Heart of the Matter LO20857

Gavin Ritz (garritz@xtra.co.nz)
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 20:37:07 +1300

Replying to LO20824 --

Thanks John I could not have really said it better, to some of my clients
I just say that having the appropriate response to the many situations
that arise is critical for a company to grow or survive. That must be the
case for the sales force who deal with the customers plus for the process
workers, one is a front end system the other a back end system. There have
been many propriety back end systems for Best Operating Practices, but not
too many front end systems. Problem solving fits nicely into back end
systems. However I have developed a front end system (for the sales
force) that does just that. I measure competency and link it to the KPI's
to get ratios and hence test how the sales force respond to the
environment. By continuously increasing competency (hence a learning
organisation) hence better responses to the environment. i.e. how
competency effects sales volume, customers services etc etc.

John Gunkler wrote:

> Gavin Ritz, in an interesting message, refers to the Law of Requisite
> Variety. Because I'm sure some will ask, "what the heck is that?" I
> thought I'd provide one pretty straightforward answer.
>
> The simplest statement of the Law of Requisite Variety that I have heard,
> in an organizational context:
>
> The complexity of the internal structure of an adaptive (self-organizing)
> system must be of the same order of magnitude as the complexity of the
> external environment with which it must cope.
>
> Businesses have found this to be true, much to our chagrin. As we grow,
> and the global marketplace becomes more complex, and competitors more
> clever and numerous, we find that we have to be more complex in order to
> succeed.

-- 

Gavin Ritz <garritz@xtra.co.nz>

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