tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post4462860781433009472..comments2024-02-22T13:43:48.846+01:00Comments on Kallokain: Why Cities Live and Companies DieKallokainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-68633929472019373592015-02-11T01:15:10.272+01:002015-02-11T01:15:10.272+01:00Hello Marcus,
There are large organisations that ...Hello Marcus,<br /><br />There are large organisations that have come together around a purpose:<br /><br />Religious organisations<br />Military organisations<br />Sports organisations<br />Interest groups from Wikipedia to Greenpeace, to Doctors Without Borders<br /><br />I believe the only thing stopping companies from doing the same, is convention.<br /><br />Most companies are designed around a purpose, to maximise shareholder value. The problem with that purpose is that:<br /><br />* it crowds out every other purpose<br />* neither employees, nor customers care about it<br /><br />There are attempts to fix the problem. For example, Stephen Denning, a former World Bank director, has done a lot of work constructing better models for business organisations.<br /><br />I may have more to write about it soon. I am conducting experiments... :-)Kallokainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-9378960683907544752015-02-11T00:24:32.291+01:002015-02-11T00:24:32.291+01:00Hej Henrik, long time no see. Thanks for a good an...Hej Henrik, long time no see. Thanks for a good and entertaining article. <br />@stefanhaas : large organizations actually struggle quite a bit attempting to define a unifying purpose, vision and so on. I actually believe your observation builds upon this thought, rather than detracts from it. Smaller organizations have an easier time coming together around a purpose. <br /><br />/marcus Widerberg Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-52432518178519779492013-02-25T15:40:13.101+01:002013-02-25T15:40:13.101+01:00I enjoyed your post very much.
The city-large org...I enjoyed your post very much.<br /><br />The city-large organization comparison is a good and appropriate one.<br /><br />There is some evidence to suggest that - in companies with over 1,000 employees - the average productivity of an employee drops by more than ¼ for each order-of-magnitude increase (Source: http://www.cybaea.net/Blogs/Data/Employee-productivity-as-function-of-number-of-workers-revisited.html).<br /><br />I'd note that Deloitte's Shift Index (2011 is most recent) is worth checking out for their related analysis (for example - declining Return on Assets in the US since 1965).<br /><br />In my view the core reasons large organizations decline in productivity is a combination of things:<br />- <b>the combination of increase in "expert thinking" and "complex communication" work</b> (which computers / internet augments while replacing routine manual / cognitive work)<br />- <b>inefficient knowledge and idea flows (into and through) through large organizations</b> - a result of the combination of silos and hierarchy (see Adrian Bejan on constructal design of such flows)<br />- <b>poor engagement of most workers, most of the time</b>, in their work (due to outmoded Taylorist management ideology)<br />- <b>increased environmental complexity and rate of change</b> (requiring engaged expert thinkers to be able to flow knowledge / info / ideas much faster)<br /><br />For more on this see my website: www.dynamicadaptation.comAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06792453395421276804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-12544447182623500652013-01-08T15:34:08.415+01:002013-01-08T15:34:08.415+01:00Cities don't have a purpose. They are just the...Cities don't have a purpose. They are just there to reproduce themselves like living beings while companies have an external purpose and depend on a product or service they provide. This makes a big difference from my POV.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15016343848920169974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-71743596664114673242012-12-13T09:22:52.948+01:002012-12-13T09:22:52.948+01:00Hi Tapis,
I agree. The reason why you can walk ou...Hi Tapis,<br /><br />I agree. The reason why you can walk out from one job, and start working somewhere else, is that the companies are part of the city ecosystem.<br /><br />It is often easier to transfer between companies than to transfer within a company. The reason is that if your skills are adapted to fit one specific function in the company, you won't fit anywhere else. <br /><br />On top of that, everyone expects you to stay the same, to not change over time. This makes it very difficult for, say, a software developer to transition into a marketing department, or a sales person to transition into the software department. What the actual skills are, what skills can be developed, or the value of simply cross-polinating between different parts of the company, is rarely given much weight.<br /><br />However, in network organizations, like the Virgin Group or Business Network International, you can move from one location to another quite easily.Kallokainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-81816668903299371872012-12-11T10:49:12.168+01:002012-12-11T10:49:12.168+01:00Hi Vasco,
