Though not the ideal shape for a
Christmas stocking , this slim little volume could nevertheless make a welcome
seasonal gift. Launched in Britain at the end of October, and covering just
under 100 pages (with paragraphs inset almost to the middle of the page) , it is
not much more than an extended essay. But it presents an interesting idea
eloquently and clearly, offering digestible brain food amid a surfeit of turkey
and television.
The author, Gerard Fairtlough, was a senior
executive With Shell for many years before he left in 1980 to found a new
biotechnology company called Celltech--recently bought by UCB, a Belgian group,
for over
$ 2 billion. He knows how businesses are run--both well-established
organisations, such as Shell, in which it can be hard to see an alternative to
"the way things are done around here", and new start-ups, where the founders’
enthusiasm can evaporate if it has to be corralled into an organogram.
The author’s thesis is that we are all addicted to hierarchy--partly
because that is how we are hardwired, as are our simian cousins, but also
because we do not realise there are other ways to run organisations. "The
hegemony of hierarchy, "writes Mr. Fairtlough, "makes us think the only
alternative is disorganisation… we only compare hierarchy with anarchy or
chaos."
There are, he says, two alternatives to hierarchy (hence
the title of the book). One is heterarchy; the other, "responsible autonomy".
Heterarchy is the form of structure commonly found in professional service
firms, the partnerships of accountants or lawyers in which key decisions are
taken by all the partners jointly. With responsible autonomy "an individual or a
group has autonomy to decide what to do, but is accountable for the outcome of
the decision. ""Accountability, " says Mr. Fairtlough, "is what makes
responsible autonomy different from anarchy."
The author says
that hierarchy is so entrenched it will take years before there is any
significant change. But he perhaps gives too little credit to the many companies
that have moved (and are still moving) along the spectrum from hierarchy to
responsible autonomy. BP, for example, a huge multinational, has managed to
devolve authority to much smaller units in recent years and has decimated the
staff in its headquarters. Toyota, likewise, evolved towards greater autonomy as
it discovered that the only effective way to carry out its famous" just-in-time"
system of stock control was by delegating responsibility for ordering stock to
the person closest to the coal face. The fact that these are among the most
successful companies in the world today strengthens Mr. Fairtlough’s
case.
The author has not just written a book, he has also set up
a publishing firm to produce it. But Triarchy Press is not a vanity publisher.
It exists because Mr. Fairtlough believes that traditional business-book
publishers are too focused on engineering bestsellers. He wants Triarchy Press
to provide a sort of transition, a way books can test the water, at tow cost, to
see how the public responds. If they get a warm reception they can subsequently
be given the full publishing treatment. The danger is that the public will not
notice. For first they have to find their way to a website: www. TriarchyPress.
co. uk. |
