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October 31 Three phase business model.....Here is an integrated global/digital/networked business model. Access is provided by experiential local networks - good consumer experiences result in growth of local clusters. These clusters, in turn, connect to each other if, and only if, they have a shared purpose. These clusters are then connected by purpose-driven systems which stretch around the globe. This business model is essentially a three phase system. First, some local consumers form experiential clusters - these clusters form because people derive "use value" from their local network. Second, consumer clusters form into purpose-driven networks - consumer clusters link to each other if, and only if, they have a common purpose that is met by an extended network. Third, consumer clusters become an integral part of a facilitated network - consumer clusters are linked to global networks that facilitate their wants and needs. Each network is a money tree. October 30 Industry/business targets for CO2 emissions.....The debate rages around the globe right now about political targets for CO2 emissions in 2020, 2030, and 2050. Forget it - it is a waste of time thinking about it. The real issue is what CO2 targets has your industry/business set for 2012, 2020, 2025, and beyond? If you have not set stretch targets for your industry/business then you are going to struggle to retain your customers. Consumers want stretch targets for CO2 emissions - they undestand politicians are "all talk and no action" so they are beginning to look to industry and businesses to deliver a reduced carbon footprint. The industry/business that moves first to achieve sensible CO2 targets wins. As the winner that industry/business gains a "first mover" advantage with consumers. Front runners around the globe right now include Tesco, News Corp, Wal Mart, etc. How is your industry/business placed? Global connection and local access....Future generations are in for a very different time as the world becomes a networked economy. One economy for all who are part of a global business network. One community for all who have access to a business network that suits their wants and needs. One philosophy for all who seek use value from their productive assets. Business will be the dominant force in their lives. Business will be there to provide global connections and local access. Business will be the facilitator of more than wealth creation. Business will connect new global clusters to form new economies. Business will provide access for local communities to global prosperity. Business will by-pass national, provincial, and local boundaries as they network new solutions to problems with water/food/energy shortages, wildfire devastation, trans migration around the globe, and infrastructure upgrades. Business will become a series of inter-linking networks rather than organisations. Business will be based on consumer experiences not brand loyalties, on renewal not finite resources, on use value not value adding, on cooperation not competition, on inclusion not exclusion. Business acts on political issues...Much of my miss-spent youth was in politics - working as an adviser. It was both an exciting and exhausting experience. I must say I loved it because I learnt so much about people and their perceptions. But it seems contemporary politics is almost exclusively about perceptions. I am concerned about this development because there are jso many people issues facing my fellow country men and women. Today "people issues" get quickly swept aside by politicians because their major concern is perceptions. Politicians have become celebrities and so they have to maintain their celebrity image - that is they talk a lot and do very little. In a few weeks I will again cast my vote in our national elections. It is difficult for me this time because I know a lot of the people in the current government including the Prime Minister. These were the people I worked with, and to a large extent grew up with, as we devoted our lives (24/7) to politics. But the world moves on. The issues move on. People and their perceptions move on. In the end for me it is better the devil I know than the one I do not. So casting my vote is easy but living with the present and future failures of government is not so easy. Whichever side wins the election the result will be the same for me - they will fail to resolve the main issues I care about. Without doubt my major political issues are Climate Change, rising energy and food costs, and the global economy. My national government can do very little or nothing about any of those matters. My fellow country men and women are price takers on energy and food. We are locked into a global economy that is distorting the allocation of wealth inside our nation - eg assets bubbles in real estate and share markets. We are at the mercy of lower rainfall patterns, wildfires, crop failures, etc as the global climate changes. Governments talk a lot about their policies to combat all these factors of life but in reality they are more interested in political perceptions than in peoples' problems. Today as I write this blog I am determined not to waste any more of my life on politics, politicians, or political solutions. I want action. I have decided that the best way to get the action I seek is to work with business. Business can and will act on all these matters. Business is being forced to confront the rising costs of energy and food. Business is forced to factor into its revenue models the impact of Climate Change on traditional means of production and distribution of good and services. Business is quickly coming to terms with the new rules of digital and global economics. Business is being forced to act on political issues. October 29 Eco friendly car tyres......Today I bought some new car tyres. They are made in Japan - yeah that is right, lots of carbon miles to get to me. They are "eco" tyres. What are "eco" tyres? Well it turns out "eco" tyres are a soft compound which incorporates environment friendly silica - they are built this way to lower the friction on the road and