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Brain of the Firm
"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know." Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA. "If . anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer . everyone in management . should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and . even elegant diagrams." The Economist This is the second edition of a book which has already become a management 'standard' both in universities and on the bookshelves of managers and their advisers. Brain of the Firm develops an account of the firm based upon insights derived from the study of the human nervous system, and is a basic text from the author's theory of viable systems. Despite the neurophysiology, the book is written for managers to understand. The companion volume to this book is The Heart of Enterprise, which is intended to support and complement this text. "Stafford Beer's works represent required reading for everyone who believes that a capacity for rigorous thinking is an essential attribute of today's successful managers and administrators. Brain of the Firm shows a first-rate intellect at work and provides concepts, models and inspiration for both practitioners and teachers." Sir Douglas Hague, CBE
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 13, 2020
A really brilliant introduction to the intricacies of corporate hell and how it happens to be.
No one wakes up and makes a decision: 'today I'm gonna make life for my employees even more hell than usual. Do they? Yet all kinds of fucked up communications, misaligned targets, triple bindings, weird goals, unability to reach consensus, corporate culture entanglements etc, etc, etc happen. More often than anyone would want to admit.
I really love how this book is STILL very much on spot of how clients-sales-operations-finance-management-other parties can't wrap their heads about how to interact. Even with all the CRM stuff.
Some points are very dated: the ones concerning the use of computers, since the book was written long before the digitalization era.
No one wakes up and makes a decision: 'today I'm gonna make life for my employees even more hell than usual. Do they? Yet all kinds of fucked up communications, misaligned targets, triple bindings, weird goals, unability to reach consensus, corporate culture entanglements etc, etc, etc happen. More often than anyone would want to admit.
I really love how this book is STILL very much on spot of how clients-sales-operations-finance-management-other parties can't wrap their heads about how to interact. Even with all the CRM stuff.
Some points are very dated: the ones concerning the use of computers, since the book was written long before the digitalization era.
September 18, 2019
This is not an easy book. The reader is encountering an extraordinarily brilliant mind, expositing a complex idea without dumbing it down at all. But the idea is astonishing, and the time spent exploring it is repaid in spades.
Stafford Beer was interested in viable systems; systems that are able to continue to exist over time. He studied biology, ecosystems, electronics, information theory, computers, corporate governance, and governments, and sought to create a pattern language for describing how every kind of system continues to sustain itself. And then he set work to analyze social systems, like governments and corporations, to improve the model so that it was an effective way to gain insight in to how social systems behave and how to make them more effective.
His model works well in describing an individual human being as a biological organism, but when applied to a corporation, provides surprising insights about the blind spots in an organization, and how these blind spots account for lost opportunities and much inefficiency. The model provides a number of ways in which there must be balance: balance between different goods and services a company provides, balance between workers and management, balance between operations and research/development, and balance between the functioning of the whole system and how it conforms to its mission statement. Along the way he tries to build up the autonomy of the people working at each level, so that the only time management needs to intervene is when something goes wrong, leaving them to work on their own issues rather than the issues of their subordinates. Beer points out that an org chart is set up mostly to create a chain of whom to blame, rather than as a realistic description of what is actually happening inside an organization.
Beer uses mathematics, biology, computer science, and electronics in elucidating his model. He coins a number of terms that he uses in his exposition. His interdisciplinary approach can be daunting. But he shows that his ideas work in practical situations. He might be a dreamer, but he is a dreamer with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
"Brain of the Firm" was a favorite of Brian Eno's, who worked with Beer as a colleague, and also of David Bowie's, and both incorporated Beer's ideas into their music. I have found for me that Beer's ideas inform a lot of things I do, both in business, and in my creative life.
Stafford Beer was interested in viable systems; systems that are able to continue to exist over time. He studied biology, ecosystems, electronics, information theory, computers, corporate governance, and governments, and sought to create a pattern language for describing how every kind of system continues to sustain itself. And then he set work to analyze social systems, like governments and corporations, to improve the model so that it was an effective way to gain insight in to how social systems behave and how to make them more effective.
His model works well in describing an individual human being as a biological organism, but when applied to a corporation, provides surprising insights about the blind spots in an organization, and how these blind spots account for lost opportunities and much inefficiency. The model provides a number of ways in which there must be balance: balance between different goods and services a company provides, balance between workers and management, balance between operations and research/development, and balance between the functioning of the whole system and how it conforms to its mission statement. Along the way he tries to build up the autonomy of the people working at each level, so that the only time management needs to intervene is when something goes wrong, leaving them to work on their own issues rather than the issues of their subordinates. Beer points out that an org chart is set up mostly to create a chain of whom to blame, rather than as a realistic description of what is actually happening inside an organization.
Beer uses mathematics, biology, computer science, and electronics in elucidating his model. He coins a number of terms that he uses in his exposition. His interdisciplinary approach can be daunting. But he shows that his ideas work in practical situations. He might be a dreamer, but he is a dreamer with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
"Brain of the Firm" was a favorite of Brian Eno's, who worked with Beer as a colleague, and also of David Bowie's, and both incorporated Beer's ideas into their music. I have found for me that Beer's ideas inform a lot of things I do, both in business, and in my creative life.
December 30, 2019
Found this book through a documentary on Brian Eno. I was studying cybernetics at the time and was interested not only in the central processing of a firm but also in how this framework ties to music composition and information theory.
