Beck, John C.

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BECK, John C.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Harvard University, B.A. (East Asian studies and sociology; summa cum laude), Ph.D. (business studies).

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o AMACOM, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Harvard University, Cqmbridge, MA, lecturer; University of Western Ontario, adjunct professor; Asian Business Information, president; Asian Century, editor; Monitor Company, Far-East advisor; United Nations, co-director of project on strategies of the world's largest fifty companies; Cambodian Prime Minister's office, senior strategic advisor; Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, associate partner and director of international research; University of California, Los Angeles, visiting professor.

WRITINGS:

(With Thomas H. Davenport) The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business, Harvard Business School Press (Boston, MA), 2001.

(With Mitchell E. Wade) DoCoMo: Japan's Wireless Tsunami, AMACOM (New York, NY), 2002.

Has also published articles and business reports on business in Asia, strategic management, globalization, leadership, and organizational behavior.

SIDELIGHTS: John C. Beck graduated from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree in East Asian studies and sociology and a graduate degree in business. His combined studies have served him well, as he has traveled throughout the world, working with East Asian countries and their associated businesses. At one point in his career he was senior strategic advisor to the first prime minister of Cambodia, Prince Ranariddh, during that country's first three years of democracy. He was also co-director for the United Nations' project on strategies of the world's largest fifty companies, which oversaw the start-up of businesses in Korea and Japan. In addition, he has worked as the editor of Asian Century, a newsletter that specializes in the strategic analysis of Asian companies and industries. It is from this wealth of experience that Beck has compiled two noteworthy nonfiction books: The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business and DoCoMo—Japan's Wireless Tsunami.

One day in 1998, prior to his coauthoring The Attention Economy, Beck arranged a meeting with one of his former college professors, Thomas H. Davenport, director of Accenture, where Beck held the position of associate partner and senior research fellow. From this meeting they began their collaboration, with the final results being published in 2001 to critical acclaim. In The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business the coauthors discuss three pairs of two opposing classifications of attention. Captive versus voluntary, the first pairing, concists of things people either have to pay attention to or want to pay attention to. Previews for upcoming movies presented to a captivated audience in a darkened theatre, for instance, is an example of captive attention. Magazine ads, on the other hand, would come under voluntary attention. Attraction versus aversion is the second type of attention comparison. The authors explain that people tend to pay quite a bit of attention to either what is attractive to them or what makes them squeamish. Front-of-mind versus back-of-mind is the third category, which can be illustrated with the example of driving a car while carrying on a conversation. Front-of-mind attention is focused on the dialog being exchanged, while back-of-mind attention keeps the driver on the road, stopping at red lights. Beck and Davenport make these distinctions in order to provide insight into how business managers can best effectively utilize their own attention as well as that of their employees and their customers.

Beck and Davenport argue that managing attention is one of the most important determining factors of business success in the new millennium. With the number of e-mails, faxes, voice mails, and snail-mail letters arriving on managers desks every day, business leaders must understand what is important and how to focus on it. The book looks at attention in reference to communications, competitive strategy, corporate culture, customer retention, organizational leadership, and many more subjects of interest to managers of small businesses and large corporations.

In 2002 Beck coauthored another book about business, this time focusing on one specific company. With Mitchell Wade, who also works at Accenture, Beck wrote DoCoMo—Japan's Wireless Tsunami. DoCoMo, the world's second-largest mobile phone operator, was the first to incorporate viable third-generation applications such as Internet-ready mobile phones. These phones are capable of taking and transmitting pictures; they can access the Web, send and receive data, and complete business transactions without using a credit card. The company has even stated that they might be able to offer a way of replacing paper currency entirely.

DoCoMo became a successful business because, as Beck writes, they were confident enough to take huge risks. The company was often criticized for taking such big gambles in their pursuit of what many communications firms thought were superfluous innovations. However, now, those same companies realize that the innovations DoCoMo has since created are now changing the communications field. As stated in a review of DoCoMo at the American Management Association Web site, it was because of the company's "daring" that they "almost single-handedly brought an entire global market into existence."

Beck's book details the rise in fortune as DoCoMo quickly went from being worth $16 billion one year to over $400 billion the next year. Those details include profiles on some of the key players in this innovative company, including a section on the first CEO who made a point of visiting every floor of his company in order to stay in touch with all his employees. Beck also profiles some of the almost thirty million customers that DoCoMo serves. In the process of providing information on this business, Beck offers insights for other business managers to follow in attempts to reach similar success. According to an Internet World reviewer, the book also looks at not only how the company is affecting Japan and Asia, but also "how it is spreading to Europe and North America." Lacy Heckman, in Library Journal, rated DoCoMo "highly recommended."