thus improve my petrol consumption. My new "eco" car tyre is built to travel with less drag but is less durable. WOW! I am totally committed to "leave no (carbon) footprint" business models but is this progress? Do we all want softer tyres - ones we have to replace more often with all the issues that creates? Are businesses getting the wrong storyline here? I bought the tyres so I am contributing to this syndrome but is this what we mean by going green? It seems clear to me that much of what we do as consumers right now makes little sense in terms of our Carbon Footprints. The good news is I had a conversation with a tyre fitter today about carbon footprints and the greening of his industry. The bad news is I bought a set of "eco" tyres that attempt to be green in the wrong way. I want a tyre that is totally carbon neutral in production and disposal. A tyre that is long wearing, safe, and has good adhesion in all road conditions. Do you and I need an "eco" friendly car tyre to help us save negligible amounts of fuel over the coming year? Managing the value.....For many decades as a student, teacher, practitioner, and adviser I have sought to comprehend the quirky issues of organisation. Organisation is a system. It is a system into which people are made fit. It is a system of systems. It is a system of systems managed by people. Organisation exists to create value. First there is the value of its products or services. Second there is the value of the organisation itself as an investment. Success comes to an organisation in different ways in different industries. Some mass produce value with products and services - they are in turn valued highly as an investment. Others customize value with products and services - they are in turn also valued highly as investments. The organisational challenge throughout the C20th was to manage the value of your products or services and reap the value of your investment. Those who organised successful value outcomes established brands or trademarks. Their creators became the legends of management literature. They also became wealthy. They established the blueprints for success for the mob. They were the architects of our modern economies. But that is our history - it is not our future. Our future is about managing value but through networks not organisations. Networks are about connections and access. Networks are reusable, expandable, and unpredictable. Networks are self-regulating. Networks linked machines and/or people. Networks can be facilitated but not managed. Managing value is the challenge we face today. Managing the value of tangibles and intangibles - machines/people or information/perceptions. Managing value today is about creating a gripping storyline that binds people to an experience they are willing to pay you for. Managing value today is about growing a money tree not an organisation. October 28 Talking with a frustrated businessman.......Last night I had an enjoyable family dinner, by the pool, with a frustrated businessman. His industry is dairy. He sells mainly cheese and butter. His local product is as good as anything in the world today. But his market is dominated by famous French dairy products Consumers pay ten times more for French cheese and butter because of the stories they can then tell their family, friends, and clients. Stories that declare these French products to be the best in the world. Are these products really the best in the world? Well yes they are, if and only if, their consumers think they are. It turns out consumers like the local and French product about equally as much as each other in a blind tasting but they have been convinced that the imported goods are superior. Today consumers gladly, even eagerly, pay a premium price for a product that has been shipped around the globe rather than support the local producer. I know just how compelling these stories can be. This year my prized Christmas gift was a box of handmade chocolates, from France, delivered with a fascinating story about how they have been made this way for several hundred years. The story was superb - the taste treat was not. These chocolates arrived in a fused mess. Regardless of the presentation I was a total sucker for the story and the idea of this wonderful gift. Sometime later I gladly received a replacement set of chocolates - these were also partially fused together. I found this wildly amusing because in the end my gift had almost nothing to do with the chocolates - it had everything to do with the story told about the chocolates. My businessman friend is frustrated because his industry does not have the best story to tell. His industry probably deserves to have a better story but the irony is they will never create one if they stay so tightly focussed on attacking the French cheese-makers and their story. But
the sad ending to this story is that I fear my friend is about to fore
go a huge opportunity to turn the tables on the French cheese and
butter importers. His opportunity comes from the fallout of Climate
Change. When I raised the subject of Climate Change with him he was
right on the pace as he talked about Carbon Miles in his versus the
French supply chain. But he soon returned to the French stories about
their superior product. He did not seem to be interested in creating a new
