The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business

The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business

Arie de GeusNicholas BrealeyISBN 1857881850£12.99

Keywords Knowledge workers, Learning

A purely financial and economic view of companies had its place when capital was a scarce resource and it was management's duty to optimize its use. Today's scarce resource is knowledge and knowledge is created by a company's human assets, not its capital assets. The knowledge-based economy is the driving force behind greater productivity and economic growth. This demands that companies recognise their status as living work communities, not collections of assets on a balance sheet. It also demands completely different management approaches and here the author uses the language of biology, anthropology and psychology for further insights. The author stresses that in today's modern corporation, management must think in terms of "learning" as the main process through which the company can flourish and hold its own in a competitive market. Arie de Geus gained a wide reputation for his work in his role as group planning coordinator for Royal Dutch/Shell. Widely credited by Peter Senge and others with originating the concept of "the learning organisation", and the author of an influential Harvard Business Review article "Planning as Learning", he is a visiting fellow at London Business School, and a board member of The Nijenrode Learning Centre in The Netherlands. This wide experience comes through in the book.