Mark More
Just to add support to what you said about a company's failure coming not
necessarily from outside. In my CI classes with company mangers I ask the
age old question," What are the internal and external threats to your
organization." The list of internal problems is always long and external
threats short. At one point I thought they did not know about the outside.
I now am certain they do know the biggest threats are the "organisms"
inability to see and adapt.
Gene
At 08:07 PM 9/18/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Mark Moore wrote:
>(snip)
>>In actuality, the vast majority of companies fail. Their failure isn't
>>always >directly related to
>>the success of other companies. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.
>>There is danger in becoming too abstract in trying to apply the
>>characteristics of life and the natural world to the business world. The
>>two are different. Natural organisms are almost exclusively focused on
>>physical survival (the first plane in Maslo's Hierarchy of Needs). The
>>human organism in a business environment is very seldom focused on this
>>level. (snip)
>
>First, the connection seems obvious: "...the vast majority of compainies
>fail." and "The human organism in a business environment is very seldom
>focused on this level" (survival). Part of the reason for helping
>businesses understand that they are and must function as a living
>organization (organism) in an ecosystem-styled economic environment is to
>survive. Clearly if more understood this reality and the associated
>principles of living organizations, the number of companies that did not
>fail would be greatly increased. Sustainability is one of the five
>primary principles of the living organization. It's a basic drive of
>living organisms and organizations alike. (Can you think of a business
>that intentionally committed suicide or board of directors that didn't
>think that their job was to find ways to sustain the company over time?)
>
>The need for business organizations to emulate living organisms in
>structure and function in order to survive in the economic ecosystem of
>today has never been greater. Business organizations and natural
>organisms are different only in human perception. The challenge is in
>clearly understanding how living organisms function and creating
>appropriate parallel applications in business and other organizations.
>
>There is no need to be abstract in making these applications. The Living
>Organizations synopsis model and applications I discussed several months
>ago are a major step in laying out the corresponding characteristics
>between business organizations and the natural world. Mark, I'd be glad
>to send you - or anyone else who would like it - a copy of the model,
>complete with a synopsis of real world applications. (I also provide
>indepth understanding of its applications as well.) Just send me your fax
>number since the matrix form is hard to send via email.
>
>Any business organization that manages to sustain itself over the next
>decade will do so by emulating the characteristics and structures of
>living organisms with increasing frequency and intensity. They will
>become, in whole or substantial part, a flexible, continuously adaptive
>organization, integrated with their ecosystem economy environment, enabled
>by the autonomy of their individual components and making decisions which
>result in their own long term sustainability.
>
>Cliff Hamilton
>cliffrh@aol.com
Eugene Taurman
interLinx ilx@execpc.com http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
"What you see depends upon what you thought before you looked."
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>