green story for his industry. October 27 A green business plan.....Most corporates hire an international consulting firm to help them sort out their business plan. The end product is a vision, strategy, revenue models, competitive analysis, and a talent map. This has been the norm for the past fifty years. But in the near future it is all about to change. Your business plan is about to go green. Do you have a green business plan? If not then you surely need one. But you won't get one from the traditional consulting firms - in fact you are better advised to create one for yourself. Why? You need to jettison a lot of the traditional management thinking that goes into a business plan today. First and foremost you need to focus on your value chain - how do you create value? Where are the CO2 emissions in your value chain? What can you do to reduce those emissions? Where are increased costs due to CO2 about to effect you and what do you plan to do about them? What can you do to reduce your need for people throughout your value chain? What can you automate? What can you do to compress your supply chains? What can you do to better source your needs locally or where you sell your products and services? Today you need a green business plan and to get one you must get beyond thinking about your people and other traditional management concerns. October 25 Building green action networks.....My current business story is all about finding new ways to think, do, and be in a world hit by Climate Change. My purpose is to "leave no (carbon) footprint". My advisory work is channeled towards those businesses, large or small, that want to gain a first mover advantage by being GREEN. My basic idea is to build "green action networks" that change the ways we do things at home and at work. My inspiration is Rupert Murdoch and his action plan to make News Corp a carbon neutral business by 2012 and his mega scheme to influence all his customers to go green too. Green action networks are all about new or improved business processes. Processes that deliver "use value" to consumers. Processes that limit CO2 emissions. Processes that enable consumers to limit their CO2 emissions. Process that are energy efficient, timely, and free of rework. Processes that deliver new revenue models to business. Processes that deliver green house gas emission information to business customers. Processes that compress the traditional value chain and dis-intermediate middlemen. Green action networks can be global or local. At the global level business processes are automated. At the local level business processes are supplemented by personalised touches - eg consumers are encouraged to monitor their CO2 footprint whenever they purchase a product or service. Consumers are also encouraged to form clusters based on their CO2 footprint. Consumers with low or no CO2 footprints will be encouraged to join clusters where the CO2 footprint needs work - they can help those with large CO2 habits to challenge their traditional consumption patterns. As the clusters grow the business will grow. As the clusters become greener so the enterprise will become more and more a green action network rather than a traditional business process. Get ready for a war on CO2 emissions....The big news today is the wild fires in California.... This is like something out of a Hollywood Movie but it is actually being played out in real time in the hills behind Malibu where the rich and famous actors live..... This is a foretaste of things to come. The climate is changing. The horror visited by those changes is real. The real war is not against terror but CO2 emissions. This is not a guns and bombs war - this is a war against people's entrenched mindsets, habits, and ways of being in the world. Business will have to lead this war. Governments are inept at this type of thing - hard decisions have to be taken. Like all wars there is a profit to be made in this one too. Businesses that move first to combat the CO2 footprint they leave will reap major profits, sustainable growth, and innovative revenue streams. What are you doing to kick off your war against CO2? What are you doing in your personal life to kick off your war against CO2? Ten years from now you will look back at these initial actions as crucial to your future business and personal success. Consistency.....Business success is all about being consistent. It is simple to say yet difficult to attain. To build and grow a successful business you need processes that deliver consistent outcomes. But we all know most business processes will fail at some point - usually at the most critical point in your growth cycle. Thus most businesses fail to reach their full potential because their processes are inconsistent. The businesses that succeed also have processes fail from time to time. They deliver less than desirable results for customers from time to time. They make mistakes that cost them customers trust and loyalty. Yet they overcome these setbacks and go on to grow and grow and grow. What is their secret? They have a consistent story to tell. They win the trust and loyalty of their customers, even those customers who have the occasional bad experience, with the consistency of their storyline. The storyline is the business. If most experiences of doing business with your company matches your storyline then customers will not only come back again and again but they will grow your customer base for you. They grow your business for you because they repeat your storyline time and time again. They make the business consistency a matter of your storyline not your processes......... Do you have an easy and consistent storyline for your business and your life? October 24 Have a good story to tell....Do you have a good story to tell about your work, business, and life? If so then you are a success. Success comes to everyone with a good story to tell. All my good work has been both a good story and a long lasting story. My great achievements in life maybe small in the overall scheme of things but, the storyline is always big. For example, working on a tender with a small group of people who ended up changing the way their industry does business - that was 15 years ago and they are still leaders in their field. Their competitor for that tender, who held all the aces, went out of business a year or so after the tender was awarded to my client. Working with a farsighted group of national policy makers, in my early career, led us to instigated a shadow world pricing regime for our nation's oil reserves. We sought to preserve our homegrown oil for future generations. It is a great story now in the light of oil at $US90 per barrel. The regime that saved our oil from being needlessly wasted decades ago still exists today. I am sure if you go through your personal work you will find similarly good stories to tell. You have good stories now but what about in 10 years time? Will you have a good story to tell in a decade from now? What will constitute a good story in 2017? I am