Competing on the Edge : Strategy as Structured Chaos

Rating:
Summary: When management is a jazz improvisation
Review: This is a very interesting book, which I bought after reading one article by Prof Eisenhardt at Red Herring Magazine. Her point, which is that businesses expecting rapid adaptation to constant changes should adopt a mix of structure and informality, is very compelling. This point about the edge of balance between structure and the lack of it is an application of learnings from complexity theory. The idea is compelling and is worth a try, albeit a cautious one (would you bet your entire business on it, just like that?). The authors deserve the criticism that they do not provide a very clear and structured model to follow, but this would be a paradox: providing structure to combat structure. The book is inspiring, a tour de force of intriguing insights. At the very least, it makes you think twice before instituting any kind of burocracy, and that is very good in itself. (By the way, I found it much better than Open Boundaries, which has been mentioned by another reviewer. Open Boundaries lacks the models AND the inspiration.)

Rating:
Summary: When management is a jazz improvisation
Review: This is a very interesting book, which I bought after reading one article by Prof Eisenhardt at Red Herring Magazine. Her point, which is that businesses expecting rapid adaptation to constant changes should adopt a mix of structure and informality, is very compelling. This point about the edge of balance between structure and the lack of it is an application of learnings from complexity theory. The idea is compelling and is worth a try, albeit a cautious one (would you bet your entire business on it, just like that?). The authors deserve the criticism that they do not provide a very clear and structured model to follow, but this would be a paradox: providing structure to combat structure. The book is inspiring, a tour de force of intriguing insights. At the very least, it makes you think twice before instituting any kind of burocracy, and that is very good in itself. (By the way, I found it much better than Open Boundaries, which has been mentioned by another reviewer. Open Boundaries lacks the models AND the inspiration.)