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to speak at Beijing University, at a major entrepreneurial eco-
nomic summit put on by the City of Shanghai. My trip was
well-covered by the Chinese media.

“The Third Wave” was, for me, Toffler’s most influential book.
I can still remember reading it and seeing what the working
landscape of the future might be. Toffler was right! Right
about the Internet, small computers in every home, and dis-
tributed workplaces. Right about the “third wave of the infor-
mation age.” He defined what the Information Age would be.
I felt it my responsibility to define the next age, which I did,
stating that starting around 2005, humanity had entered “The
Shift Age.” I told the publisher of “Entering the Shift Age” that
I wanted something on the book’s cover that tied me to Toffler. David Houle is a futurist, thinker, and speaker, and has been called “the
If you can’t read the Mandarin on the attached photo, above heir to [Alvin] Toffler.” He spent more than twenty years in media and
the title there is this: “The End of the Information Age and the entertainment (at NBC, CBS, and others), with two Emmys and an Acad-
New Era of Transformation.” The age I am credited for fore- emy Award nomination to his credit. He has published seven books, in-
casting follows Toffler’s Information Age – The Third Wave. cluding his influential first book, 2007’s The Shift Age, and has delivered
speeches to scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and at
“The Third Wave” may have been the most influential book the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He writes the highly-regarded
of Toffler’s in China. That said, I would recommend that sub- futurist blog, “Evolution Shift,” and founded the global non-profit organi-
sequent books of his, “Powershift,” “War and Anti-War,” and zation, This Spaceship Earth, to create “Crew Consciousness” to address
“Revolutionary Wealth,” all be read by Chinese, Americans, climate change.
and anyone in the world trying to figure out our collective pres-
ent and future. Alvin Toffler set the bar very high for any futur- Twitter: @evolutionshift | Blog: www.evolutionshift.com |
ist who has come after him. I will always keep trying to get to Non-profit: www.thisspaceshipearth.org
his level and influence. He was the greatest!

The CEO Show Interview

Robert Reiss talks with...

Tien Tzuo

Co-Founder, CEO & Chairman of Zuora, Inc.

Mr. Tien Tzuo co-founded Zuora, Inc. in 2007 and serves as less and less. We don’t need to buy things for what we need any-
its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Mr. more. Why buy a car when you can get from point A to point
Tzuo serves as an Advisor of LiveOps, Inc. In his 9 years at B with services like Lyft or Zipcar or Uber? Why buy songs or
Salesforce.com, Mr. Tzuo built Salesforce.com’s original billing DVDs or CDs if you can get any music that you want on Apple
system and held a variety of executive roles in Salesforce.com’s Music or any movie on Netflix or HBO or any of these stream-
technology, marketing, and strategy organizations, including ing services? Why even buy software applications when you can
building out the product management & marketing organiza- just point your browser or your phone to the cloud to a Google
tion. or a Salesforce.com and do the things you need to do for work?
This whole idea of not having to buy things and, instead, run-
Robert Reiss: Explain the phrase you coined, “The Subscrip- ning your life on a set of services that you subscribe to, is what
tion Economy.” we mean by “the Subscription Economy.” We are seeing this
Tien Tzuo: The Subscription Economy is the idea that with continue to grow not just in the US, but all around the world.
every day that passes, you and I are finding ourselves buying *Reprinted with permission of The CEO Forum, Volume lV, Issue 3

www.ArtsManagementMagazine.com I Arts Management Magazine 45