The Complexity Advantage
Staggered by third-world debt, Citicorp turned to a new management tool to help thwart growing international competition. According to authors Susanne Kelly and Mary Ann Allison, the company adopted "complexity science," which helped Citicorp learn how to evolve more effectively in its business environment. In the mid 1990s, they became a great turnaround story: profits rose again, debt was reduced, and its stock price rocketed. InThe Complexity Advantage, Kelly, a Citibank vice president, and Allison, president of a consulting company, describe a complexity-based program that empowers employees and gives them the freedom to organize and manage themselves better. The authors write that this new management technique can help any company thrive in an increasingly chaotic business environment. The authors argue that managers who give company divisions the means to self-organize "will have enthusiastic employee contribution, better information, dramatic increases in both productivity and creativity, lower costs, and the ability to respond rapidly to change in direction." Kelly and Allison go on to describe step by step how the science of complexity can be applied to business. They give four simple rules to follow for successful self-organizing: Trust, learn together, commit deeply, and embrace change.The Complexity Advantageis a useful manual for company leaders interested in complexity science and its applications to business.-Dan Ring