"Today we're talking about leadership and no longer about management. The abilities to inspire, motivate and build a team are much more important at this time of change than in earlier times."

So says Prof Rosabeth Moss Kanter, business strategist, professor at Harvard Business School and author of several best-selling books. Prof Kanter, named one of the 50 most powerful women in the world by the Times of London, will deliver her message of inspired leadership, growing business partnerships and education to Irish business leaders at an IBEC/IBM sponsored breakfast next Tuesday. Although involved in a multitude of projects including writing a book on e-culture - preparing new material for Harvard Business School and developing a national TV series for the US - it's Prof Kanter's vision of future trends in business which have brought her most international attention to date. Her client list of consulting clients includes Volvo, Novartis, San Miguel, Quaker Oats and Bell Atlantic.

She compares the cut and thrust of today's fast-paced technology-driven business world to improvisation theatre. Prof Kanter's vision of 2000 and beyond is one where employees are actors capable of thinking on their feet, and leaders no longer operate by simply giving people orders.

"In today's economy there is so much innovation, change and the need to embrace technology and build networks in different countries," says Prof Kanter. "In this fast-moving environment you really have to trust your people to make the key decisions."

"New knowledge" is Prof Kanter's clarion call and she believes only companies which embrace this concept can prosper. This is having a profound effect on corporate culture and turning hierarchy on its head, she argues.

"With the innovation that is happening, leaders have to be able to listen to people who are much younger than they are, more junior than they are and this is a big change in culture," says Prof Kanter.

Education is a key resource in the information age when brainpower drives the communication revolution, says Prof Kanter who urges businesses to invest in people.

Information technology can transform how learning and teaching take place, she says. "Computer networks allow teachers to exchange communication with each other, create lesson plans together, learn from each other and are an excellent way of bringing parents into schools."

While conceding she is no expert on the Celtic Tiger, Prof Kanter says she is aware of the stunning success the Republic has had in attracting high technology companies. "What Ireland is doing by investing in information technology in the schools is very important for the competitiveness of the country," she says.

With multinationals increasingly less rooted in their home countries, the State's best competitive advantage is to continue to invest in the skills of its workforce, says Prof Kanter. She maintains that even if an economic shock occurs at some point in the future, talented labour, competitive products and a favourable exchange rate is the best way to stop large multinationals pulling out.

Likewise, she urges the Republic to invest in its innovative start-ups rather than traditional industries. Only traditional companies with new ideas and capable of being excellent will survive in the new corporate order, she says.

Prof Kanter is unrepentant in her assertion that the old ways of doing business are gone. "Companies now are much more focused on innovation. This is a change from eight to 10 years ago when companies were talking about efficiency and productivity, which meant doing the same things better".

"Now companies have to seek out new markets, update and change their products, change their organisational structures much more often, particularly in banking and financial services which have been profoundly affected by the Internet."

Prof Kanter predicts in the new information age, medium-sized and mediocre companies will fail. "With technology, scale and borders are disappearing," she says. "Especially in the communication field where it doesn't cost you much to put extra pieces of content into the network."

She predicts a wave of takeover battles and restructuring in Europe, where a lot of medium-sized national companies will disappear. These will be replaced by corporate giants with a pan-European base of operations capable of competing on a global level.

Despite her position as one of the US's top business leaders and consultant to multinationals, Prof Kanter betrays a liberalism which does not often fit with the traditional image of the corporate giant. Since 1996, she has argued that companies need to become more socially responsible and develop a partnership approach to local communities. This is even more essential as more and more medium-sized companies, which tend to be rooted in one geographical area, are likely to disappear, argues Prof Kanter.

"It is something to be concerned about in communities especially with the banks," says Prof Kanter. "The bank was always the good local citizen but now that they are part of gigantic corporations, there are questions being raised about whether they can deliver a high level of community service."

"Our experience here in the states is that our community organisations are looking at a different kind of partnership with the multinationals and the new technology start-ups."

But multinationals, increasingly hungry for talent and newknowledge workers, are going out of their way to provide better working environments for people, says Prof Kanter. She highlights Timberland, the US boot and shoe company, which allows their workers to take five days paid leave to do community service. These sorts of initiatives are an expression of the values of the company and the brand and are a great motivator for their workforce, says Prof Kanter.

However, she warns, a failure to be socially responsible can have terrible consequences for companies in an age of rapid communication. She highlights the "Battle in Seattle' at the World Trade Organisation meeting late last year as an example of how backlashes in a technological age can be swift, organised and disruptive.

But Prof Kanter is optimistic about the future. "We have the possibility we could bring a level of prosperity to the whole world that so far only some countries and some classes have enjoyed," she says. "It only requires great leadership and co-operation around the world but it also requires education."