After reassuring the client that the information society surely
wouldn’t disappear that quickly, this presumably rather embarrassed
director of future studies began to formulate an answer. It became a
task that eventually involved large parts of the Institute.The answer
is presented in the book entitled «The Dream Society».
The thesis put forward is that it is no longer sufficient for
companies to compete in terms of price and quality only. Goods need a
story. As an example, Jensen cites that eggs from free range hen have
won half the market for eggs in Denmark in spite of them being 10-15 %
dearer than ordinary eggs. Consumers don’t like hens being imprisoned
in small cages. Even though the quality of the eggs is no better than
that from battery hens, consumers prefer the eggs with the best
story.
According to Jensen, the sun has already begun to set on the
information society. Whereas the agricultural society lasted for 10 000
years, and the industrial society lasted 200 years, the information
society will be even more shortlived.
Perhaps only a few more decades will be needed to automate most
intellectual effort. What shall we do then?
The answer is that we still have feelings.The most successful companies
are those that can weave a story around their products together with
their consumers.
The motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson nowadays sells a
complete lifestyle of rebels, independence and freedom. Special Harley
Owners Groups have 360 000 members.
One of the most important aspects of products in the future will thus
be stories. Businesses turning over billions of dollars can be based
around the best stories. While Bill Gates personifies the Information
Society, Steven Spielberg is the person who comes closest to embodying
the Dream Society.
Today, those who manipulate data earn most money. Tomorrow it will
be the storytellers.
You have only to look at the British author J. K. Rowling’s enormous
success with the Harry Potter books, which are bought as much by adults
as by children! But it is not just authors who tell stories.
Sportspeople, musicians,TV
presenters and comedians are already topping the high-earnings lists.
Company bosses who justify their salaries on the basis that football
players earn even more, have not understood what is taking place.
Football players are the new entrepreneurs.
The Dream Society is an effervescent book, written with a lot of
humour. It asks important questions about the professions of the future
and the ways it might be possible to manage companies’ intellectual
capital.
The one shortcoming is that most of the book is anecdotal. Rolf
Jensen doesn’t go into detail and describe the costs involved in
creating a company story, and how they are apportioned. He refers to a
pharmaceuticals company looking for genetic resources in the Amazon
region, and writes that well-to-do countries are materially rich but
poor when it comes to myths. He predicts that Greenland’s principle
export in 2025 will be legends and sagas, and that the Australian
Aborigines will earn more from their legends than the current turnover
of the entire Australian raw materials industry.
Just as with genetic resources there are however major problems with
respect to patent rights – and exaggerated notions of how much the
aboriginal population or emerging nations will actually earn. One of
the few studies that have been made (by the International Plant Genetic
Resource Institute, 1995) reckons that just 0.025% of the end price of
a new pharmaceutical will go to those that supplied the genetic raw
material.
It would have been interesting if Jensen had taken a look at how
much the Disney corporation is willing to pay for its raw materials,
mainly stolen from the Grimm Brothers’ collections of German sagas.
The Danes, with their H. C. Andersen, have always appreciated a good
story. But, occasionally, the story of the Dream Society is too good to
be true.
This article was published in October 2000
