Kjell Nordstrom of the Stockholm School of Economics and co-author of the book Funky Business talks to George Lee in the fifth programme of Winds of Change (Thursday, 11.10 p.m., RTE1).
Mr Nordstrom argues that quantum leaps are taking place in values, institutions and technology, and society is being propelled into a brutally competitive dog-eat-dog surplus society.
"It is a society in which the winner takes all and in which talent is the new source of wealth and business success," says Mr Nordstrom.
He believes many of the older, established firms will have great difficulty in dealing with the implications of these global forces. In most cases they will fail and it will be the new firms and operators that succeed.
SMS (short messaging service) was introduced as an addition for mobile phones in 1995 and has now become the preferred means of communication among 16-20-year-olds, as evidenced by the beeps from their pockets every 30 seconds. The Joy of Text (Saturday, 8.15 p.m., BBC1) is devoted to SMS and how it has changed the way people communicate. "Free to talk" has become F2T and "see you later" is now CUL8R as the language adapts.
The programme examines both the fun and serious sides - some users run up huge phone bills and one woman was sent a message from her boss firing her.
Shoppers are being conned by Europe-wide scams in which thousands of tonnes of conventional food have been fraudulently sold as "organic". The Money Programme (Monday, 7.30 p.m., BBC2) investigates what's wrong in the organic industry and discovers a system with insufficient safeguards to ensure that "organic" food really is what it says it is.
The criminals are taking advantage of a system in which the middle man in the food chain is not controlled by organic inspection bodies. Unless tackled, say critics, these loopholes could affect the public's confidence in organic food.
Alvin Hall attempts to stop a couple heading for a financial disaster in Your Money or Your Life (Wednesday, 7.30 p.m., BBC2). Jeremy Whitehorn has always dreamed of owning and running a second-hand bookshop and at last he and his girlfriend have accumulated some cash to buy a shop in Tiverton, Devon.
Mr Hall pierces their bubble when he adds up the figures and tells them they cannot afford to live out their dream.
Change of job, change of clothes, changed city, Boomtown (Thursday, 10.15 p.m., RTE1) looks at twentysomethings whose work brings them into the heart of Dublin city life at night-time.
sokelly@irish-times.ie
