Search results

This paper examines the organizational consequences of aberrant decision making processes in terms of the continuum of knowledge management alluded to by T.S. Eliot (1969); namely information acquisition and use, knowledge and, in turn, insight and wisdom. The thesis of the paper is that a raft of recent corporate failures can be explained away in terms of managerial decision‐making processes that have destroyed the integrity of the organizational learning experience for these organizations, through the corrupt and dysfunctional behavior of their respective managerial elite. It is further argued that when viewed from an anthropological perspective this dysfunctional behavior is akin to cannibalism of the body corporate.

Memes communicate ideas and some memes are more successful at doing this than others. The reason for such success has been hotly debated. It is argued that there is an ontogenetic explanation for meme success in that a feature of the successful meme’s content or message may more readily conform to the mind’s evolved structure. The hardwiring of the mind facilitates learning but some information is often more palatable than others. In a competitive environment where the mind can process only a limited amount of information, information that does not conform to our evolved cognitive structures and the implicit rules under which our minds work best, will be less likely to be accepted. This suggests that we are more susceptible to instinct or hardwired cognitive behaviours than we may like to admit. This has numerous implications for people working in advertising, marketing, and management.

One of the major driving forces behind a firm’s success can be attributed to its meme management. Memes, analogous to the biological gene, are self‐replicating. They represent the knowledge, views, perceptions, and beliefs communicated from person to person. In a business context, memes can be used to manage market perceptions as well as managing the views a firm has of itself. If a firm focuses too persistently on replicating a specific product meme, and by its singularly unyielding focus fails to innovate, a competitor may obliterate it with a disruptive leap in product development. The former firm has failed because of its lack of flexibility and its inability to adapt to a product or market’s ongoing evolutionary process. Discusses the example of Rip Curl, the Australian surf‐wear giant, and how it has developed and managed three memes that are central to Rip Curl’s product success as well as the company’s innovative operations.

How and why does serendipity plays an important role in a relatively small percentage of entrepreneurial successes? The concentration of entrepreneurs in the transition economy of Mongolia stimulated the authors’ desire to research these questions and to attempt to discover instances where serendipity played a major role in an entrepreneur’s success. This study does not pertain to the deliberate search for serendipitous innovation (those that are not a result of pure luck) or where mistakes play a prominent role in accounts of serendipity, e.g. Viagra, Teflon, Post it Notes and a plethora of others. This paper aims to relate to accounts of pure luck as in being in the right place at the right time.

The authors conducted one intensive face-to-face interview (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) and two brief clarifying sessions conducted over Skype (Melbourne, Australia). During the face-to-face interview, open-ended questions were asked, copious notes were taken and electronic recordings were made. Recordings and notes were transcribed and used to develop this paper. During the Skype interviews, the authors took the opportunity to cross-check and verify responses from the face-to-face interview. This technique allowed the authors to accurately recount stories, points-of-view and to quote the respondent directly. Using qualitative data from the interviews enabled the authors to circumvent exaggeration and to preserve the probity of content within this study.

Serendipitous lightning is a rare phenomenon that has been acknowledged in scholarly papers but not fully researched. There are many samples of people finding something new and valuable, but are they attributable to serendipitous lightning? Little has been said about the phenomenon that begs the questions: Is it something that is too difficult to analyse and explain? Can you look for it? Can you plan for it? With no scientific basis, is it unexplainable and best left alone?

Although Mongolia has experienced an upsurge in entrepreneurial activity since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its economic support, Mongolia may not have been a suitable location for this study. It was a matter of convenience as the authors were there on another project at that time. The scope of the study was limited by the lack of suitable respondents in a city of only 1.3 million inhabitants, which is over half of the total population of Mongolia. Time and costs were major considerations that limited this study. Examples of serendipitous lightning were extremely difficult to identify with the authors finding one suitable interviewee from a total of 55 scoping interviews. This equates to a 0.02% strike rate for the sample; however, there is no suggestion that further examples would not be forthcoming from a larger sample size.

Serendipitous lightning is a rare phenomenon that has been acknowledged in scholarly articles but has not been fully researched. The authors’ intention was to stimulate discussion of serendipitous lightning and to entice more people to become engaged and interested in researching the phenomenon. In addition, the authors contend that it is serendipitous lightning that ignites the fuse and whether the “flash of brilliance” is recognised and acted on depends heavily on the entrepreneur’s alertness and propensity to act swiftly. As such it is felt that there is evidence supporting the extension of existing theory on serendipity.

