The Biology of Business: Decoding the Natural Laws of Enterprise

Like any compendium whose chapters were written by different experts, The Biology of Business has its ups and downs. As a collection of ten deeply informed essays on complexity theory management, its voices vary. But when you're in the perilous business of trying to predict just where the cutting-edge of technology will cut next, is that really a bad thing? The diversity and scope - what is now fashionably called "bandwidth" - of this volume surely could not be matched by any single author's work. As you read through topics as diverse as law, marketing, nurturing start-ups and the application of advanced biological concepts to management, you will indeed find yourself challenged to adapt. That's as it should be. Reading this book may change the way you perceive your business. As the biological paradigm continues to spread through consultants' minds like a complex adaptive mold spore, we from getAbstract strongly recommend this sophisticated book to help you stay au currant.

In the Foreword, Esther Dyson explains that this book explores "the details of complex adaptive systems (CAS) and how they apply to organizations and businesses. The underlying principles comprise the seven basic elements outlined by John Holland [in Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity] for any self-organizing enterprise: aggregation, tagging, nonlinearity, flows, diversity, internal models, and building blocks. Master these basics and you will be better equipped to build an organization that can respond rapidly to complex and diverse challenges, in a distributed and self-coordinating way." Clippinger serves as editor of ten separate but related essays, and, as the author of two of them. One of the most interesting concepts (discussed by Clippinger in the book's first chapter) is the "The Sweet Spot Between Excessive Disorder and Excessive Order." With Darwin's theory of Natural Selection in mind, Clippinger suggests that "The challenge to all forms of complex organization, from the simplest proteins to the most complex societies, is to survive in the particular `fitness landscape' in which they find themselves. In the starkest terms, the challenge of survival is that of searching an enormous landscape, or space of options, in sufficient time to avoid extinction." In times such as these when change is the only constant, it follows that the "sweet spot" is mobile; how we define "excessive" disorder and disorder today, therefore, may well be inadequate (if not dead wrong) tomorrow.In the final chapter, "Emergent Law and Order: Lessons in Regulation, Dispute Resolution, and Lawmaking for Electronic Commerce and Community", David R. Johnson has some especially informative comments on the subjects indicated by the chapter's title. If change is the only constant, if measurements of "excessive" order and "disorder" are themselves volatile, what hope is there for organizations which must compete in such an environment? Johnson observes: "The lawmaker and dispute resolver of today must be more gardener than sovereign, building a trellis, grafting new plants, fertilizing open ground. The wise ones, who know they can only water and weed, not manufacture or command, will be rewarded with the knowledge that their actions will lead to a richer social and economic harvest." Don't be misled. This brief excerpt is not from the script for the film Being There in which the mentally-challenged character played by Peter Sellers unknowingly suggests correlations between agriculture and economics. Johnson's metaphors are apt and highly sophisticated, correctly suggesting all manner of complex and profound implications which can be derived from the aforementioned "underlying principles" which comprise "the seven basic elements" outlined by Holland. If your organization needs help with "decoding the natural laws of enterprise", I highly recommend the essays so carefully organized withn this book.

This book is a must read for anyone struggling to understand, much less manage in the chaos of the new economy. It has become required reading for every new executive hire in our company. We are building a corporate culture based upon the principles of self-organization and in our vision, strategy, and execution we apply the principles and insights elaborated in this book. The different chapters ground what can be abstract theory in concrete examples on how CAS perspective can be applied to business problems. We are not alone in our enthusiasm for this book: Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline and Walker Digital is a careful reader of the book and has advocated it for his company and his business partners. Robert Galvin, former Chairman of Motorola, and now Chairman of The Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, has recommended it for his Board of Trustees. The book helps makes sense of how new networks can emerge from the bottom up to challenge and displace traditional distribution and market channels. This is where the world is going and this is one of the few books to provide a CAS framework that makes sense to the business person.

Clippinger and his stellar collection of contributors nail the key issues for management in the 21st century. The frenetic rate of change and complexity is forcing all leaders to re-evaluate how their businesses are run. This book crisply presents concepts that make sense not only for business leaders but for everyone. We are living in a time when standardization has been replaced by customization and Clippinger points ou t that our old paradigm of top-down management is similarly out of date. Get with the program and create a team. Open up channels of communication that allow bottom-up, creative decision making. Just as medicine has finally admited that the mind-body-spirit-connection does indeed exist and even contributes to the health of the individual, so too does Clippinger remind us that there is a undeniable interconnectedness between the management, staff, customers and outside environment for every company and that the strength, flluidity and frequency of their communications and connections contributes to the health of a company. To embrace this new reality of multiple touch, bottom-up information flow, a new management paradigm is needed and Clippinger provides insights as well as techniques on how to deploy one. A great read and a must read for anyone who considers themselves an active participant in the 21st century.Catharine Arnston January 2000 Boston, MA

John Clippinger is a guru of the information age. In this book he marshalls a cadre of leading experts to provide this year's most practical treatise on reforming the business enterprise along natural principals.Bill Gates and Descartes move over!