Hi Steve,
In a message dated 97-12-23 00:24:00 EST, you write:
> I still have to figure out--if I can, and without the help of
> metaphors--what decisions Jobs and Sculley and Apple made that may have
> created their problem, and what Gates has done--so far--that has kept
> Microsoft rich.
I am intrigued as to how you plan to understand, let alone comunicate that
understanding without the use of metaphor - unless you opt for a zen-like
awareness beyond language. "He who knows does not speak, he who speaks
does not know". This may not be a bad idea...but it's tough on management
academics and consultants!
You continue
>The biological metaphor may take my eyes and mind off the answers.
>Perhaps Microsoft isn't a "complex adaptive system": perhaps it
>flourishes because Gates is smart, cunning, ruthless, reads the signs of
>the times right, and follows none of advice he gets about participatory
>management and learning organizations.>>
If this is the case is there anything to be learned from the example of
Microsoft or other "successful" companies? Other than to hire people like
Bill Gates? Surely one has to have a model to distinguish the generic from
the unique? Also it seems to me that the complexity perspective limits and
modifies the decision-making model of management that you plan to use in
your search for the "answers". Some situations may be so complex as to
defy the application of rational analysis implicit in the decision-making
model. On other occasions managers may be so constrained by the system
that they are unable to execute the decisions they have made. Certainly
when one listens to a reflective executive like Andy Grove one hears both
these dynamics at work in the history of Intel.
Best wishes,
David Hurst
--DHurst1046 <DHurst1046@aol.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>