The Complexity Advantage

Rating:
Summary: "The best business plan is only a best guess"
Review: "Your business comprises self-organizing systems whether you know it or like it. You can cut costs and improve profits dramatically by learning to work with these systems rather than against them. So, what is self-organization and how does it work?...In this book," Susanne Kelly and Mary Ann Allison write, "we build on complexity science to explain and apply the principles of self-organization to business and organizational behavior. We discuss the enterprise environment and energy that leaders must provide to generate the power and precision of laser-sharp business performance"(p.4).

In this context, in Chapter 1, after defining complexity science and complexity advantage, they argue that "Complexity advantage companies address today's transition in business-plagued by rapid change and increasing uncertainty. For approximately a century our manufacturing model was comparatively stable...The Information Age has turned previous 'knowns' upside-down...The best business plan is only a best guess." And hence they summarize the old and new business paradigms as following:

I. Manufacturing Age Business

* Game: Bulk-material manufacturing.

* Goal: Commodity product.

* Domain: Regional.

* Future: Predictability, deterministic.

* Change Periodic nuance, steady rate, digestable.

* Rules: Linear cause and effect.

* Game plan:Five-year strategic plans.

* Leader: Manages strategic plan to end state.

* Ownership: Centralized decision-making and responsibility.

* Challenge: Demand versus capacity to deliver.

* Resources: Material and financial capital.

* Risk: Moving too quickly-out of control.

* Approach: Quality, low cost of production. Branding, emergent price standards. Diminishing returns.

* Role of Team: Optimizing of quality and productivity. Application of raw energy. Repetitive day-to-day operations. Processing of resources.

* Process Perspective: Parts interact in sequence of steps. End-to-end effiency key, standardization the answer.

II. Information Age Business

* Game: Design and use of technology.

* Goal: Knowledge-based products.

* Domain: Global.

* Future: Uncertainty, probability, possibility.

* Change: Way of life - accelerating, overwhelming.

* Rules: Nonlinear complex interaction.

* Game Plan: Three-year probability scenarios.

* Leader: Envisions and coaches on direction.

* Ownership: Distributed decision-making and responsibility.

* Challenge: Demand versus capacity for change.

* Resources: Human, social, or intellectual capital.

* Risk: Moving too slowly-out of the running.

* Approach: Be first-best if possible, high-cost R&D. Market lock-on, high margins. Increasing returns.

* Role of Team: Quality:productivity:adaptability. Application of ideas. Quest for innovation. Processing of information.

* Process Perspective: Whole emerges from interacting parts. Micro-to macrointegrity key, feedback the answer.

Finally, they write that "By the way, if you are part of a start-up or a small-to-medium-sized business, don't be fooled by the adjective global. Today, satellite communications, the Internet, and air transport move information, materials, products, and people rapidly from place to place. All of us are now connected through a global market comprising mail-order customers and suppliers, supply chain partnership, and international franchise competition. Even our local pizza parior has installed a fax machine and is designing a Web site. They must compete not only with the deli down the street, but also with global fast-food chains such as McDonald's, Burger King, and Pizza Hut. Without the complexity advantage, they risk the fate of dinosaurs."

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Good information, how to implement?
Review: "Your business comprises self-organizing systems whether you know it or like it. You can cut costs and improve profits dramatically by learning to work with these systems rather than against them. So, what is self-organization and how does it work?...In this book," Susanne Kelly and Mary Ann Allison write, "we build on complexity science to explain and apply the principles of self-organization to business and organizational behavior. We discuss the enterprise environment and energy that leaders must provide to generate the power and precision of laser-sharp business performance"(p.4).

In this context, in Chapter 1, after defining complexity science and complexity advantage, they argue that "Complexity advantage companies address today's transition in business-plagued by rapid change and increasing uncertainty. For approximately a century our manufacturing model was comparatively stable...The Information Age has turned previous 'knowns' upside-down...The best business plan is only a best guess." And hence they summarize the old and new business paradigms as following:

I. Manufacturing Age Business

* Game: Bulk-material manufacturing.

* Goal: Commodity product.

* Domain: Regional.

* Future: Predictability, deterministic.

* Change Periodic nuance, steady rate, digestable.

* Rules: Linear cause and effect.

* Game plan:Five-year strategic plans.

* Leader: Manages strategic plan to end state.

* Ownership: Centralized decision-making and responsibility.

* Challenge: Demand versus capacity to deliver.

* Resources: Material and financial capital.

* Risk: Moving too quickly-out of control.

