The Living Company

This book raises a fundamental question, What are companies & what are they for? Whereas the standard answer is that companies are organizations that carry out economic processes to produce goods or services, he argues that such narrow thinking leads to management practices & priorities that are detrimental to everyone--from shareholders to employees to stakeholders--often leading to the demise of firms. Today's scarce resource is knowledge, which is created by a company's human assets. As a result, management's top priority must be the optimization of human resources & its knowledge-creation ability to ensure the longevity of the firm. The author explores the theme of organizational learning & identifies four key elements to organizational survival & renewal: sensitivity to the environment (a company's ability to learn & adapt), cohesion & identity (a company's innate ability to create a community & a persona), tolerance (the ability to build constructive relationships with other entities), & conservative financing (the ability of a firm to govern its growth & evolution). Together, these four factors are essential to growth & viability. Winner, The Edwin G. Booz Prize for the Most Innovative, Insightful Management Book of 1997, The Financial Times/Booz-Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Awards. A Business Week Best Business Book of the Year. Named as one of the Best Business Books of the Year by the Financial Times. "With a light touch & an interesting variety of examples, de Geus employs biological metaphors in order to analyze corporate management [&] provides an interesting challenge to basic assumptions about the way companies work."--Business Week "The Living Company earns a spot as one of this year's best business books."--Quality Digest "This profound & uplifting book is for the leader in all of us."--Dr. James F. Moore, Author of The Death of Competition "In contrast to the common gaggle of management books, few of which can truthfully be called thought-provoking, The Living Company is one that deserves a read."--Training "Arie de Geus has written an excellent book that gives senior executives & board members provocative insights into success."--Directors & Boards "A seminal book that will initiate far-ranging discussions regarding the nature & purpose of the company."--National Productivity Review

This book raises a fundamental question, What are companies & what are they for? Whereas the standard answer is that companies are organizations that carry out economic processes to produce goods or services, he argues that such narrow thinking leads to management practices & priorities that are detrimental to everyone--from shareholders to employees to stakeholders--often leading to the demise of firms. Today's scarce resource is knowledge, which is created by a company's human assets. As a result, management's top priority must be the optimization of human resources & its knowledge-creation ability to ensure the longevity of the firm. The author explores the theme of organizational learning & identifies four key elements to organizational survival & renewal: sensitivity to the environment (a company's ability to learn & adapt), cohesion & identity (a company's innate ability to create a community & a persona), tolerance (the ability to build constructive relationships with other entities), & conservative financing (the ability of a firm to govern its growth & evolution). Together, these four factors are essential to growth & viability. Winner, The Edwin G. Booz Prize for the Most Innovative, Insightful Management Book of 1997, The Financial Times/Booz-Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Awards. A Business Week Best Business Book of the Year. Named as one of the Best Business Books of the Year by the Financial Times. "With a light touch & an interesting variety of examples, de Geus employs biological metaphors in order to analyze corporate management [&] provides an interesting challenge to basic assumptions about the way companies work."--Business Week "The Living Company earns a spot as one of this year's best business books."--Quality Digest "This profound & uplifting book is for the leader in all of us."--Dr. James F. Moore, Author of The Death of Competition "In contrast to the common gaggle of management books, few of which can truthfully be called thought-provoking, The Living Company is one that deserves a read."--Training "Arie de Geus has written an excellent book that gives senior executives & board members provocative insights into success."--Directors & Boards "A seminal book that will initiate far-ranging discussions regarding the nature & purpose of the company."--National Productivity Review