In general, you are right about compani...Hi Vasco,<br /><br />In general, you are right about companies being beyond repair. There are a few exceptions though. sometimes you can do something for someone. We are a bit like the man throwing starfish on the beach (http://www.changeeverything.ca/blog/catherine_ludgate/it-makes-difference-one-starfish).<br /><br />I don't have enough data to be certain, but I believe that the main cause of death of cities is effectiveness. Cities organized around a single thing, a mine, or a harbor, is very vulnerable. City planning can kill a city off, if the planners try to make the city effective by reducing redundancy (which is sometimes the reason for planning a city in the first place).<br /><br />Thanks for reminding me about Antifragile! I just bought it. Looks like I'll be reading a lot this Christmas (if my family and relatives let me).Kallokainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-10000774521918161652012-12-10T21:26:48.825+01:002012-12-10T21:26:48.825+01:00You can walk out from your job and start up in ano...You can walk out from your job and start up in another job the day after. It is not that easy to leave your house, build another one in another city still with all your friends around you. Tapishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06746338969730908208noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-57996454197113746142012-12-10T14:17:57.174+01:002012-12-10T14:17:57.174+01:00I would love to see a comparison between failed an...I would love to see a comparison between failed and successful cities. I believe companies are beyond repair anyway, so I'd like to see new structures being tried out instead of salvaging what is there...<br /><br />Another interesting perspective would be to apply the "antifragile" model from Taleb to cities and see what parts of the model successful cities implement...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02243270660471764123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-4223199802250565032012-12-09T23:16:50.109+01:002012-12-09T23:16:50.109+01:00Thanks Tobias,
I just bought it. :-)Thanks Tobias,<br /><br />I just bought it. :-)Kallokainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-82401204772458686732012-12-08T18:13:08.465+01:002012-12-08T18:13:08.465+01:00> "There are several military studies that...> "There are several military studies that compare how hierarchies and networks stand up against each other."<br /><br />There is also the wonderful book, The Starfish And Spider which describes—for many different contexts—the robustness of networks and self-organization over hierarchies.Tobias Mayerhttp://businesscraftsmanship.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-2416526391195373092012-12-06T15:39:45.028+01:002012-12-06T15:39:45.028+01:00There was a really heavy snowfall in Stockholm yes...There was a really heavy snowfall in Stockholm yesterday (2012-12-06), and of course the papers where filled with headlines "Snow chaos".<br />However, although the infrastructure of public transport broke down (no busses or commuter trains), emergent structures arose to compensate: friends slept over, neighbours picked up kids from school and fed them etc.<br />So, Stockholm as a system did not break down to chaos, but proved resilient to emerge other structures when needed.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07991087192133138300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-31248322123382912872012-11-20T22:36:49.668+01:002012-11-20T22:36:49.668+01:00Very interesting article. I've been attempting...Very interesting article. I've been attempting to understand the nature of hierarchies specifically within programming and programming languages with, to some extent, similar conclusions. For instance, type hierarchies, which are a principal modelling technique in object-oriented programming, are being seen as increasingly harmful and dangerous. Instead, programmers are directed to favor composition over inheritance. More recently, functional programming techniques provide new modelling paradigms which factor problems explicitly with function as opposed to implicitly with type hierarchies. Overall, I'm interested in the subject matter in general. Thank you for this article!Lev Gorodinskihttp://gorodinski.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-41383033854449501222012-11-14T09:30:20.810+01:002012-11-14T09:30:20.810+01:00I have updated the article with examples of produc...I have updated the article with examples of productivity increases in cities. I also added a diagram showing the decreasing lifespan of cities, and where the information is coming from.Kallokainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-10253246810028632812012-11-13T12:31:37.003+01:002012-11-13T12:31:37.003+01:00Hi leider,
I am not using cities as a metaphor f...Hi leider, <br /><br />I am not using cities as a metaphor for companies. I am using cities as an example of scale-free networks. You are quite right that there are limits to the accuracy of the examples, but they stem more from limits in our, well <i>my</i>, understanding of how networks and hierarchies work.<br /><br />I'll try to address the three points you make:<br /><br />1. According to Geoffrey west, the 15% rule holds for just about any measure you want. I did not go into detail about it in the blog post, because West has plenty of examples in the TED Talk I linked to.<br /><br />2. Yes. Cities are not immune to misfortune, accidents, or sheer stupidity. However, they tend to survive even severe hardships, Companies, on the other hand, are extremely vulnerable. There are examples of network based companies, like Virgin, Semco, and Gore & Associates. These are not immune to damage either, but they are much more robust than traditional companies.<br /><br />3. Yes. That is the point. Centralized infrastructure is by its nature vulnerable. However, cities are less vulnerable than companies, because cities are less centralized. (There is such a thing as becoming too dispersed, but that is not a major worry right now...)<br /><br />There are several military studies that compare how hierarchies and networks stand up against each other. The ones I have read come to the same conclusion I did in this article, even though the angle of approach is completely different.Kallokainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15756733532883677794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20843954.post-56665682514947292882012-11-11T18:41:23.301+01:002012-11-11T18:41:23.301+01:00Interesting approach. Like any metaphor it is of c...Interesting approach. Like any metaphor it is of course filled with a few flaws:<br /><br />1) What is the productivity of a city?<br />2) Many cities have financial problems nowadays.<br />3) Cities are vulnerable if centralized infrastructure breaks down.<br /><br />One more thing: Is it really that big companies live only 15 years in average?leiderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12375369195980307461noreply@blogger.com