Hidden champions are highly successful small and medium-sized companies that are global leaders in terms of market share in their respective niches. Presenting the outcomes of an in-depth, multinational study on hidden champions in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Russia, China, Mongolia and Turkey, this book provides essential insights into the critical drivers of success, market leadership positions, competitive advantage, and core lessons learned on the road to business prosperity. It also addresses development needs in connection with management, financing and the regulatory environment, which can in turn be used to create recommendations for various stakeholders (e.g. governments, financial institutions, management development institutions) in order to support hidden champions in their further growth and business success.

The world of business is constantly evolving and management education institutions will likely face a number of challenges in keeping up with these changes. While most books focus on the needs of management education institutions, this work addresses the needs of the corporate world in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Featuring an extensive research study spanning 11 countries, it offers a unique perspective on the business challenges and developmental needs of companies in emerging and recently emerged economies, and on the missing links between those needs and management education. Using both company-specific and country-level data, the book provides businesses and educators with rare insights and recommendations on strengthening existing partnerships (or establishing them anew) between management education institutions and the corporate sector in order to make management education relevant for the 21st century. The book argues that ‘relevance’ should take the center-stage of all higher education institutions in order to accomplish their third mission, namely service to society. This is especially important for management education institutions, whose mission is to mold future managers and leaders who can have a significant influence on economic success and the wellbeing of society.

“Hidden Champions” are medium-sized, unknown companies with annual revenues under $5 billion that have quietly, under the radar, become world market leaders in their respective industries. In this new instalment to his worldwide bestselling Hidden Champions volumes, Hermann Simon takes readers on in-depth exploration of the ever changing operating conditions and the greater uncertainty and volatility that defines the global business sphere over the next ten years. In particular, in this book he focuses on China’s continued impact on the business world since its rise in the global business and economic sphere over recent decades. In this regard, Dr. Simon shows the reader how the current status evolved, and then offers concrete and actionable recommendations. New driving forces such as digitalization, business ecosystems and sustainability receive special attention. While the main focus is on companies in German-speaking countries as they comprise 56 percent of the world’s Hidden Champions, the success factors mentioned in this book can be applied globally to mid-sized companies in other regions as they strive to become global market leaders. Whether a company is a “Hidden Champion”, aspires to be one, or wants to emulate their success model, Dr. Simon’s new book provides essential food for thought as executives and managers chart their course into the future.

How to design a world in which we rely less on stuff, and more on people. We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? So asks author John Thackara in his new book, In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World. These are tough questions for the pushers of technology to answer. Our economic system is centered on technology, so it would be no small matter if "tech" ceased to be an end-in-itself in our daily lives. Technology is not going to go away, but the time to discuss the end it will serve is before we deploy it, not after. We need to ask what purpose will be served by the broadband communications, smart materials, wearable computing, and connected appliances that we're unleashing upon the world. We need to ask what impact all this stuff will have on our daily lives. Who will look after it, and how? In the Bubble is about a world based less on stuff and more on people. Thackara describes a transformation that is taking place now—not in a remote science fiction future; it's not about, as he puts it, "the schlock of the new" but about radical innovation already emerging in daily life. We are regaining respect for what people can do that technology can't. In the Bubble describes services designed to help people carry out daily activities in new ways. Many of these services involve technology—ranging from body implants to wide-bodied jets. But objects and systems play a supporting role in a people-centered world. The design focus is on services, not things. And new principles—above all, lightness—inform the way these services are designed and used. At the heart of In the Bubble is a belief, informed by a wealth of real-world examples, that ethics and responsibility can inform design decisions without impeding social and technical innovation.

Evaluates the negative impact of digital network technologies on the economy and particularly the middle class, citing challenges to employment and personal wealth while exploring the potential of a new information economy.

At seventeen, Lain Fisher has already aced the Institute’s elite training program for Mindwalkers, therapists who use a direct neural link to erase a patient’s traumatic memories. A prodigy and the daughter of a renowned scientist—whose unexplained death left her alone in the world—Lain is driven by the need to save others. When Steven, a troubled classmate, asks her to wipe a horrific childhood experience from his mind, Lain’s superiors warn her to stay away. Steven’s scars are too deep, they say; the risk too great. Yet the more time Lain spends with him, the more she begins to question everything about her society. As she defies the warnings and explores Steven’s memories, it becomes clear that he’s connected to something much bigger . . . something the Institute doesn’t want the world to discover. Lain never expected to be a rule breaker. She certainly didn’t plan on falling in love with a boy she’s been forbidden to help. But then, she never expected to stumble into a conspiracy that could ignite a revolution.

"DLP, Developmental Leadership Program; Australian Aid; Oxfam."