[OSList] Arie de Geus on Liiving Companies (was: Re: Skye on living companies)

[Artur Silva]

Thanks,
Skye. 
 
Indeed
Arie de Geus is one of my favorite authors since the publication of his seminal
HBR article "Planning as Learning", in 1988, to the publication of
his book "The Living Company", that you mentioned.  
 
Having
been a practitioner, that entered Shell after the University, in the Netherlands,
as an Engineer, and retired as V-P for Strategic Planning of the Shell Group,
his study on the longevity (and learning, adaptation and change) of companies
is a master piece. 
 
Being
a modest person, he is much less well known then the presumptuous academic
Peter Senge that has tried to "discipline" the so called
"Learning Organizations" with limited success. 
 
It
is interesting to note that, in his Forward to de Geus' "The Living
Company" (a book with limited sales), Peter Senge wrote:  "It was through Arie de Geus, whom I met
over 15 years ago, that I first became seriously acquainted with the
concepts  of organizational learning. That meeting began the journey
of a life time".
 
Interestingly this words are not also
in the beginning of Senge's well known "The Fifth Discipline",
neither in any other book or paper from Peter Senge that I have red.
 
Even if de Geus was the precursor and Senge the
follower, last year de Geus, that lives in the UK after his retirement,
accepted to give a Conference for the SOL-UK, in London, with the
title 'ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING – 20 YEARS POST SENGE - a talk by Arie de
Geus'. 
 
My complain to the Executive Director of SOL, where I
have quoted Senge's words above, and said that "the title of this
presentation is erroneous and even unethical, if not fraudulent" never
received an answer...
 
But probably things will self-organize one day...
 
Regards
 
Artur 

  


________________________________
From: Skye Hirst <skyeh at autognomics.org>
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <OSList at lists.openspacetech.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 1:54 PM
Subject: [OSList] Skye on living companies


Thanks Arthur -  reminds me of the thoughts of Arie deGeus  in his book on "The Living Company" who studied what makes companies last beyond 40 years.

He makes an analogy between oxygen for living organisms and money for companies.  "To support life, we need oxygen to breath; but breathing oxygen is not our purpose.  Similarly to support continued operation, companies need to make money and profit; but that is not their purpose. When it is made their purpose they become money machines; rigid mechanisms unable to adapt and learn."


Skye Hirst, PhD
The Autognomics Institute
Perceiving the Process Nature of Life-itself

 
skyeh at autognomics.org
www.autognomics.org
Twitter @autognomics
 

 

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20110925/c1b459b4/attachment-0008.htm>