios. Enabled in part by the new IT systems, these new approaches help companies succeed by seeking and rewarding decision-making, initiative and creativity on the part of all employees.