■ The Big Idea
“When you don’t know where you want to go, the wind always blows from the wrong direction.”

Every manager must manage two companies simultaneously: the present firm and the future firm. Neglecting the future firm will cause the organization to become obsolete given the change of the business environment from day to day. Managing only the future firm and neglecting the present day-to-day business will never get the company to its future goals.

The art of balancing the management of the urgent (today) with the important (future) is presented in this book through two detailed case studies of the Swedish car manufacturer Saab and the Spanish financial institution, Caja de Madrid.