The Zen of Business

John Mingers. Self-Producing Systems: Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis. New York: Plenum Press, 1995. xvii + 246 pp. I. Introduction A. Topic of the book This is an introductory yet comprehensive text about a process called Autopoiesis – which means ‘a process whereby an organization produces itself’ . The book is meant to be an introduction to the large body of work in this field, usually referred to collectively as the ‘autopoietic theory’. This theory was developed by two Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, since the early 1960’s as a result of their work on visual perception and the organization of the living (Maturana and Varela, 1980). Autopoiesis means ‘Self creation’ – a circular process in which components of a unity participate in processes of production, which in turn produce the components (pp.12). Maturana and Varela contend that all living systems are autopoietic – i.e. they have a circular, self-referencing and self-creating o

What to expect from a well-formed argument? I have always felt that when two disciplines of knowledge come together, great learning comes out of the exchange. And this is true irrespective of the nature of the disciplines. Take for example this instance when I was thinking about forming a hypothesis for a client of mine during an audit assignment, when I came across this little article on gemology in my hotel room in Cairo. The article was about unique properties of diamond and how diamonds can be classified. It talks about four aspects of diamond that qualifies a superior diamond from inferior ones – these are called the four ‘C’s of diamond classification. They are: Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat. And then the article went on talking about the different aspects within the four. But this got me thinking. Just like a diamond, don’t the same four parameters apply to anything else – say, an argument you put in front of your clients or colleagues, or a hypothesis / conjuncture that y

What should be the appropriate attributes for Supervisors and Frontline Management? We are in a knowledge economy. And more important for service based industries, we are in a ‘people’ business. It is cliché to say that people are our biggest assets and when they walk out of the door every evening, our greatest challenge is to ensure that they return the next day morning. Of course, of all these assets, the most valuable are the frontline. There are no two ways about it. They are the ones earning bread for us, and they are also the ones who are directly responsible for the product you are making and / or service that you are providing. However, it seems that most challenging job is that of the supervisors and frontline managers of these frontline staff. And this is also one of the weakest links in the successful operational performance of an organization. The movement from frontline staff to frontline manager is the most important movement for any individual’s career. There is a

What is the underlying message? One of the most famous passages from Alice in Wonderland is when Alice asks the caterpillar where a road leads to, and to which the caterpillar asks Alice where she wants to go. Alice replies by saying she does not want to go anywhere particular. On hearing this, the caterpillar says, ‘… then it does not matter where this road leads to’. If you do not know where you want to go, then it does not matter where you are going. In the daily rut of transactions, it is very easy for anyone to lose sight of the bigger picture. The same happens with me. While teaching on various topics, providing consulting, conducting operational and process audits of different types of programs across different industries in different time zones, and traveling from one airport to another, with an occasional stopover at home to let my wife know I exist, it is sometimes possible to lose sight of what is the basic, fundamental underlying message that one is trying to convey to

What is the idea behind ‘The Zen of Business’? While working on various projects and assignments at work – which invariably have something or the other that has got to do with different business processes, their design, definition, management and improvement – I always come across situations where I feel it would have been nice to refer to something – either to validate my thoughts or to get a stimulus into finding some solution. I usually get this reference by looking around, or through some of the books that I keep handy on the flights and travel. And believe me; the books may have nothing to do with management. They can be on diverse topics ranging from art to philosophy to religion to literary fiction. The last good breakthrough that I got was while reading Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’. But I think it would be nice to have one repository where one can dig into. It is with this idea that I am proposing to start this blog. I hope that it will be entertaining and useful to others, l