Let the Great World Spin: A Novel

This is realy brilliant book; lyrical, poignant and powerful. It is that rarest of books, the kind that you know will reside inside you for a very long time and will have changed you in some profound way that words can not address. It is a book that, when you reach the last page, will leave you feeling stunned and not sure whether to take a deep breath to digest it all or turn to page one and begin all over again.

In a sense this book is an homage to the city of New York. It begins with a true historical event, when Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. It is a marvelous sight. It was "one of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sense of the slew of ordinary days. New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief". (p.247)

Several people look up to see this tight-rope walker and this shared act of perception is the glue for this book. In some way, each of their lives are inter-connected and will remain connected through time.

There is Corrigan, the Jesuit Priest who is struggling between his faith and the woman he loves. Corrigan's love is a Guatamalan nurse, hoping that he will choose her over his God. Ciaran, whose life is in flux, is Corrigan's brother. Tillie is a prostitute in trouble with the law and hoping that the legacy of prostitution will not be passed down to her granddaughters as it has been to her daughter. Claire lives on Park Avenue but also lives in a world of grief, forever mourning her son who died in Vietnam. Gloria is Claire's friend who has also lost sons in the war and wakes up every day to the violence of the Bronx city projects. Soloman is a judge, Claire's husband, who has lost his idealism as he deals with the criminals in his courtroom and tries to please the bureaucracy he is a part of. And then there is Lara, attempting to rebuild her life after a tragedy forces her to look more closely at herself.

The book deals with two very powerful themes. One theme is that things occur by utter chance. "Things happen. Things collide". (p.133) There is also the idea that things might happen for a reason.

"We have all heard of these things before. The love letter arriving as the teacup falls. The guitar
striking up as the last breath sounds out. I don't attribute it to God or to sentiment. Perhaps
it's chance. Or perhaps chance is just another way to try to convince ourselves that we are
valuable." (p68)

In this novel, the inter-connectedness of people and events is played out in a way that could be interpreted as either eerie, spiritual, or just plain chance. New York is there, always, in the background. It is a city of crime, love, hate, justice, peace, war and beauty. The city is personified to contain just about every human emotion I can think of. The people are a part of this city and they, too, are a mixture of good and evil, beauty and ugliness. As McCann says in the book, people can be half good sometimes, a quarter bad at other times, but no one is perfect.

This book is near perfect. I found the first 25 pages a bit slow but don't let that stop you. This book is a treasure, one that opens up more and more with each page. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

"Funky Business" is definitely worth reading.

Few people would recognize Kjell A. Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale as professors from the Stockholm School of Economics: shaved heads and hip black outfits have become their trademark appearance. The two Swedes prefer not to be called lecturers and instead call themselves funksters who give “gigs” not lectures.

They are the authors of Funky Business, an unconventional business textbook proclaiming that Marx’ statement “Power to the people” is truer than ever today. They remind us that it’s individuals, employees and consumers that rule in the global market economy, and that intellectual capital is a corporations’ most valuable asset.

"Traditional roles, jobs, skills, ways of doing things, insights, strategies, aspirations, fears, and expectations no longer count. In this environment, we cannot have business as usual. We need business as unusual. We need different business. We need innovative business. We need unpredictable business. We need surprising business. We need funky business," write the Swedish professors in their book.

One of the authors, Kjell Nordstrom, presented the second Russian edition of Funky Business. Talent Makes Capital Dance, to a group of managers, students, and journalists recently at the Presidential Hotel. The presentation was organized by Stockholm School of Economics and the International Center for Financial and Economic Development .

Nordstrom began his Moscow gig by playing a track from a CD featuring a sermon by John Paul II, rap-style. If such a ‘moderately’ conservative organization as the Vatican can change with the times, the rest of us can, too, he said.

He appeared to be puzzled by the success of Funky Business: “I did research for thirteen years, and nobody called except for my mother. And then we wrote this book that is now translated into 29 languages. So now I ask myself: what happened? What my colleague and I have done is to take the economic mambo-jumbo, the language of economics and business, and say things in a clear way… Business schools have become quite technical and introvert and they use language which no one speaks - you need to be a professor to understand it. We tried to take all that away and talk straight.

“The second thing we do: we do not restrict ourselves to economics and business. We bring in things from psychology, anthropology, and the social sciences. We bring in everything. And it helps. And that I think that is what’s a little bit different about the book: But it’s a guess,” he added.

The main focus of the book is how businesses can survive under the conditions of a global economy where technologies, people, ideas, information and capital travel freely and the competition is fierce. Nordstrom and Ridderstrale claim that the key to success is being different. Bureaucracies and hierarchies are things of the past and companies capable of attracting media attention, the best designers and human resources, will hold out. “Average anything in our time is not a good idea,” Nordstrom said.

In their book Funky Business Nordstrom and Ridderstrale describe a company Funky, Inc., modeled after the principles they preach. It “isn't like any other company. It is not a dull, old conglomerate. It is not a rigid bureaucracy. It is an organization that actually thrives on the changing circumstances and unpredictability of our times.” Nordstrom said the principles are universal and can be applied anywhere in the world. “Most of us move in the same direction. We just move at a different pace. Some faster than others due to cultural differences and historical reasons,” he explained.

Andrei Solntsev of a 170-strong Russian roofing company Unikma confirmed the universality of the book’s ideas, saying that Funky Business is mandatory reading during their two-month employee training program and that employees are quizzed about the text in their final aptitude test.

"Funky Business" is definitely worth reading. The book serves as an eye-opener on the new economy and provides for an enjoyable, albeit challenging, read — supplementing economic facts and figures with colorful quotes from John Lennon, British band The Prodigy, and Karl Marx.

Funky Business - Talent makes capital dance

In Funky Business - Talent makes capital dance, Kjell A. Nordstrцm & Jonas Ridderstrеle launch a manifesto for the new world of business. Forget what has come before; this is the future for organizations and leaders. We are all condemned to freedom. We cannot delegate the understanding of what drives tomorrows society to politicians and executives. The funky future is here and now itґs all up to you. Funky Business is essential reading for those trying to learn the language and recipes of the new economy.



Funky Business tells us that the new world is different. Forget the old world order. Forget what you knew yesterday. The revolutionary reality is that 1.3 kilograms of brain holds the key to all our futures. Competitive advantage comes from being different. Increasingly, difference comes from the way people think rather than what organizations make. Today, the only thing that makes capital dance is talent. In such times we cannot have business as usual - we need funky business.Technology, institutions and values are being subverted and overturned. They are the triad, the inter-linked drivers of change, transforming each other and creating a global village of turbulence, tribes and fusion. We are deregulating life for ourselves and our children. Whether you like it or not, we are all condemned to freedom - the freedom to choose.


The drivers are shaping a weird, weird world. First, they are changing the way society operates. Social behavior, expectations and systems are undergoing seismic shifts. Society is restructuring itself along tribal lines as surplus and excess becomes a way of life...and business. And only those with a unique recipe will survive.

The second area in which change is most dramatic is among the great institutions of our age: corporations. The corporate complanceny of yesterday has given way to insecurity and fear. So, how will the emergent organizations be different from those that have gone before?And where does this leave the humble human being? Amid the maelstrom of change, people are seeking out understanding, meaning, development, skills and insight. So how should you lead others and how can you lead your own life?

What do you need to do today and tomorrow to thrive in the new world? Alberto Alessi is already doing it. So, too, is Steve Jobs. And Richard Branson. And Jorma Ollila. They are all exploiting the last taboo: competing on feelings and fantasy. Get ready for E(motional)-commerce!