Beyond Certainty: The Changing Worlds of Organisations

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We must not let our past, however glorious, get in the way of our future. Over the last decade, change has accelerated violently. The Thatcher/Regan years were a time of certainty, when greed was good, more meant better, and the Western world rejoiced to see George Orwell's dismal prophecy for 1984 confounded. But there is a curvilinear logic in the universe. Prosperity cannot last forever. Empires and organisations must flounder. The world must be reinvented. We can now be certain only of uncertainty, and to plan for the future we must think differently. Compromise may be the way forward, and organisations must give more freedom to individuals to preserve commitment and creativity. In this challenging and exhilarating collection of pieces, Charles Handy, Britain's foremost business guru, takes us on an intellectual journey through a changing world, in order to see how we must adapt to make our future work.

Charles Handy is a writer and broadcaster, known to many for his 'Thoughts for Today' on the BBC's Today programme. He was named as Business Columnist of the Year in 1994 for some of the pieces in this collection. His books, including The Empty Raincoat, have sold over one million copies worldwide. He has been, in his time, an oil executive, a business economist, a Professor at the London Business School and Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts. He and his wife Elizabeth, a portrait photographer, live in London, Norfolk and Tuscany.