guessing a good story will be about your contribution to reducing your carbon footprint at home and at work. What is your current action plan on CO2 emissions, eliminating waste, enhancing energy efficiency, and removing rework? Will you have a good story to tell? October 23 Action plans....Yesterday I talked with a 30 something small businessman. He has been in business for about 7 years and he plans to retire when he is 35 years old - he has just five years to complete his action plan before he sells the business. Afterwards he will be a "hands on" adviser to small business operators. His is a life of action. He works all but a half a day in a week. His life is his business - he is single. He makes and sells custom made chocolates. He has the retail side of the business sorted now he has to increase the manufacturing capacity and efficiency. He will do that over the next 5 years as sales triple or quadruple. He understands that the world is changing because he sees those changes reflected in his business everyday including Sundays. Changes in staff attitudes, changes in consumers expectations, changes in costs, changes standards of quality, changes in sales patterns, etc. He sells most of his chocolate to local communities. Each shop has a local cluster of customers. Each shop presents these regulars and their guests with the standard range of hot chocolate, coffee, milk shakes, etc. Each customer gets a "free" gift of a choice of a custom made chocolate from a silver tray. Each customer gets the experience of choosing a quality chocolate as a pure treat. Each time a customer goes to one of his shop she is reminded of the joy some people get from making quality products and presenting them to her for her delight. He will increase his sales by building up new chocolate buying communities or clusters within corporates and other places. He will also increase his sales online. His online sales are not local but global. Locals inquire online but buy at their local shop. Global customers buy online. He runs a modern action network business. It is sustained locally by his regulars who form clusters of delighted consumers and it is expanding globally as he attracts clusters of chocolate lovers around the world. He is the action man at the core of an action network. His business is based on a simple action plan, loyal staff, and satisfied customers. October 21 New words and thoughts.....We need new words and thoughts to help us understand contemporary business..... First and foremost we need to get over the term "value adding".... Frankly it no longer adds value to our world. Take the example of the potato farmer who sells his crop to a crisp manufacturer. He looks to add value so he installs a humidifier to add water and weight to his spuds before he sells them. It turns out that the crisp manufacturer produces more greenhouse gas emissions and added costs in its value adding processes due to this useless water injection. In fact once the crisp manufacture talks and thinks "use value" rather than "value adding" it will be prompted to pay more for water free potatoes. Second we need to get over the terms organisation and management... The digital world has moved on to "networks" and "networked clusters"...... Organisations are essentially all about people. Networks are more about information systems. Networked clusters are abut people but not the same people referred to in organisations - these people are consumers, producers, innovators, distributors, etc. Networks need a purpose not a manager..... Third we need to get over the terms vision, leadership, strategy, etc. Purpose driven systems are the new building block for global and local business. Purpose gives focus right here right now and business is becoming more spontaneous and instantaneous.... Business is far less about set events and far more about what is happening right now.... Fourth we need to get away from thinking about marketing and brands. New business is access and experience. Access to information about products and services is not best transmitted through brand or mass marketing. Internet access is provides consumers with information that dis-intermediates the middlemen in communications and marketing as much as in medicine or health care. Do you have a medical problem? You will need to go to a qualified doctor but before you do you need to research the condition on the net. Armed with the information you get from the internet you are better able to control the medical interview you conduct with your doctor. To some extent you have dis-intermediated your doctor and that is a good thing. The same thing will happen to mass marketing - in a networked economy most of it is a waste of effort and money. Just look at the success of Tupperware - it never needed mass marketing it networked the sales and distribution of its products and used the free viral marketing from all its satisfied customers. If you employ an international consulting team be sure they are not intend on 'adding value' by working on your vision, strategy, leadership, management, marketing, brand, etc. Rather have them work on your 'use value' to your consumers who you seek to link into your global and local networks. Change the words you use and you will change your thinking. Once you do that you will find that most contemporary consulting firms can not help you but your consumers can. Tupperware uses its consumers to test prototypes and suggest new product ideas or innovations - it also rely on its party makers to give their consumers such a great experience that they never have to market their business. Soft power.....Soft power works at two levels - global and local. It is the glue of the new economic networks that are replacing traditional organisations. At the global level soft power is about access and connectivity - not demand and supply. Global networks thrive if they provide ease of access to individual consumers. Individual consumers then provide the connectivity to new consumer clusters. These consumer clusters form because individuals share a need and experience. When global access if facilitated the economic network grows. This network encompasses