* Approach: Quality, low cost of production. Branding, emergent price standards. Diminishing returns.

* Role of Team: Optimizing of quality and productivity. Application of raw energy. Repetitive day-to-day operations. Processing of resources.

* Process Perspective: Parts interact in sequence of steps. End-to-end effiency key, standardization the answer.

II. Information Age Business

* Game: Design and use of technology.

* Goal: Knowledge-based products.

* Domain: Global.

* Future: Uncertainty, probability, possibility.

* Change: Way of life - accelerating, overwhelming.

* Rules: Nonlinear complex interaction.

* Game Plan: Three-year probability scenarios.

* Leader: Envisions and coaches on direction.

* Ownership: Distributed decision-making and responsibility.

* Challenge: Demand versus capacity for change.

* Resources: Human, social, or intellectual capital.

* Risk: Moving too slowly-out of the running.

* Approach: Be first-best if possible, high-cost R&D. Market lock-on, high margins. Increasing returns.

* Role of Team: Quality:productivity:adaptability. Application of ideas. Quest for innovation. Processing of information.

* Process Perspective: Whole emerges from interacting parts. Micro-to macrointegrity key, feedback the answer.

Finally, they write that "By the way, if you are part of a start-up or a small-to-medium-sized business, don't be fooled by the adjective global. Today, satellite communications, the Internet, and air transport move information, materials, products, and people rapidly from place to place. All of us are now connected through a global market comprising mail-order customers and suppliers, supply chain partnership, and international franchise competition. Even our local pizza parior has installed a fax machine and is designing a Web site. They must compete not only with the deli down the street, but also with global fast-food chains such as McDonald's, Burger King, and Pizza Hut. Without the complexity advantage, they risk the fate of dinosaurs."

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The winners are adaptive creatures of these chaotic times.
Review: Based on experience using complexity theory in working to promote organizational change relating to process, software, architecture, and organizational behavior, Kelly arrived at important insights that she and Allison present in this informative and absorbing work. They build on complexity science to explain and apply the principles of self-organization to business and organizational behavior. They describe what they refer to as "complexity advantage companies" capable of changing in response to the highly chaotic, unpredictable environment of today's markets. They introduce a model for organizational evolutionary fitness (the complexity advantage model) which has its origins in the Capability Maturity Model used to develop software. The insights and creativity of the authors make this an impressive book.

Rating:
Summary: Undistinguished
Review: Despite all of the hype, I found this book to be wordy, convoluted, and devoid of clarity. Sure, some of the concepts are useful, but they are presented in such a self-important and unconvincing style that they are useless. Any normal person would get lost in all of the acronyms and made-up new language. Phrases like "autocatalytic loops generating stable, healthy memes for robust self-organization" abound on every page. This book is for Ivory Tower theorists, not for somebody trying to run a business and manage a business. These may indeed be "big ideas", as a recent WSJ review states, but those ideas need a new voice....

Rating:
Summary: Good information, how to implement?
Review: Don't get me wrong, I like the book. It is just that it is difficult to translate it into an initiative. Even if I ask members of the team who need to understand the concept and come up with ways to advance the concept, we will be spending time on "I don't understand this line here". My point is that the writing seems to be targeted to the decision-makers who are well-educated or well-read but it would be simply too difficult for the actual implementers - middle managers, task leaders, team members, etc. This is even more apparent at the global scene where English is the second or third language. This is probably why I can buy the brand new hardcopy on sale at a cheap price and the stack remains tall for many days (no one else is buying it).

Rating:
Summary: A landmark contribution
Review: In a few years, The Complexity Advantage will be ranked among the most important works on business management ever. For corporate executives today, it's the only way to go. Do or die.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Gaining competitive advantage through complexity science
Review: THIS IS A GOOD BOOK. WE KEEP A COPY ON OUR DESK TO REFER TO IT OFTEN. WE FOUND IT INTERESTING AND ENJOYABLE, AND EVEN LEARNED SOMETHINGS FROM IT. IN OUR DISTRIBUTION COMPANY WE TRY TO OVER COME STALLS WHICH SLOW US UP AND BRING US DOWN. WE FIND THAT THIS BOOKS KEPT US GOING. WE ALSO FOUND THE BOOK THE 2000 PERCENT SOLOUTION TO TAKE US TO THE NEXT LEVEL TO GET THROUGH THE STALLS THAT PLAGUE US ALL EVRYDAY OF OUR LIVES. BOTH ARE GOOD READING.