The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business

by Peter M. Senge (Foreword), Arie P. De Geus (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1997

  $4.15

  What are companies and what are they for? The standard answer to those questions is that companies are organizations which carry out economic processes to produce goods and services. So most people, most of the time, think about the company itself also in economic and financial terms. Could it be that this narrow thinking leads to management practices and priorities which are detrimental to everyone, from shareholders to employees to stake holders? A purely financial and economic view of companies had its place when capital was a scarce resource and it was management's duty to optimize its use. This is no longer the case. Today's scarce resource is knowledge and knowledge is created by a company's human assets, not its capital assets. As a result, management's top priority shifts to the optimization of the human resource and its knowledge-creation ability. This volume explores these themes and develops in depth what organizational learning means. It investigates the consequences of building a sustainable work community for human resource management, strategic planning and organizational structure. It makes a case for a public debate on corporate governance and on the reallocation of power, both inside and around the company.

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $3.25

  In The Living Company, the man who introduced the revolutionary concept of the learning organization has turned his attention to identifying the critical characteristics of organizational longevity. Arie de Geus reveals the keys to managing for a long and prosperous organizational life. He draws a sharp distinction between living companies, the purpose of which is to fulfill their potential and perpetuate themselves as ongoing communities, and economic companies, which are in business solely to produc wealth for a small group of individuals. He shows clearly that living companies manage for survival; economic companies manage for profit. With nearly 40 years of experience at Royal Dutch/Shell, where he was involved firsthand with implementing the renowned scenario planning technique, de Geus describes how he came to explore and understand the special qualities of living companies. Among a wide array of important factors, long-lived companies have four essential traits in common. At a minimum, these firms are sensitive to their environment in order to learn and adapt; cohesive, with a strong sense of identity; tolerant of unconventional thinking and experimentation; and conservative in financial policy to retain the resources that allow for flexibility.