Partly because of the dynamics of the labor market, this is already happening. To attract and keep talent, companies will change from being a consumer of labour and competence to being a co-creator of competence and a provider of personality.
Personality wanted
"If you look at a number of successful companies such as WalMart, Southwest Airlines or Virgin, they tend to be providers of personality they have evolved into communities or tribes," says Ridderstrale.
People are looking for meaning in their working lives so in years to come, posit the pair, they will want not just a career but a calling, and what historically has been the preserve of organizations such as Amnesty, the Red Cross or the Vatican will filter out into traditional business organizations.
"It has to -- companies will have to create these emotional switching costs" to retain their best people, he says.
This chimes with another requirement. To create momen-tum, corporations need mass and energy.
"Velocity is a function of mass and energy, and I think we've been too obsessed during the last 20 years with processes focused on demassification, outsourcing, downsizing, getting lean," Ridderstrale says. "Most organizations are pretty efficient competitive weapons now, but we've neglected the other variable, energy."
"And there you can talk about soul, and about adding know-why to know-how. Because it's not only about core competencies. Core competencies are to a company what petrol is to a car: you can fill it up, but without spark plugs the car won't move. And the spark plugs of the company happen to be passion, soul, affection, intuition, desire, all the soft things that some people would call touchy-feely fluffy stuff. But we should also remember that research in neuro-science is pretty clear in indicating that the emotions always overpower reason. Our brains are emotionally wired," he says.
Obviously, there are dangers this way, too. Tribes and communities can easily become cults, cults turn arrogant and coercive (think of Enron). But this is a reminder that there is a choice.
Capitalism with a cause or capitalism with a curse? It's companies, not blind economic forces, that will decide, and companies are made by human beings.
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