Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56540
every arena, from demographics and technology to geopolitics and climate change. He charts the past courses of 30-year commodity cycles, 34-year geopolitical cycles, 80-year technological cycles, 40-year generational cycles, eight- to nine- year terrorist cycles, and more—and notes that they're all due to turn downward between 2009 and 2010. "We are about to enter the first winter season in our economy since the 1930s." It's not all gloom and doom; Dent does offer invest- ing strategies to survive the downturn, and he does present the coming crash as an almost beneficial season of life. "What is critical is that you see this next great depression as inevitable and necessary, especially for your kids' lives and careers well into the future." It's a scary book— but it achieves its goal, which is to make the reader think hard about the future. (Free Press, $27) Any CEO with global aspirations has given some thought to entering the mar- kets in China and India—but a bad entry strategy is worse than no strat- egy when it comes to doing business in these vast, populous, and rapidly changing nations. Anil K. Gupta and Haiyan Wang offer deep insights in Getting China and India Right. Gupta, a business professor at the University of Maryland, and Wang, managing partner of the China India Institute, say both countries are critical to global commerce because both represent "four stories rolled into one." That is, they offer huge and rapidly growing markets; cost-efficient labor platforms; pools of sophisticated workers with technological expertise; and the right conditions to launch "a new breed of fearsome global competitors." The authors present eye-popping data about labor costs, GDP, and consump- tion patterns along the entire con- sumer pyramid, as well as predictions about how quickly these numbers can change. And they come to an unadorned conclusion: "Any For- tune 1000 company that is not busy figuring out how to leverage the rise of China and India to transform the entire company runs a serious risk of not being around as an independent entity within ten to fifteen years." (Jossey-Bass, $29.95) Members of the boomer and traditionalist generations may find it intolerable to hear how "millennials" expect to be treated at the office. "I feel strongly that different bankers develop at dif- ferent paces, and those who excel should be both advanced and com- pensated according to ability," says a twenty-something young analyst at Merrill Lynch. He's typical of his generation, at least as profiled by Ron Alsop in The Trophy Kids Grow Up. With this intriguing and insight- ful look at the newest generation to enter the workforce, Alsop examines how millennials and corpo- rations are figuring out exactly what to expect from each other— and whether they can coax the other one to change. He details the millennials' strengths (they're optimistic, inclusive, globally aware, and civic minded) and weaknesses (they're impatient, arrogant, fickle, and eas- ily bored), and gives tips on how to keep them engaged at work. He also describes the efforts some companies have made to "introduce this 'new species' into the workplace." It will be fascinating to watch the story unfold in corporations around the world. (Jossey-Bass, $24.95) Procter & Gamble's Pampers line of baby diapers didn't really take off until the company changed its focus from fulfilling the simple function of "keeping the bottom dry" to the grander goal of developing healthy babies. The company began investigating ways to improve sleep and enhance brain development; it part- nered with UNICEF so that every purchase of a bag of Pampers bought a vaccination for a baby. P&G had found the product's purpose—which had the side effect of turning Pampers into an $8 billion brand. Purpose is the central theme of It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For, written by Roy M. Spence Jr. with Haley Rushing. "If you have a purpose and can artic- ulate it with clarity and passion, then everything makes sense and everything flows," write the authors. "If you don't have a clear and easy-to-articulate purpose, everything feels a bit chaotic, harried, and maybe even meaningless." Illustrating with examples from companies such as Southwest Air, Whole Foods, BMW, and John Deere, Spence and Rushing show how defining a purpose can help a company energize its workforce, outshine its competitors, and sometimes change the world. (Portfolio, $25.95) ■ z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 63