A growing band of business leaders are turning to the science of complexity to help them structure and run their organisations. David Pringle finds that those companies that are comfortable with ambiguity, and even chaos, are the most likely to prosper in increasingly unstable international markets.
Some companies deliberately make life more complex and chaotic for their customers.
By developing convoluted and arcane tariff structures for their products and services, marketers hope to make price comparisons impossible. Matthew May asks whether confusion marketing is here to stay. When shopping over the Internet, many consumers are looking for convenience above everything else. If online retailers are going to offer a comprehensive product range many are going to have to form alliances or enter into mergers and acquisitions. But, as Patrick Kelly reports, it is very difficult to put a value on an online operation.