design, production, distribution, and support services but not as one homogeneous entity. This network is a connected capability or capacity around the globe. It supports individual users and through them their self-regulating clusters. At the local level soft power is about experience and recommendations - not loyalty and brands. Individuals experience a product or service that is good and they recommend it to their peer groups - they form into consumer clusters for that business until their experience turns sour. Competition is minimal here because consumers work on experience not price. Price is the starting point not the end point. Because they have access and connection to a global network they can always find the best fit with their needs at the lowest possible price so what they are looking for from a network is a good consumer experience. Does the network deliver the 'use value' expected by the consumer. Once the 'use value' is delivered as expected this consumer will show off his success by telling her story time and time again. Her network will share her expectations and so long as they are met the cluster will expand. Soft power is completely different to management power - it is a networked power that resides with consumers. Contemporary stretch words....How do you discern whether or not your thinking is contemporary? Simple. Listen to what you and your colleagues say - write down all the stretch words for a week. Stretch words describe what you can not or do not do right now. No stretch - not contemporary. More than a dozen stretch words - not contemporary if they are not actionable. More than a dozen stretch words - you are contemporary if your stretch words describe what you are doing to improve you business. The words you use reflect the thinking, mindsets, and ways of doing things within your business. Contemporary stretch words are about the actions you take to address the impacts of Climate Change, peak oil, wireless technologies, digital systems, and networked information. The actions you are taking to address the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on your business systems will be reflected in your stretch words. The new ways you handle suppliers, distributors, consumers, and employees. Supplier contracts include the words that make your supply chain carbon neutral. These contracts become an integral part of your business culture - they describe the new ways we do things around here. These contracts have stretch targets for CO2 emissions as well as offsets through a carbon trading regime. Every consumer of your products and services is informed about the carbon reduction measures taken in your production, supply, and distribution systems. Your suppliers are contracted to become an action network with minimal inefficiency, waste, and time delays. Are you designing and building "action networks"? Do you talk action networks? Do your suppliers and consumers understand your new dialogue? Are you getting beyond being dependent on your employees? Are you moving to be lean and mean in your use of all your business resources? At the end of the day however my point here is do you talk a contemporary stretch game and more importantly do you walk the talk? October 20 Action networks....When I was an under-graduate and later when I was paid as a teacher/facilitator to post-graduates - organisation theory was all about the internals. How do you lead? How do you manage? How do you get the best performance from people? Should you centralised or decentralised control of these people? Should you manage your people based on areal or functional considerations (ie local was usually areal and national was usually functional)? On and on it went but it was all about the people inside the organisation. The people defined the organisation. They gave it brand power. They brought it success. They were the key ingredient. Most of the management books are still banging on and on about this today. Most management guru's are still out there preaching this stuff. The guru's tell us people do not want to change, people perform better in teams, people need strong leadership, people need more women managers, people need work-life-balance, people...... Their message is clear "get the people thing right" and you will be a success! But is it correct? I want to put forward an alternative point of view. Simply put the new and still emerging digital entity - the one that will replace our moribund organisaitons - is not so much about the people inside as the people outside the scope of the traditional organisation. Fewer people inside and more people outside is the key. What do I mean - what am I on about here? I am on about a complete break with our past. I am on about getting beyond the management of people. I am on about replacing the traditional organisation with "action networks". Action networks that link clusters of people who participate in producing part of what they and others consume even though they are not paid for their work. Cooperatives wherein people share ideas, productive capacity, and innovative capability to achieve a common goal. These networks exist today but they are not recognised as organisations. The reason is they work on the inclusion not the exclusion principle. They are not part of the old economies that reward workers, investors, governments, etc. They are not integral to the money tree of mass production. They are cooperatives that serve the ends of the users within and linked to their action networks. In summary, I believe the replacement for the C20th organisation is an "action network" that links clusters of users who subscribe to a service or product delivery system. Within the action network efficiencies are derived that can not be sustained within a traditional organisation or its value chain. Within an action network the notion of value adding simply does not exist - it has been replaced by the notion of "use value". The earliest form of an action network I experienced was the Apple user groups in the early 1980s. Macintosh computers worked so much better for you when you subscribed to a user group - the only payment was your time. You invested your time