The Living Company Arie de Geus Nicholas Brealy, London (1997) Arie de Geus has written a thoughtful book that will forever change the way you look at your business. Book Review © Dr. Terry J. van der Werff, CMC

This is not your typical management tome outlining the marvelous effects of the fad de jour.  While not a long book, it takes hours to get through, because of Arie de Geus's provocative thoughts of how companies could be run for long-term success in the real world.

His contention is simple: that companies are living entities that can survive and thrive for centuries if they focus on several aspects of their character and operations:

	Sensitivity to their environment - long-lived companies sample, learn, and adapt to what is going on around them.
	Persona - they are cohesive and have a strong sense of identity based on the ability to build a shared community.
	Tolerance - they are patient, generally decentralized, with wide-spread decision making authority, and tolerant of "non-core" activities on their periphery (which may well become tomorrow's core).
	Frugal - they are conservative with their money, which they use to govern their own growth and to give them options.

de Geus draws on his personal experiences within Royal Dutch/Shell, insights from psychologists and biologists, and study of long-lived companies of significant size.  (Indeed, this last item is a potential shortcoming, in that it is not at all evident these principles apply to organizations of all size, even though his arguments seem imminently plausible.)

If there is a single underlying thread that unites his thoughts it is a commitment by the company to develop all individuals working in it to their maximum potential at every stage of their careers.

There are wonderful little gems of management thought sprinkled throughout:

	"As a manager you have to learn to work with people as you find the.  Your role is to create the conditions in which they will voluntarily give their best."
	"The art of managing - of coaching such a community along its path - becomes a matter of setting the context for the rest of the organization's members to perform that task at their level."
	"The companies' survival rose or fell on the way they managed their resources: their people, their information and their money."
	"Make it difficult to move conflict up the hierarchy.  Set in motion policies, implicitly or explicitly starting that people can ask the next higher levels for advice but cannot ask they to make decisions."

If you want to add value to your company over your career, read this book.

---

For convenience, you may order this book from:     amazon.com    Borders    Barnes & Noble

Sign up for e-mail alerts to new postings.