A Freethinker's A-Z of the New World of Business
A Freethinker's A-Z of the New World of Business
By Stuart Crainer
Published by Capstone Press, 2000.
This is a 6" by 9" paperback running to 304 pages plus an introduction.
The graphic design of this book is notable, and I'll mention it first because it's what you see first. The book shouts "cyber." It's entirely printed in a futuristic sans-serif font, on paper that's heavily watermarked with a fuzzy background of digital-looking text. The unorthodox design reinforces the "freethinking" theme of the title.
Few books from 2000 are as dated as this, because what the book is about is, essentially, the "new economy" that just a year or so after the book's publication turned out to be an illusion. That makes the book a rather embarrassing testament to the trendiness, sloppy thinking, conformism, and lack of basis in reality of so much popular economic and business discourse.
The book is indeed a reference book though. It is a dictionary aimed at providing some help for people who are intimidated by the pace of change in the "new economy" and want to know what all those buzzwords mean, but are embarrassed to ask the person in the next cubicle because it is an admission of inferiority. Having the book on one's shelf, however, declares that one is a "freethinker."
The entries are ordered alphabetically and cover People (commentators, executives, tech and motivational gurus, internet celebrities), Organizations (think tanks, with-it retailers, brands, educational institutions), and Ideas (all kinds of new-age cyber-capitalist things in this category).
There is some information in this book that is still relevant in today's business world, but mostly it represents a dated example of the quickly changing, fear-based market for the latest thing. Not recommended.
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