A blog devoted to the book Zen & Creative Management by Albert Low. By blogging about this author’s work, my hope is to generate creative ideas about bringing spirit into the workplace.
We shall therefore explore this problem at length to show some of the elements that have to be taken into account. The limitations of our habitual way of thinking about things will be exemplified by the difficulty of truly expressing this not-two, not-one aspect of the company, and we shall see that this has very …
Page 29 ~ So far it has been said that a company is a system, i.e., a set of interacting forces, and that it is a field in dynamic equilibrium that finds its expression through an idea in a form with a demand. This combination of a field and a set of interacting forces is …
Each of these ideas is the energized core of a unique design for a business. The exploitation of each idea requires a comprehensive intellectual grasp of the totality of a business viewed as an interacting system.” The task demands “special intellectual ability to visualize the translation of ideas and strategies into controlled operating systems responsive …
The form that a product takes is given by the material, equipment, and components of the company. These are provided by the shareholder dimension. The form represents the cost of the product. The form of the product is, therefore, the commitment of the shareholder in action. But a product is not simply an idea in …
Much of the work done at middle and senior management level, much of the consultation work, is simply the expression of ideas in a verbal form through reports, financial statements, contracts, and decisions. The result that ensues from the work of a financial, engineering, or industrial relations consultant is no less a product than the …
The notion of idea is, of course, very important philosophically, and many philosophers have struggled to define it unequivocally. The notion is, nonetheless, of practical importance in the world of commerce and industry. The level of a product, and therefore of a company, is a function of the level of the idea of which that …
Looked at this way it becomes difficult to find the boundaries of an object. An automobile melts into subsuming and interacting ideas of steel, rubber, gasoline; ideas of friction and compression; ideas of fleets of cars, tanks, and jeeps; ideas of vacations, business trips, and visits to friends. An automobile is a system of ideas—ideas …
But our definition of a product as an idea in a form is not complete. It was only when the block-of-wood-that-could-be-a-doorstop was put into juxtaposition with doors and wind-in other words when a demand was envisaged-that the block of wood truly took on the characteristics of a product. A product is therefore an idea in …
Page 22 ~ That a company is a holon is reflected in what the employees, shareholders, and customers seek from their interrelationship. What they seek is also ambivalent. The employee wants challenge; but he also wants to be unique and seeks recognition to prove his uniqueness. The shareholder wants security of and growth in his …
On the contrary, “so far from being controlled by the market, the firm to the best of its ability has made the market subordinate to the goals of its planning.” Galbraith is equally categorical when he says that profit maximization is no longer necessary. The second difference in management theory is exemplified in the writings …