Ask consumers and users what names they associate with the multibillion dollar personal computer market, and they will answer IBM, Apple, Tandy, or Lotus. The more knowledgable of them will add the likes of Microsoft, Ashton-Tate, Compaq, and Borland. But no one will say Xerox. Fifteen years after it invented personal computing, Xerox still means "copy."

Fumbling the Future tells how one of America's leading corporations invented the technology for one of the fastest-growing products of recent times, then miscalculated and mishandled the opportunity to fully exploit it. It is a classic story of how innovation can fare within large corporate structures, the real-life odyssey of what can happen to an idea as it travels from inspiration to implementation.

More than anything, Fumbling the Future is a tale of human beings whose talents, hopes, fears, habits, and prejudices determine the fate of our largest organizations and of our best ideas. In an era in which technological creativity and economic change are so critical to the competitiveness of the American economy, Fumbling the Future is a parable for our times.

Their story is much more than a catalogue of vivid business tales; it is a map of American ambitions and assumptions, of national triumphs and epic-scale misjudgments that have only recently been finding their comeuppance.

A longtime critic of hostile cash takeovers of large corporations, Edmund Kelly believed that if the organized insincerity of advisors and corporate control entrepreneurs in the tight knit takeover community was told, this alone would contribute to a decline in the acceptance of the hostile bid as an acquisition method. Copies of The Takeover Dialogues were purchased primarily in 1988 by investment and commercial banking and corporate law firms, executives and business libraries. Prominent uninvited cash takeover bids averaged 17 a year for the period 1985 - 1988. There were 6 in 1989 and 2 in 1990. For the years 1991 -1999 they averaged 1.2 a year. In these carefully reasoned dialogues, Edmund Kelly also examines the impact of corporate raids on the business community and society. Kelly believes the ideal corporation translates capital and human energy into a community service institution that is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts.

This book raises important questions of public policy about issues affecting the institutions upon which we all depend for our continued prosperity. It is important reading for anyone concerned about the future of corporate business in a capitalistic society.

Author Dan Anderson, a professor of risk management and insurance, has been observing sustainability risk management issues for his entire career. In Corporate Survival he presents guidelines for various professionals in the risk management and insurance industries. In his view, corporations need to establish sound sustainability risk management systems in order to survive potentially major financial and professional damages. These damages can arise from liability suits, customer boycotts, shareholder actions, new regulations, and international pressures.

Anderson provides well-timed direction for establishing risk management systems, as well as numerous examples of how companies successfully employ sustainability risk management strategies. He also demonstrates the advantages of following his advice for corporate survival, including reducing sustainability risk costs, improving competitive advantage, attracting both reliable customers and productive employees, augmenting the firm's reputation and community image, and increasing profits.

Corporate Survival will help all corporations and those in the fields of risk management and insurance improve business systems while enhancing environmental quality and social justice conditions.

Author Dan Anderson, a professor of risk management and insurance, has been observing sustainability risk management issues for his entire career. In Corporate Survival he presents guidelines for various professionals in the risk management and insurance industries. In his view, corporations need to establish sound sustainability risk management systems in order to survive potentially major financial and professional damages. These damages can arise from liability suits, customer boycotts, shareholder actions, new regulations, and international pressures.

Anderson provides well-timed direction for establishing risk management systems, as well as numerous examples of how companies successfully employ sustainability risk management strategies. He also demonstrates the advantages of following his advice for corporate survival, including reducing sustainability risk costs, improving competitive advantage, attracting both reliable customers and productive employees, augmenting the firm's reputation and community image, and increasing profits.

Corporate Survival will help all corporations and those in the fields of risk management and insurance improve business systems while enhancing environmental quality and social justice conditions.

Ask consumers and users what names they associate with the multibillion dollar personal computer market, and they will answer IBM, Apple, Tandy, or Lotus. The more knowledgable of them will add the likes of Microsoft, Ashton-Tate, Compaq, and Borland. But no one will say Xerox. Fifteen years after it invented personal computing, Xerox still means "copy."

Fumbling the Future tells how one of America's leading corporations invented the technology for one of the fastest-growing products of recent times, then miscalculated and mishandled the opportunity to fully exploit it. It is a classic story of how innovation can fare within large corporate structures, the real-life odyssey of what can happen to an idea as it travels from inspiration to implementation.

More than anything, Fumbling the Future is a tale of human beings whose talents, hopes, fears, habits, and prejudices determine the fate of our largest organizations and of our best ideas. In an era in which technological creativity and economic change are so critical to the competitiveness of the American economy, Fumbling the Future is a parable for our times.