- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (15 May 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 185788180X
- ISBN-13: 978-1857881806
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,163,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Living Company
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The average life span of a Fortune 500 company is less than half a century, yet there also are corporations around the world that have been in business for 200, 500, even 700 years. Arie de Geus, a retired Royal Dutch/Shell Group executive, maintains after studying both extremes that the most enduring treat their businesses as "living work communities" rather than pure economic machines. The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business persuasively outlines his resultant prescription for organisational longevity. --Amazon.com
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Arie de Geus is probably the most unique business thinker around. He combines the pragmatism of someone who had a very successful career at Shell with the curiosity of a talented academic. Behind this unique perspective is a deep appreciation for people. Most of us automatically relate to organizations like Newton related to the natural world, as one big physical mechanism. We casually talk about "aligning parts of the organization", "operating in organizational smokestacks or silos", and "fixing communications channels". Mr. de Geus helps us learn to think about organizations from the natural perspective, as living organisms, subject to many of the same limitations and forces as individual people are. When you read this book, you will become a much better and more effective person in all parts of your life. You will also feel better about yourself, and make those around you feel better about themselves. Read THE LIVING COMPANY today. This book is a wonderful gift to us all!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Arie de Geus uses a deceptively simple analogy: what if organisations behaved as living beings? From a variety of perspectives, he examines the underpinnings of corporate success, and informs it with examples from his career in Royal Ducth Shell. I read this book and its messages kept coming back to me as I worked with clients. There are thoughts in this book which will stay with you for a long, long time. Warmly recommended, easy to read, non prescriptive, and packed with wisdom. Just read it!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is undoubtedly one of the best books for a business, european business or even hospitality management student who may be studying for corporate strategy or organisational behaviour/development at any level, but particularly at degree or above. I found it particularly useful in terms of my dissertation regarding change management in the hospitality industry, as it provides us students with a practitioners interpretation of the company, as a living being!
A must for any student!
James A Gower BA (Hon) Hospitality Management Student University of Derby UK
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