The article provides and interview with Dr Richard Pech.

Richard Pech answers questions about business growth, downscoping, downsizing, core competencies, and growth strategies.

Richard Pech provides views on a variety of issues connected to business growth.

Provides an insightful interview with Dr Richard Pech.

This article aims to develop and explore diagnostic frameworks to enhance one's understanding of the religiously‐inspired terrorist. It seeks to examine the relationship between the culture and conditions from which terrorists are recruited, as well as the psychological impact of fundamentalist religious teachings upon the minds of susceptible people.

This paper synthesises the theories of memetics with structuration to create a diagnostic framework facilitating greater understanding of terrorism and its appeal to those being recruited to its cause. This diagnostic framework assesses the influence and power of selective religious teachings when combined with a culture and history of violence, and their impact on susceptible minds in a fractured society.

By combining the theory of memetics with structuration theory it is possible to develop a diagnostic framework that examines psychological, cultural, and religiously‐inspired factors driving the phenomenon that has been labelled as terrorism. Memetic theory assesses culture and communication of beliefs, ideas, and thoughts. Structuration theory identifies motives and drives.

The authors conclude that the current terrorism problem bears little relationship to US foreign policy. The concept of a free society will never be fully enacted until the religious and cultural scaffoldings that support terrorism have been dismantled.

The third paper in the manoeuvre warfare series, describes a prescriptive approach for the organization's operationalisation of its strategic intent. It discusses the practical planning stages adapted from the military appreciation process. Termed the mission analysis process (MAP) this framework guides planners through the initial mission analysis, the development of a course of action (CoA), followed by a landscape analysis, execution, review, reorientation, and further action if deemed necessary. This paper argues from a military paradigm using both military and business as examples. This paper emphasises the need for porous, flexible and rapid planning processes, devolved decision‐making, and high levels of organizational capability, initiative, trust, and employee competence. Argues that the MAP framework facilitates organizational learning, a heightened sense of organizational participation and commitment, as well as improving business development between management levels and across the organization.

The following chapter describes a paradigm shift in military thinking and its practical application for business strategists. It describes the concept of maneuver theory. Originally designed as a war‐fighting doctrine based on the principles of speed, surprise, and economy of effort; the authors argue that maneuver theory has the inherent capability to provide the same successes for business strategists as it has for military strategists. Discusses similarities between military and business campaigns and then describes the difference between maneuver warfare versus conventional warfare. The techniques and lessons from the maneuver paradigm are then translated into the business context using a number of examples. Argues that the ongoing contests of wills, deployment of resources, and competitive behaviors seen on the business landscape are comparable with military campaigns. Argues that the application of maneuver techniques and principles will produce swift, economical, innovative, strategic, and sustainable business victories in an environment that is increasingly turbulent and unpredictable. Provides step‐by‐step guidelines for implementing a competitive philosophy that generates organizational excitement, commitment, energy, and innovation. Maneuver theory has spawned much discussion and debate, it has been misinterpreted, it has been touted as the solution to all military problems, and it has been vilified as a “bag of military Doritos – tasty and fun to munch but not very nutritious” (Bolger, 1993). This chapter describes how to operationalize a war‐fighting philosophy that until now has remained elusive in its application.

Modern society has found its nemesis in the terrorist, fundamentalist criminals attempting to halt progress and force society back into the Dark Ages. This article aims to build on the work of Pech, arguing that many acts of terrorism are rooted in mimicry of acts of violence.

The article argues that the number of terrorist copying behaviours can be reduced through the concept of memetic engineering, which is the altering of the message that motivates terrorists and the copying of their violent activities. A model is developed for identifying and re‐engineering vulnerable constructs within the terrorist's causal algorithm.

This terrorist algorithm can be modified by: eliminating media portrayal of terrorists as freedom fighters and heroes; minimising potential causes of disinhibition; editing the terrorist's script that initiates and engenders empathy with violent acts; reconstructing the religious, cultural, and environmental support for violence as an acceptable means of communication, protest, and negotiation; reducing factors that facilitate susceptibility to the terror meme, identifying and moderating influences that initiate a state of cognitive priming for violence, and weaken the appeal of the terror meme. Introduces a diagnostic model for assessing key elements responsible for creating and sustaining terror memes.

The article describes an original and radically different approach to responding to terrorism. Essentially this means re‐engineering toxic scripts, using the mass media to moderate fundamentalist messages, re‐engineering of scaffolds that maintain some societies in cultural empathy with acts of violence, and the removal of environmental factors that enable terrorism to emerge.