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.
Best wishes to all.
Cliff Hamilton
Progressive Visions
cliffrh@aol.com
"No one of us is as smart as all of us"
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>