John Seely Brown ("The Social Life of Information") has a new book. Back in April, Tom Friedman said, "...check out [this] smart new book by the strategists John Hagel III and John Seely Brown." From the looks of it, Brown and Hagel's ideas in this book made a significant impact on Friedman's latest thinking as reflected in "The World Is Flat."

Many firms have used outsourcing and offshoring to shave costs and reduce operating expenses. But as opportunities for innovation and growth migrate to the peripheries of companies, industries, and the global economy, efficiency will no longer be enough to sustain competitive advantage.

The only sustainable advantage in the future will come from an institutional capacity to work closely with other highly specialized firms to get better faster. Enabled by the emergence of global process networks, firms will undergo a three-stage transformation: deepening specialization within firms; mobilizing best-in-class capabilities across enterprises; and, ultimately, accelerating learning across broad networks of enterprises.

Hagel and Seely Brown discuss the strategic levers that will accelerate this migration, and they outline a new approach to strategy development that will help companies capture this shifting source of strategic advantage.

Calling for a forceful reinvention of business strategy and the very nature of the firm itself, this bold and forward-looking book reveals what every company must do today to become tomorrow’s market leader.

The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization

The State Department recently called the Afghan drug trade "an enormous threat to world stability." The UN estimates that Afghanistan produces 87% of the world's opium.

The opium trade is booming, partly the result of the US strategy for overthrowing the Taliban and stabilizing the country after two decades of war.

As long as the Taliban pay cash, the warlords are pleased to let bygones be bygones.

"The idea is not to leave them in the provinces anymore, but to bring them on board in official positions in order to better control them."

Of course, this is known as the Dilbert principle of counter-narcotics.

The United Nations estimates that Afghan opium, morphine and heroin feed the habits of 10 million addicts, or two-thirds of the world's opiate abusers. Afghan narcotics kill about 10,000 people a year, it says.

One Kunduz trafficker estimated that there was enough opium stashed in village wells and other hiding places to keep labs and smugglers working for 10 to 15 years, even if poppy cultivation stopped entirely. Schmidt said that was probably an underestimation.

"Trying to get rid of drugs in Afghanistan is like trying to clear sand from a beach with a bucket," said an American counter-narcotics agent.

He predicted that the government crackdown would be good for business. Increased arrests and interdiction would cut competition and reduce the glut that forced down prices by two-thirds last year.

"The more restrictions, the more the business will boom," the trafficker said. "The price will go high, the number of dealers will go down, and my income will go up. The professional businessmen will remain. They have good connections. Whoever works hard in a business wins."

So, how's your liberal democracy doing in the war on drugs?

The Lure of Opium Wealth

The world according to Drucker is no theoretical flight of fancy. It's everybody's new place of residence, whether we are ready for it or not.

The world according to Peter Drucker

Several factors seem to be contributing to the rise in long-term unemployment. The swelling cost of company-paid health insurance is "inducing business to be less aggressive in its hiring,"

The New Profile of the Long-Term Unemployed

Previously, the artists may or may not have released new singles or albums when they made commercials. Today, the campaigns are timed to coincide with the musicians' latest releases to try to capitalize on their time in the limelight peddling their tunes.

Musicians Market Brands to Sell Their Latest Music

And thereby hangs a tale of post-industrial America and a warning for America itself.

The Business of America Is to Stay in Business

It's not only people in offbeat jobs who are enamored of their work. People who are skilled and are challenged by what they do, who are proud of the product of their work and who like -- or at least respect -- the people they work with, are most likely to love their jobs. That is as true of the doorman as the TV star.

Take This Job and Hug It

Industry sources said that neither Deutsche Bank AG nor the Gulf state of Kuwait -- DaimlerChrysler's biggest and second-largest shareholders -- had reduced their stakes.

Dubai buys $1B stake in Daimler-Chrysler

"The cost to build one fuel cell car is about $800,000. Do the math and you figure out that we will have to reduce the cost of that car by more than 95 percent in order to gain widespread marketplace acceptance."

Did you know that Nissan is actually owned (partially, but substantially) by Renault?

Nissan chief: hybrid cars make no sense

While many parents fret about their children’s minds turning to goo as they squander hour after hour absorbed in electronic diversion, gamers glean valuable knowledge from their pastime, and they’re poised to use that knowledge to transform the workplace.

This is a Harvard Business School Press book.

Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever