LOOKING AHEAD - IMPLICATIONS OF THE PRESENT

On its seventy-fifth anniversary, HER asked five of the business world 's most insightful thinkers to comment on the challenges taking shape for executives as they move into the next century. In ''The Future Tha t Has Already Happened,'' Peter Drucker examines the effects of the in creasing underpopulation of the world's developed countries. With grow ing imbalances in labor resources worldwide, he writes, executives in the developed countries will need to improve the productivity of knowl edge and of knowledge workers to maintain a competitive advantage. Est her Dyson's article ''Mirror, Mirror on the Wall'' reveals the mind sh ift executives will need to make in a networked world, where companies will be known for what they do rather than for what they say. Executi ves will have to respond openly and intelligently to feedback about th eir organizations. The old language of property and ownership no longe r serves executives, writes Charles Handy in ''The Citizen Corporation .'' The corporation should be thought of no longer as property but as a community, where members are regarded as citizens. Technology has gi ven executives more information than today's machines can help them un derstand, explains Paul Saffo in ''Are You Machine Wise?'' Machine-wis e executives will know when to turn their computers off and take their own counsel, he writes. Peter Senge's article ''Communities of Leader s and Learners'' urges executives to reject the myth of leaders as iso lated heroes and instead to build a community of leaders. Sustained in stitutional learning, he writes, requires organizations to reintegrate their typically fragmented learning processes.