by Philip Boxer
Different kinds of service are described, depending on the way in which a customer chooses to internalise or externalise its learning as it responds to its own value deficit.
Author: philipjboxer
by Philip Boxer
In modelling structure-determined processes, we can take the ‘vertical’ axis as a given, and elaborate the ‘horizontal’ within its terms. But in structure-determining processes, we have to start with the particular ‘horizontal’ relations to context-of-use, and then examine the ways in which they are supported and/or restricted by the ‘vertical’ axis.
by Philip Boxer
In the blog on East-West Dominance, we talked about taking power to the edge, but where is this ‘edge’? Where is it? This is a question of what forms of competitive advantage the organisation can create.
by Philip Boxer
We need to learn about how to model the structure-determining processes of the organisation-in-context as well as the structure-determined processes of the systems the organisation uses.
by Philip Boxer
As we develop our understanding of the three asymmetries, it is helpful to associate them with three corresponding forms of economy that their management generates.
by Philip Boxer North-South dominance works when the environment can be assumed to be symmetrical to North’s assumptions about it. As the variety of actual demands on the organization increase, making this assumption increasingly less…
by Philip Boxer
A turbulent environment is one that has a life of its own that can no longer be ignored by the organisation, i.e. it becomes asymmetric in a way that cannot be ignored. A vortex is what happens when organisations are not willing or able to adapt to this environment – they continue to ignore it, not because it is not there, but because they have no way of responding to it.
Must we then fall ultimately into this vortex? It depends on whether we can find it within ourselves to take up the double challenge these environments pose to our identities.
by Philip Boxer
East-West dominance requires networked forms of organisation that can hold ‘the edge’ accountable for the way it uses the resources of the supporting organisation, but in relation to the situation in which the demand is arising. This contrasts with the hierarchical forms associated with N-S dominance. What is at stake is the performativity of what is done in relation to the demand at the edge, rather than the performance of what is done against centrally (symmetrically) defined criteria. It is not that hierarchy isn’t still necessary, but rather that it has to be situationally rather than universally defined.
by Philip Boxer
It is the personal nature of the response to the customer that distinguishes taking power to the edge of the organisation. It used to be possible to rely on ‘free’ market processes for creating such innovations, but in the 21st Century the whole cycle has to be managed. This presents those leading at the edge with a double challenge, but it also presents business leadership with the need to develop a capacity for asymmetric governance.
by Philip Boxer
The double challenge involves not only responding to the customer’s demand at the edge, but also creating the organisational context that will sustain that response.