"Extraordinary practitioners like Arie make unique contributions to management thinking. Because the source of their thinking is experience rather than concepts, they show how sometimes the most profound ideas are the simplest. At the heart of this book is a simple question with sweeping implications: What if we thought about a company as a living being?"
—From the Foreword by Peter Senge
Winner of the Edwin G. Booz Award for the most insightful, innovative management book of the year.
A purely financial and economic view of companies had its place when capital was a scarce resource and it was management's duty to optimise its use. But today's scarce resource is knowledge and knowledge is created by a company's human assets, not its capital assets.
This, now more than ever before, makes a company into a living work community, instead of a collection of assets on a balance sheet. It demands completely different management approaches and requires the language of biology, anthropology and psychology for further insights. And in leading today's modern corporation, management must think in terms of "learning" as the main process through which the company can flourish and hold its own in a competitive market.
This readable, thought-provoking and highly original book explores these themes and develops in depth what organisational learning means. It investigates the consequences of building a sustainable work community for human resource management, strategic planning and organisational structure. It makes a case for a thorough public debate on corporate governance and on the reallocation of power, both inside and around the company.
"This is a thoughtful, reflective and philosophical book. It does not prescribe quick fixes… The author's experience and reflection as articulated in this book provide a valuable resource for further insight and understanding of how organisations survive, learn and flourish."
—Leadership & Organisation Development Journal
"The world, or at least part of it, is ready to hear the message that profits are only a symptom of success and not an end in themselves… it is based on experience and is incredibly well written by a man whose conversation and manner are compelling."
—People Management
Arie de Geus gained a wide reputation for his work in his role as Group Planning Coordinator for Royal Dutch/Shell. Widely credited by Peter Senge and others with originating the concept of "the learning organisation", and the author of an influential Harvard Business Review article "Planning as Learning", he is a visiting fellow at London Business School, and a board member of the Nijenrode Learning Centre in the Netherlands.