Creates a managerial compass for entering into the LIVING (Live, Intelligent, Velocity, Interactive, Networked, and Good) era of supply chain management and defines the imperative for creating Velocity and Visibility as the focal point for exploiting new digital, mobile, and cloud-based technologies Written by well-known researchers in the field, this book addresses the changes that have occurred and are still unfolding at various organizations that are involved in building real-time supply chains. The authors draw on their experiences with multiple companies, along with references to the natural evolution of ecosystems throughout to help identify the “new rules of supply chain management." The LIVING principles associated with the rapid digitization and technology changes occurring in the global economy are discussed, along with the push to become more sustainable and responsive to customer needs. “ Handfield and Linton reveal the “secret ingredient” to leveraging the power of a well managed supply chain....will revolutionize the way companies approach supply chain management.” Frank Crespo, Vice President, Global Supply Network Division (CPO/Logistics/IoT Analytics), Caterpillar Inc. “ The LIVING supply chain is a wake up call to any enterprise that depends on suppliers and contractors. Be fast, be nimble and make supply chain transparency the nucleus of your operations or become endangered.” Paul Massih, Vice President, BP PSCM “ ...a fascinating journey through the future of supply chain management ... a must read for every supplychain professional.” Yossi Sheffi, Professor, MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics “ ... a great “living” reading on how to bring supply chains to a powerful living state. The idea of Live-Interactive-Velocity–Intelligent–Networked-Good is the foundation of how supply chains can be agile, adaptive and aligned. ...of value to every supply chain executive and practitioner.” Hau Lee, Professor, Stanford University “ Successful businesses are those that support the success of their customers. This book captures the essence of our volatile, uncertain world and the opportunities that exist for the commercially astute, organizationally integrated business. More important, it offers insight to the recipe for 21st century operations and the management of complex supply ecosystems.” Tim Cummins, CEO, International Association of Commercial and Contract Management “ A LIVING supply chain requires a living company. The authors make a great case for how Flex is creating a living company to thrive in the living supply chain.” Tom Choi, Harold E. Fear on Eminent Scholar Chair of Purchasing Management, Arizona State University, Executive Director, CAPS Research “ To survive we need to have an adaptive supply chain and capability to both optimize and adapt simultaneously. This book begins to describe the ability to shift from functional silos to E2E Frictionless flow with the maturity to make E2E tradeoff decisions as a key enabler for success.” Wayne Rothman, Vice President, Enterprise Supply Chain Planning, Johnson & Johnson “A fantastic read and excellent stories from Dr. Handfield and Tom.” Joanne E. Wright, Vice President, IBM Supply Chain ROBERT HANDFIELD, PhD, is Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management and Director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative at North Carolina State University. The author of four books and over 150 journal articles, Dr. Handfield received his PhD in Opera

Until the age of twelve, Georgia Lee Kay-Stern believed she was Jewish — the story of her Cree birth family had been kept secret. Now she’s living on her own and attending first year university, and with her adoptive parents on sabbatical in Costa Rica, the old questions are back. What does it mean to be Native? How could her life have been different? As Winnipeg is threatened by the flood of the century, Georgia Lee’s brutal murder sparks a tense cultural clash. Two families wish to claim her for burial. But Georgia Lee never figured out where she belonged, and now other people have to decide for her.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A BookPage Best Book of the Year "This exquisitely written book shows how recovery can come generations later through rebuilding connections—to people, the natural world, the past." —Robin Shulman, Washington Post "It’s long been assumed of the region where my grandmother was born…that at some point each year the dead will come home," Inara Verzemnieks writes in this exquisite story of war, exile, and reconnection. Her grandmother’s stories recalled one true home: the family farm left behind in Latvia, where, during WWII, her grandmother Livija and her grandmother’s sister, Ausma, were separated. They would not see each other again for more than 50 years. Raised by her grandparents in Washington State, Inara grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. When Inara discovers the scarf Livija wore when she left home, in a box of her grandmother’s belongings, this tangible remnant of the past points the way back to the remote village where her family broke apart. There it is said the suspend their exile once a year for a pilgrimage through forests and fields to the homes they left behind. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together Livija’s survival through years as a refugee. Weaving these two parts of the family story together in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she gives us a profound and cathartic account of loss, survival, resilience, and love.

With a light touch and an interesting variety of examples, de Geus employs biological metaphors in order to analyze corporate management.

This text seeks to raise the curtain on competitive pricing strategies and asserts that businesses often miss their best opportunity for providing consumers with what they want - an experience. It presents a strategy for companies to script and stage the experiences provided by their products.

What exactly is a living church? Author John Stott explains, 'We need more radically conservative churches: "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but radical in relation to that combination of tradition and convention that we call 'culture'. Scripture is unchangeable, but culture is not.' 'The Living Church' brings together a number of characteristics of what the author calls 'authentic' or 'living' church. The marks, being clearly biblical, are timeless and need to be preserved. We are encouraged to become learning churches, caring churches, worshipping churches and evangelising churches. John Stott unpacks the Bible's wisdom rigorously with a teacher's skill and applies it faithfully with a pastor's heart. Becoming a living church is not an impossible goal.