Books that shook the business world: Talking About Machines by Julian E. Orr

In 1969, Austrian-American writer Peter Drucker foretold a major societal and economic shift driven by knowledge. However, it would not be until the 1990s that scholars, managers, management consultants and policy-makers would herald the arrival of the knowledge economy, whereby goods and services depend not just on labour but on competencies, skills and ideas. As knowledge became recognised as the most valuable organisational and economic resource, the urge to manage it followed.