Overview
There can be little doubt that the economic environment is currently going through a period of profound and rapid change. Globalisation, financial meltdown and the continuing importance of the internet are all impacting on the daily life of the business comminuty, Rusden’s New Business Environment program has been designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to some of the key social, political and technological changes of the past ten years and will help you developpractical tools and methodologies to deal with the future.
What you will learn
- How Globalisation and climate change is affecting the world economy
- What is happening in the world financial markets and how this fits into the wider picture
- How the internet and new types of thinking can create new business opportunities
Course material
The world is flat – Thomas Friedman
This overwhelming book succumbs to the very scope of its ambition and the topics it covers: globalization and technology. Author Thomas Friedman literally covers the world for The New York Times, and his access to important local authorities, corporate executives, local Times bureaus and researchers, the Internet and a tape recorder has enabled him to compile a huge amount of information. All of it buttresses his views about the important convergence of political and technological change. He offers interesting anecdotes about companies worldwide and intriguing conversations with friends, reporters and experts.
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World – John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan
“In The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan show how capitalism is being successfully applied to Third World problems. Following in the footsteps of C.K. Prahalad, the authors point to the US$5 trillion available in purchasing power at the “bottom of the pyramid” and conclude that it is possible to do well and do good simultaneously. Their book is filled with the stories of “unreasonable people” who have applied their drive and imagination to these nontraditional markets, a trend that they argue is “a new phase in the evolution of business, markets, and capitalism itself.”.
The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth – Tim Flannery
Global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, is an incontrovertible, unassailable fact. Yes, a few flat-earth folks remain who argue that more proof is still needed. Thousands of objective technical reports, published in refereed scientific journals, clearly show the case is already made. In the scientific community, there is no debate: Climate change, caused by humans, is here. And, unless we quickly do something about it, the end results could be cataclysmic. This book will thoroughly educate you regarding the dangers of global warming and will tell you what you can do to address this shared problem.
Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity – Michael Lewis
“Panic” covers four major episodes: the 1987 United States stock market crash, the 1997-98 emerging-market bust-ups (called “Foreigners Gone Wild”), the dot-com meltdown and the current housing/credit/stock market collapse. Each is a triptych — the first panel is a brief essay by Lewis, the second is filled with contemporaneous newspaper or magazine articles that set up the boom, and the third presents sober analysis of why it happened.
A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age – Daniel Pink
This fun, exciting read suggests many ways to develop your “right-brain” thinking – the kind of relationship-based thought patterns that author Daniel Pink argues will be essential in the emerging “Conceptual Age.” Pink draws examples from numerous disciplines, industries and locations. The result is thought-provoking and applicable and Pink’s reasoning about the forces shaping this new age is striking in its simple rigor, as are the questions he offers that let you check how ready you and your business are for the economy that is emerging.
The Wisdom of crowds – James Surowiecki
This well-written bestseller explores the apparent anomaly that crowds of nonexperts seem to be collectively smarter than individual experts or even small groups of experts. This basic insight is at the heart of contemporary financial investment theory, with its emphasis on the difficulty of outguessing the market. Beginning with British scientist Francis Galton’s remarkable discovery in 1906 that a crowd of nonexperts proved surprisingly competent at guessing the weight of an ox, financial columnist and author James Surowiecki skillfully recounts experiments, discoveries and anecdotes that demonstrate productive group thinking.
How it works
Rusdens is an online distance learning provider connecting like minded individuals to short course and executive education programs. By combining in-depth analysis from some of the worlds leading business comentators with the networking opportunities of online communities, we are able to offer high quality training and development at a significant cost advatage.
