It’s been 20 years since we published Paradigm Shift. In 1991 we were barely at the cusp of the technology revolution. We had written Paradigm Shift based on a multimillion dollar study of over 3000 companies and government agencies, detailing the shift from proprietary to open systems, and stand-alone to integrated software systems. This new era of technology showed managers and professionals with little or no technical background how to take action to achieve short-term benefits of this technology and position their organizations for long-term transformation.

Now twenty years later, the same themes of openness, collaboration, and networked models of innovation are relevant today. Take a look at this chart outlining the shift from closed hierarchy to the new open networked enterprise. We’ve come a long way.