The upheaval of this recession has prompted many publishers to look for books that help explain what Owen here calls "the new world disorder".
Owen, a sometime Director contributor, claims that this recession has highlighted the shortcomings of much modern management and its desire for "enlightenment-style universal theories" that fail to explain real behaviour. The gap between theory and practice has, he says, become unsustainable. As an example Owen highlights the the area of strategy.

Here the consultants offering one-solution-fits-all theories have created an almost unbridgeable gap between the theory and practice of strategy.
While Owen says such tools can help strategic decisions, they become traps if managers stop thinking for themselves. The same tools, he adds, are available to competitors, and if everyone reaches similar conclusions, there's no competitive advantage in them.

Owen prefers to offer insights that help encourage different thinking. He steers readers towards ways of assessing what's right for their company in its particular situation.