Product Description

Most companies do not survive the upheavals of change and competition over the long haul. But there are a few remarkable firms that have withstood the test of several centuries. What hidden lessons do they hold for the rest of us? Arie de Geus, the man who introduced the revolutionary concept of the learning organization, reveals the key to managing for a long and prosperous organizational life.

The Living Company speaks not just to aspiring leaders, but to anyone trying to adapt to a turbulent business environment. Only those steeped in the habits of a living company will survive.

"This profound and uplifting book is for the leaders in all of us. Arie de Geus challenges most of the conventional wisdom in management thinking today."

-Dr. James F. Moore, author of The Death of Competition

"Arie de Geus gives leaders of the future an indispensable guidebook in which commitment to values, people, learning, and innovation defines the living company. It's in my book bag."

-Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO, The Drucker Foundation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141171 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.com Review
The average life span of a Fortune 500 company is less than half a century, yet there also are corporations around the world that have been in business for 200, 500, even 700 years. Arie de Geus, a retired Royal Dutch/Shell Group executive, maintains after studying both extremes that the most enduring treat their companies as "living work communities" rather than pure economic machines. The Living Company: Habits for Survival in a Turbulent Business Environment persuasively outlines his resultant prescription for organizational longevity.

From Library Journal
According to a study conducted by Royal Dutch Shell, where the author worked for 38 years, the average life expectancy of Fortune 500 firms is 40 to 50 years. Many such companies don't survive beyond a few years, while others have existed for over 200. Why? De Geus, widely credited with originating the concept of the learning organization, writes: "Companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity of producing goods and services, and they forget that their organizations' true nature is that of a community of humans." He summarizes the components of the long-lived company as sensitivity to the environment, cohesion and identity, tolerance and decentralization, and conservative financing. In this insightful study, he describes how today's managers and staff should strive to develop a living company and increase its life expectancy. An important work; recommended for academic libraries.?Lucy T. Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Queens Village, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"...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, September 1997

"A seminal book that will initiate far-ranging discussions regarding the nature and purpose of the company." -- National Productivity Review, Autumn 1997

"Arie de Geus has written an excellent book that gives senior executives and board members provocative insights into success." -- Directors & Boards, Summer 1997

"Biology is turning up in the strangest places. Just consider Arie de Geus' THE LIVING COMPANY. With a light touch and an interesting variety of examples, de Geus employs biological metaphors in order to analyze corporate management. His provocative stories also draw upon experiences from his nearly 40-year career at Royal Dutch/Shell Group.... de Geus provides an interesting challenge to basic assumptions about the way companies work." -- Business Week, July 14, 1997

"THE LIVING COMPANY earns a spot as one of this year's best business books" -- Quality Digest, May 1997

Customer Reviews

This is a well researched book on sustainability in business
Arie provides a very good picture of companies that have sustained centuries of change. His research reveals what makes them click and what they aare doing that others are not doing. Some of his insights are packaged within the context of a company that truly has life time employment which some of us can not even imagine. His experiences in management and leadership will not necessarily ring true to many of us. Many of us simply will never have the opportunites that he has had. On the other hand, the work that he captures is excellent on sustainability and I highly recommend that if sustainability in business is an interest to you, that you read this book.

Why Companies Fail and What We Can Do About It
Companies die all the time. The current business climate favors short term profit over long term survival, and most companies don't adapt fast enough. De Geus explains why this is, and what we can do about it, but what makes this book an essential read is that he gives us a new way of looking at organizations and the meaning of work.

The problem is that, in management, you get what you reward. This is a well-known truth and explains the dysfunction we see in most companies. As de Geus puts it, "The difficulty lies in our definition of corporate success...the dominant school of thought in business administration measures success purely in terms of quantity: the maximization of revenues, market share, share value, or proceeds."

The solution de Geus comes up with is novel and revolutionary. It is to look at companies differently -- not as machines, but as living beings. In fact, he goes even further than this, saying that companies actually are living beings. It is only because they are living that they can learn and adapt and hence sustain themselves over long periods of time.

This view seems extreme, but it is soundly based in philosophical argument and it is preferable to the alternate view that companies operate like clockwork and their employees are simply assets. The complexity of organizations can indeed be understood better by analogy with human psychology and biological ecosystems. And a company is able to survive and learn only because it has an identity that outlives any of the people working within it.

de Geus draws on the work of leaders in the fields of psychology, philosophy, evolutionary biology and immunology. He agrees with other management writers like Drucker, Collins and Buckingham on basic management truths, like the need to focus on strengths and develop people continually so as to maximize their effectiveness. However, he provides fresh and original insights on management and helps us look at our organizations in a new way.

For example, the natural consequence of thinking of organizations as living beings is that a company's primary goal becomes survival. This in turn leads to a different way of looking at the company's people. The company will survive only if there is synergy and an underlying contract between the company and its members whereby the members are helped to reach their potential in return for support of the company's goals.

Many years ago, I read Peter Senge's book, "The Fifth Discipline," and its depiction of the learning organization became an ideal for me. I didn't expect to be as profoundly affected by "The Living Company," but the ideas are, if anything, even more basic to finding meaning in work, and will likely stay with me. This book is essential reading for any leader wanting to build a sustainable company, but it's also thought-provoking for anyone who wants to make change happen in any organization.

Graham Lawes

deep and encouraging
I am re-reading the book, and was compelled to share my love and appreciation of the deep understanding and unique approach to organizations and to the ways of dealing with change offered by Arie de Geus.

I'm undergoing through deep change in my life; my business is growing and changing. The book gives courage, foresight, support, tools and a map both to pass through the process holistically, and take responsibility for the future. I see how my whole company is taking responsibility for its future. I give credit for this movement to the ideas and concepts laid out the the book.