This text provides examples from multinational businesses to show readers concrete and practical methods, based on complexity theory, for solving practical business problems. The book also seeks to demonstrate how discoveries from the new sciences can help businesses and organizations get out of destructive practices, and embrace constructive ones. Traditional business management models have proved unsuccessful, according to the authors, including the well-mentioned "quality" and "empowerment" programmes. The book argues that in a world growing more complex, understanding complexity theory can make the difference. The text recommends specific business evolution methods and principles which use concepts from the new sciences to make business more effective and profitable. Recommendations include: understanding key concepts from the new sciences and from higher mathematics; developing a practical working knowledge of people and businesses as complex adaptive systems; engaging a "few simple rules", simple and elegant, but not simple-minded; and adopting their "14 principles of business evolution", founded on an understanding of self-organizing systems and concepts from the new sciences.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Staggered by third-world debt, Citicorp turned to a new management tool to help thwart growing international competition. According to authors Susanne Kelly and Mary Ann Allison, the company adopted "complexity science," which helped Citicorp learn how to evolve more effectively in its business environment. In the mid 1990s, they became a great turnaround story: profits rose again, debt was reduced, and its stock price rocketed. In The Complexity Advantage, Kelly, a Citibank vice president, and Allison, president of a consulting company, describe a complexity-based program that empowers employees and gives them the freedom to organize and manage themselves better. The authors write that this new management technique can help any company thrive in an increasingly chaotic business environment. The authors argue that managers who give company divisions the means to self-organize "will have enthusiastic employee contribution, better information, dramatic increases in both productivity and creativity, lower costs, and the ability to respond rapidly to change in direction." Kelly and Allison go on to describe step by step how the science of complexity can be applied to business. They give four simple rules to follow for successful self-organizing: Trust, learn together, commit deeply, and embrace change. The Complexity Advantage is a useful manual for company leaders interested in complexity science and its applications to business. -Dan Ring
From the Back Cover
"The science of complexity and biological metaphors are now making their ways into the practical world of business. Whether this transformation is revolutionary remains to be seen. The science is new, and persistent; cautious intelligence will be required for its successful maturation to practical applications. The Complexity Advantage is a serious, sustained and successful effort at just such intelligence. Susanne Kelly and Mary Ann Allison deserve to be taken seriously, read seriously, and thanked."--Stuart A. Kauffman, M.D., Founding General Partner, Bios Group LP, Best-selling author of At Home in the Universe. "Finally, a book that reveals exactly how complexity theory really applies to business in the digital age. Fascinating, insightful, pragmatic and well written. Has helped me rethink the design of a knowledge ecology for Xerox PARC."--John Seely Brown., Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation and the Director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). "Shows managers how to put the rich insights of complexity theory to work in everyday business management to improve strategic and financial results. A pleasure to read and will richly reward the reader's investment."--Dr. Fernando Flores, Chairman & CEO, Business Design Associates, Coauthor, Understanding Computers and Cognition. "Provides both a map and the methods to navigate in increasingly complex markets by combining real management experience with scientific theory."--Carolyn Ticknor, Vice President and General Manager, LaserJet Solutions Group, Hewlett-Packard.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gaining competitive advantage through complexity science,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Complexity Advantage (Hardcover)
This is a very clear presentation of a difficult topic-the relationship of the new field of complexity science to business. It is particularly useful for anyone who is thinking "Complexity science is interesting, but what are the implications for the real world." This book gets off to an outstanding start with the unit "The Main Point: Self-Organization." This indeed is the aspect of complexity science that has the most relevance for business. The authors also are to be commended for being the first book that I know of to relate the concept of memes to the question of how to use complexity science to improve organizations. (According to the Oxford English Dictionary a meme is "an element of a culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means, esp. imitation." For more information on memes, enter "memetics" in the subject search box on amazon.com.) However, I would have liked to have seen an expanded discussion of memes. I believe the authors missed the opportunity to use the concept of memes to clarify the distinction between the old way of managing and the new way that they espouse. Traditional approaches to management are based on a meme set that can be traced back through Newton to Aristotle. The new approach to management that they recommend is grounded in a new meme set provided by complexity science. The authors initial focus on self-organization is capped-off with an equally brilliant section on "Reducing the Artificial, Designated Power Hierarchy and Enabling Natural Organization." However, the "lists of steps" in the middle chapters are somewhat overdone and in my opinion detract from the main thrust of their book. I'm afraid the casual reader may not fully grasp the importance of what the authors are saying: The traditional organizational hierarchy, in all of its MBA-ish splendor, is essentially unnatural. For it is complexity science, especially self-organized groups, which offers a natural approach to management. No one, in my opinion, has demonstrated they really know how to execute this new perspective within a major organization. The authors' approach is as good as it gets, and it has a real-world feel that is better than that of British complexity science guru Ralph Stacey (Complexity and Creativity in Organizations) or the American gura Margaret Wheatley (Leadership and the New Science). What is clear is that those organizations that figure out how to manage naturally will have a substantial competitive advantage over those who use artificial, unnatural approaches.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Undistinguished,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Complexity Advantage (Hardcover)
The authors and the text come highly recommended but I must say that the book is a profound disappointment. What I expected was a book blending complexity science with applied business experience. What I received was another undistinguished business book. For a study based on nonlinear principles, Susanne Kelly and Mary Ann Allison rely excessively on linear lists and programs. Much like any other business text, there are the five levels in the fitness model, the fourteen steps to success, the four simple rules, and so on. In short, the authors appear to be thoroughly grounded in linear thought. There was very little on growing complexity thoughts, behavior, and actions in your own portion of the business organization. Instead, the authors have written a book that should appeal to corporate training departments everywhere because of the focus on simple steps, simple progressions, and simple solutions. My advice is to save your money because The Complexity Advantage is too easily forgotten.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting read,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Complexity Advantage (Hardcover)
This book reveals how complexity theory (CT) can be used in today's complicated organization. However, it lacks the tools on how to achieve what it intends to do. The steps and levels of organization 'maturity' described by author is clear. It has interesting sections and good lessons to teach. The book does not stand on its own. It needs help from other disciplines to put the plan into reality. Perhaps, readers may find more in Theory of Constraints than what is expected in Complexity theory in business world at this point in time.
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