UNORGANIZER LEAVES THE HIERARCHY, EMIGRATES, AND PIONEERS PUBLISHING AND NETWORKING ON THE INTERNET

 

Lead unorganizer: John Hilton

Email: authors@wkpub.com

Web page: www.wkpub.com

Company: White Knight Publishing, Interforum Consulting

Location: Madrid, Spain

 

John Hilton holds a degree in Computer Science and left the organized computer industry because it became increasingly dull helping people to do the same old applications and because of the corporate politics. He emigrated from the United Kingdom first to Hong Kong and then to the United Arab Emirates and on to Spain. He has since been developing a way of living for the unorganized world which involves building a portfolio of multiple business ideas and interests. This is his story.

"The descriptions of how organisations work in Unorganization ring so many bells with me, it’s unbelievable! (or to put it another way, its very believable indeed!). I wouldn’t say I have been implementing Unorganization deliberately, in that when I read the book it seemed to confirm that what I was doing was correct, except that I hadn’t fully appreciated the significance of the technology at that time.

I have read your work with considerable interest, and in general terms agree with your vision of the future, although my own personal belief is that this future will take much longer to arrive than you may imagine. People have a remarkable ability to cling to old beliefs despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary."

John, increasingly, people have little choice but to downstructure and economize because organized approaches to the unorganized world cause redundancies, employment termination, debt and so on. Simon.

"Large parts of the global population were brought up to believe in the benefits of organisations, and struggle to cope when the organisation lets them down. Changing to an entrepreneurial lifestyle is extraordinarily difficult for most people, and attitudinal change is slow. For this reason, it is necessary to be very active in the real world as well as the virtual- most of my ideas use technologies to facilitate communication and collaboration between people.

No-one can say how long a particular product or service will remain relevant in rapidly changing times, or indeed which new venture will succeed. It is therefore necessary to be constantly creating new businesses. Even an Irish Pub venture that my partners and I considered would be designed so that it could be converted into an Armenian restaurant or a Balinese discotheque virtually overnight if fashions require it."

John, I completely agree with the need for and possibility to convert buildings: after all, an office is like a block of flats is like a hotel. We may label them differently, but their basic design and functions are the same. Simon.

"The main businesses currently in my portfolio are:

Interforum Consulting

Today’s business world is undergoing fundamental changes. Global competition, free markets, developing markets with low labour costs, re-engineering, downsizing, outsourcing, new technology and a host of other factors are all combining to produce drastic changes in the world of work.

The organisation of the future will have an increasingly flat structure, with both a central core of decision makers focusing on strategic issues and the people who actually carry out the functions of the organisation, but without the myriad layers of middle and senior management structure that have existed until now.

This does not mean that the roles previously performed by these middle and senior managers no longer exist; merely that in the future they will be carried out differently. Companies will increasingly form teams of such people to tackle projects as they arise, and disband them when the project is finished, beginning the whole cycle again with a new team for the next project.

Until now, there has been no effective way for the independent professional to tap into this constantly changing environment. When you are working on one project, there is no time to find the next one, resulting typically in unproductive gaps between work assignments. In difficult economic times, these gaps can be protracted.

Interforum Consulting is a group of highly motivated, professional people, from all walks of life, with a depth of skills and a variety of contacts. Participating in this network can generate employment opportunities which a freestanding individual would be unlikely to have access to alone.

Interforum is an idea which works both on and off the Internet. It currently works in person but it is possible to envisage the idea being translated on the Internet as a database of freelance consultants available globally for short-term contracts.

This concept seems to me to connect with the fundamental principles of unorganisation (it was certainly this perceived linkage which prompted me to contact you in the first place). 20 years+ of corporate life makes me unwilling to make any further commitments in that direction! An increasing number of people like myself would never (again) consider committing to the corporate world and positively relish the freedom this creates. I am what they call an "autonomo" in Spain, which gives me the freedom to investigate whatever I feel like investigating."

John, I like the concept of being an "autonomo": sounds like the ability to decide for yourself how you want to spend your life and earn your living. This has got to be a status that we all strive for: the ability to say "No" to our current employer if we do not agree with their demands and have access to the resources (financial, human, technical and organizational) to do something else. rgds Simon

"White Knight Publishing

As any writer or literary agent will confirm, it is very difficult to get a book published. Even if you can find an agent, there is no guarantee that he or she will be able to find a publisher. And even if a publisher is found, there is no certainty of any sales. And going through the whole process to the point where your book appears in print can take years.

Internet publishing such as on the wkpub web site offers writers another way of earning recognition and reward for their fiction or non-fiction work. Many of the authors who will (hopefully) participate will have failed to get their books published by conventional means for one reason or another. Many authors fail because their work is rubbish. On the other hand, many authors fail because they aren’t already famous, or can’t get through the (often arbitrary and personal) selection criteria of agents and publishers. I’d rather be associated with the latter category!"

So would I John! As someone who could not get his work published conventionally in the traditional book format because it was then considered to be too academic and long, I can vouch for the Internet being a great medium for first-time and indeed all authors. Your idea of combining the use of the Internet to make available, display and distribute writing, combined with electronic cash to charge for works, is a great one.

The move towards distribution of all goods from physical to electronic means will only increase in the future- what other way is there to make your work available globally in an instant, interact with readers, update and expand the work periodically, make multiple language versions available and different versions for different reader groups? Only Internet book publishing can do this.

The most important thing that White Knight Publishing does is give potential authors a CHOICE in where they publish their work. Previously, there was no alternative but to battle the often arbitrary organized traditional publishing route. You even had to have an agent before you could credibly approach publishers. Electronic dissemination of work cuts out anyone who does not add fundamental value to the book publishing process, and allows the author and the reader to interact. Rgds simon

It is also important that people CREATE THEIR OWN choices. When I could not get "unorganization" published on paper, I set up a web site. When your wife could not get her fiction novel published, you set up White Knight Publishing. It is important (a) not to give up when a conventional or existing supplier rejects your proposition or approach, and (b) to recognize that there are relatively easy ways of creating new choices and opportunities for yourself, using in particular the low entry barrier media of the Internet.

 

Click Here to return to Unorganized Practools