Proximity - by Robert C Wolcott & Kaihan Krippendorff (Hardcover)

About the Book

Robert C. Wolcott and Kaihan Krippendorff provide an indispensable guide to the Proximity revolution, showing how it's transforming every industry--and our lives.

Book Synopsis

Shortlisted, 2025 Breakthrough Idea Award, Thinkers50

What if you could have whatever you want, produced and provided immediately and affordably no matter how customized--with minimal environmental impact? Products, services, and experiences on demand. Just-in-time anything, anywhere, anytime. This radical change is underway, as digital technologies push the production and provision of value ever closer to the moment of demand.

Robert C. Wolcott and Kaihan Krippendorff provide an indispensable guide to the Proximity revolution, showing how it's transforming every industry--and our lives. Offering unparalleled foresight for leaders and innovators, they reveal how pervasive this trend will be. Proximity represents an entirely new way to serve customers, with critical implications for corporate strategy, investing, public policy, supply chain resilience, and sustainability. Incremental changes to existing business models won't suffice.

Through interviews and compelling examples, Proximity shares stories of the people and companies leading the way. The book places rapidly advancing technologies--from generative AI and 3D printing to lab-grown meats, renewable energy, and virtual reality--in context and explores the factors accelerating the transformation.

Proximity offers a playbook for business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs to win this rapidly emerging game--and for each of us to consider the implications for our careers, families, communities, and lives.

Review Quotes

A Top-12 May 2024 Business Bestseller-- "Porchlight Book Company"

Proximity is an incredibly important read to prepare for what's coming fast. The chapter on work is especially critical, with the pace of technology and the shifts after the pandemic. The way we work is forever changing and we need to get ahead of it.--Mark Levy, former head of employee experience, Airbnb and Allbirds

Proximity is GPS for the future. The concept will become indispensable for navigating technology change, global supply chain disruptions, national security, and even geopolitics. Every corporate leader, investor, policymaker, and geopolitical strategist needs this book.--Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy (ret.); vice chair of global affairs and partner of the Carlyle Group; supreme allied commander of NATO (2009-2013); and coauthor of 2034

Proximity is a big idea and an important book. Wolcott and Krippendorff weave a compelling and persuasive tale that is required reading for all who want to make sense of the future today.--Stuart Crainer, cofounder, Thinkers50

"Disruption" described how companies fail. Proximity shows how to win. Wolcott and Krippendorff have written The Innovator's Dilemma for the coming decades.--Mohan Sawhney, McCormick Foundation Professor of Technology; director of the Center for Research in Technology and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

A significant book that should be at the top of every leader's list. Proximity puts technology and our future in a new--and impressively clear--light. Well-reasoned and informed by compelling case examples, this book proposes an insightful hypothesis about the relationship between technology and markets that is being validated every day by developments in technology, industry, and public policy. The concept has the potential for profound impact in higher education. Every leader in education should consider its implications.--Daniel Diermeier, chancellor and distinguished university professor, Vanderbilt University; former provost, University of Chicago (2016-2020)

Explore Proximity as an essential guide to the transformative impact of digital technologies on organizational dynamics in development, coaching, decision making, and beyond. The authors present a compelling vision of the future where the strategic integration of people, systems, and skills--achieving Proximity in its richest forms--becomes crucial for success across all sectors. This book underscores the urgency of bridging distances to meet needs seamlessly, everywhere and every time.--Anna A. Tavis, clinical professor and chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU's School of Professional Studies, and author of Humans at Work and The Digital Coaching Revolution

Inspiring, compelling, and practical, Proximity will fundamentally change the way you envision, invest, and compete. The authors don't just tell us how technology will revolutionize our businesses or make our lives faster, better, easier. They also confront the darker side of technological change. Values-driven leaders will discover enormous opportunities and significant challenges to their organizations and society as a result of Proximity. I recommend that every business leader read this book.--Harry M. Jansen Kraemer Jr., clinical professor of leadership, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; executive partner, Madison Dearborn Partners; and former CEO, Baxter International

Proximity is one of those concepts that, once you've read about it, changes your perspective forever. This wonderful book takes us on a rollicking ride through the future that is just beginning to emerge--but will be here before we know it. No business leader should miss its lessons.--Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School, author of Seeing Around Corners and The End of Competitive Advantage

Technology is moving the production of value, services, and products closer and closer to the point and time of demand. Without veering into science fiction, much more will happen in the near future, transforming nearly everything that touches our lives. Chances are you are either driving or benefiting from this transformation, maybe both. But most of us cannot imagine more than we can see and even miss that we are part of a revolution. We need a guide that allows us to see beyond our horizons: Proximity is such a guide. Let it guide you to the possibilities opened by the accelerating shrinking of space and time.--Julio Ottino, dean emeritus, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Arts and Sciences

The winners aren't just "disruptive" or "exponential." They make Proximity happen. It's rare to find a business book with a truly new and pivotal perspective. Proximity is one of them.--Vivek Wadhwa, entrepreneur and best-selling author

When the world changes, we must change too. Proximity is a clarion call for leaders not to waste one of the biggest reframing moments of their lifetimes. Packed with razor-sharp insights, Proximity is a call to mobilization.--Terence Mauri, founder, Hack Future Lab, and MIT entrepreneur mentor

Wolcott and Krippendorff give us a clarifying lens on the future of work--how we hire, engage, incentivize, and lead the talent that will define the success of our organizations. Looking through the lens of Proximity will help you rethink how you manage your career and help companies assemble the human capital they need to thrive in the future.--Geoff Smart, chairman and founder of ghSMART and New York Times best-selling coauthor of Who and Power Score

Wolcott and Krippendorff nailed it. Proximity is like reading great science fiction--except that it's real and it's happening real fast.--Shelly Palmer, CEO of the Palmer Group, and advanced media professor in residence, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University

The implications of Proximity will be felt for years to come. Opportunity awaits.--from the foreword by Philip Kotler

About the Author

Robert C. Wolcott is cofounder and chair of The World Innovation Network (TWIN Global). He is adjunct professor of innovation at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and adjunct professor of executive education at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. His books include Grow from Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (with Michael J. Lippitz, 2009). Wolcott is an active venture investor in more than thirty companies, many of which are leading the Proximity revolution.

Kaihan Krippendorff is the founder of Outthinker Networks, a global think tank, and a professional speaker. His books include Driving Innovation from Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs (Columbia, 2019). A former McKinsey consultant, he is a strategic adviser to numerous leading corporations.