and you were rewarded with use value. You invested your time and your Mac became an infinitely better tool for you. You invested your time and you tapped into a virtual memory of computer literacy, innovation, and instruction that was priceless. Are you involved in addressing the various impacts of Climate Change on your business, your customers, your community, etc? Do you belong to an action network? Does your business have an action network? Why don't you design, build, and profit from an action network? October 19 How are you connnected?You are connected through people. You work in a local business which is networked/franchised globally. You are connected directly to your customers. You make most of your use value at the point of sale. You are an integral part of a successful entity. You are connected through machines. You work in a global business which is networked/franchised globally. You are connected directly to your customers. You make most of your use value at the point of sale. You are an integral part of a successful entity. You are connected to the future of business. October 18 Embedded patterns..My job is simple but not simplistic. I work with clients on their embedded patterns of thinking, being, and doing. Walk into your workplace tomorrow and you will find a job for me if and only if you can look at the place through new eyes. Look at everything within your workplace to see if it supports the old embedded patterns or the future vision you and your colleagues have for the place. Any point of discord is a job for me. I welcome discordance because it indicates why your workplace is so successful or why it is struggling with change. Discords between what you do and what you might do to better support the future vision you all share for the place are crucial. These discords point to the embedded patterns that are holding you all back. Discords that indicate what you do differently today to support your vision and what you did yesterday are all positives for the future. These points of inflection are easy to find when I walk around a place. Once on a client site I love to go for a walk around the joint. I might walk into the Board Room to look at the pictures on the wall - the pictures on the walls often tell a story about how this company got to this point. Those pictures detail the embedded patterns that confront managers when they talk about a new and bright future for the place. Those pictures are ghosts stalking the corridors with folklore, old ideas/thinking, and moribund practices. The discord is obvious when the Chairman talks about a bold new future for the company in that room. So the first thing to do is to dedicate one wall to the future. On the future wall is discontinuity - on that wall is a new story. On that wall are the images, ideas, thinking, models, and ways of being in the world needed to succeed tomorrow. Once those new images appear then this room will display a healthy discord between the old embedded patterns of the company and the future. As the Chairman talks about a new future there are positive images to support the need for a new set of embedded patterns. These new embedded patterns are quickly made real by new contracts written and forged with suppliers and customers. Now here is the rub - this Chairman does not need a change program, she does not need a new culture, she does not need to change the old embedded patterns, she..... She simply needs to point to the new contracts she is signing today, tomorrow, and over the next few weeks because she knows that to deliver on those contracts everyone involved in her enterprise will have to come to rely upon a new set of embedded patterns. Embedded patterns not people delay, frustrate, deny change. Embedded patterns not people ease, support, and fast-track change. October 17 Disintermediation....Have you, your business, or your industry been disintermediated? In our world the middle is dead. The middle has disappeared. The middle has been flattened like a pancake. The middle is at both ends of a compressed continuum. The middle is gone because it has been disintermediated by digital technology. The internet connects people to people and people to information - both processes can disintermediate you, your business, and even your industry. People have access to more information about your service, product, or intellectual property than ever before - the rub is this information does not usually come from you it comes from their independent searches on the internet. It comes from their subscription to Web 2.0 communities. It comes from researchers around the globe who post, blog, chat, and distribute ebooks on the web. Last century mass production was the core principle in organising your work, business, or industry. The mass production process relied upon suppliers, assemblers, distributors, and customers. This century personalised production is the core principle in organising your work, business, or industry. The personalised production process links suppliers and customers directly. Gone are the assemblers and distributors - they have been disintermediated. Disintermediation changes economic systems, industries, organisations, and workplaces. It removes the middleman. It reduces costs. It eliminates the notion of a value chain and value adding. It re-introduces the notion of "use value" as the key determinant of all business transactions. Steve Jobs said in the early days of Apple that middle management was like re-enforced concrete in an organisation - nothing could travel through it either up or down the organisation and indeed its only use value was to add ballast to the place. In the old mass production system people processes were the key to success. This is the reason so much of our management literature is dominated by discussion of people issues. It is the reason for so much being written about leadership. It is the reason so much is written about the productivity of labour. It is the reason so much is written about management per se. Today you really must understand that "disintermediation" will happen to you "if you do not get it". |
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