The Following review was contributed by: John Walsh

Living in Thailand, we are apparently about to benefit from the Demographic Dividend: the once-in-living-memory event that sees for a few years the minimum number of dependents (people not in the labour market because of their age) for the maximum number of people in the labour market. This dividend represents an opportunity for investment in the future that will not be available to later generations because of the presence of more dependents. This situation has arisen from a combination of falling birth rates and increasing life expectancies. The situation is different for each country but everyone faces a world in which decreasing numbers of young people must support increasing numbers of older people. The obvious solutions are too import more young people from less-developed countries or else to require older people to continue working until later in life, contrary to their hopes and expectations of a lengthy leisure-filled retirement. Both solutions will require management and adjustment of societal beliefs.

In this context, authors Herman, Olivo and Gioia consider how these changes are likely to affect the corporate sector over the next decades. Like most business and management books, the authors of Impending Crisis use a variety of bullet points, graphics and short pithy sections to make their various points. Stylistically, the book is better than most of its competitors. Whether it chimes with the reader is likely to depend on the reader’s understanding of what the future will be like and what the nature of management is. In any case, the need to take more seriously the twin imperatives of a graying labour force and the apparently accelerating rate of introduction of new skills and competencies hides a number of contradictory impulses. Perhaps most startlingly, it has been clear throughout recorded history that older people are more conservative than younger people. However, future competitiveness seems likely to depend on creativity and imagination in employing skills and technology that have not yet been invented.

How can the managers and employers who are the intended audience of this book deal with the situation? The fundamental message offered is – we are dealing with America here so there is little discussion of managing the public sector to provide more and better qualified workers – to be good to those rare and suitable employees whose dedication and loyalty will be critical in achieving and sustaining corporate success.

Too few business books deal with the future in an intelligent and interesting manner. Since this one does both, it is recommended for anyone with an interest in the corporate sector.