Based around a compilation of his popular Schumpeter columns, Adrian Wooldridge takes a look at the forces that are disrupting today's fast-moving business world. The disruption has many causes: the internet's rapid spread; the challenge from emerging markets in innovation and manufacturing; clever management techniques that are forcing companies to rethink strategy; robots advancing from the factory floor into the service sector; and much more. These developments are shaking business and social life to its foundations, producing a new set of winners and losers, and forcing everyone to adapt and change. The Great Disruption explains: - The forces that are disrupting today's business world, and the management gurus that predicted them. - Who are the winners and the losers, and how institutions have tried (and often failed) to change. - How classic management problems, such as talent management, distribution, and outsourcing persist, but with a new twist. - What the future holds for companies, universities, competition and society. It also reminds us why Joseph Schumpeter's ideas about creative destruction are particularly valuable today.

Author Biography

Adrian Wooldridge is The Economist's management editor and author of the Schumpeter column. He was previously based in Washington, DC, as the Washington bureau chief where he also wrote the Lexington column, and also served as The Economist's West Coast correspondent, management correspondent and Britain correspondent. His books include: The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, God is Back and The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State.