November 12, 2019
I feel guilty. When I was a teenager, I thought that all giant, creative, original minds existed in the past and I was doomed to an age of recurrence. However, Stafford Beer was still alive back then and just hadn't heard about him.
While I, as Beer himself, have moved on from the concepts described in this book, this is definitely one of the life-changing books for me.
While I, as Beer himself, have moved on from the concepts described in this book, this is definitely one of the life-changing books for me.
July 2, 2025
A nearly perfect book, apart from the political conclusions Beer makes at the end, which don't go far enough.
"This was a Third World issue. This was a new kind of Marxism. This was a cheap-technology undertaking of high-science. This was a managerial revolution. Yes, and it was many other things too: the cybernetics of the viable system relates to them all, and none seems to be central to such an undertaking as we made -- and which could be made again, somewhere else . . ." p.349.
"This was a Third World issue. This was a new kind of Marxism. This was a cheap-technology undertaking of high-science. This was a managerial revolution. Yes, and it was many other things too: the cybernetics of the viable system relates to them all, and none seems to be central to such an undertaking as we made -- and which could be made again, somewhere else . . ." p.349.
September 8, 2024
Beer är en kontroversiell individ, och en betydligt bättre talare än författare. Detta sagt är han en användbar tänkare, inte en filisté, och denna bok bevisar det. Visst att han överförklarar ibland, och förutsätter samband som inte finns, men han är genomlyslig i sina tankegångar, och hans VSM-modell, som förklaras i denna bok, är användbar och översiktlig.
February 7, 2021
This book requires an act of belief - in the usefulness of cybernetics (naturally) but mostly in Beer’s total commitment to the human nervous system as a viable system model for entities in everyday life, like a company or a government. Though taking a universal (human) starting point, the result is a highly personal and niche approach to management which you may love or hate.
Brain of the Firm is divided into four parts. The first part, an introduction to adaptation and control is superb and shows Beer’s ability to translate his imagination to words. He depends on this ability in parts 2 and 3 when things get very technical. Some commenters have mentioned that the book is dated but I think this is besides the point. Computing has come a long way since 1972/81 but our human bodies are still the same.
Ultimately though, Brain of the Firm is still begging for a refresh - not as a book but perhaps as software. So much of Beer’s text (and imagination) is dedicated to explaining scenarios. Now, in the 2020’s, we could do it in an app or at the very least with videos. In short, the ideas are still relevant but they need to be separated from the timeframe of the book and ‘animated’. Cybernetics is as relevant as ever.
Brain of the Firm is divided into four parts. The first part, an introduction to adaptation and control is superb and shows Beer’s ability to translate his imagination to words. He depends on this ability in parts 2 and 3 when things get very technical. Some commenters have mentioned that the book is dated but I think this is besides the point. Computing has come a long way since 1972/81 but our human bodies are still the same.
Ultimately though, Brain of the Firm is still begging for a refresh - not as a book but perhaps as software. So much of Beer’s text (and imagination) is dedicated to explaining scenarios. Now, in the 2020’s, we could do it in an app or at the very least with videos. In short, the ideas are still relevant but they need to be separated from the timeframe of the book and ‘animated’. Cybernetics is as relevant as ever.
November 9, 2019
Книга может показаться тяжелой и унылой, но стоит проявить усердие и упорство - и прочесть ее.
На примере работы живого организма автор показывает модель связей и управляющих алгоритмов, характерных для крупных организаций и государства. Эта книга помогает более предметно разобраться с теорией управления сложных систем
На примере работы живого организма автор показывает модель связей и управляющих алгоритмов, характерных для крупных организаций и государства. Эта книга помогает более предметно разобраться с теорией управления сложных систем
October 15, 2020
Frustrating, mind bending, and life changing book. Came across Beer through the General Intellect Unit, and been deep into it ever sense. This probably requires a few rereads, but on to Heart of Enterprise next. We'd all do well with a little more managerial cybernetics in our lives.
December 23, 2020
A fascinating book on the study of interactive feedback systems. Scaling up from relatively “simple” human + machine feedback systems to social systems stretches the imagination. Definitely worth the effort to chug through.
January 10, 2022
Unique combination of insight (deep understanding of biology, analogies to organizations, anticipates many machine learning concepts) and anachronism (mentions of ESP, managers not knowing how to type, management by algebra). Very intrigued at the idea of dimensional analysis of complex decisions.
April 21, 2013
wonderful... great organizational model with convincing relationship to human brains...
July 18, 2015
This man is a genius. I've recently stumbled on cybernetics and especially on the work of Stafford Beer. Very, very important and a damn shame that all these insights are so rarely used.
June 11, 2019
Unique in its approach, but worth wading through the language to get at the concepts.
October 31, 2019
The most important of all
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2023
This is a review of the 2nd Edition of this book.
Brain of the firm is the book that set me on the path of studying Cybernetics. Before I tackled it, I read Norbert Wiener and Ross Ashby's seminal books on the subject, and also two other earlier books by Beer, so that I would be equipped to understand Brain of the firm.
As is the case with other Beer's books, Brain of the firm is divided into four main parts. Namely, "Conceptual Components", "The Form of the Model", "The Use of the Model" and "The course of history". The first three deal with what is the main theme of the book: The Viable System Model; while the last part is Beer's own account of his remarkable (or infamous, depending on who you ask) attempt to implement a working model to help the management of Chile's industry during Allende's presidency in 1972.
The first two parts will introduce the reader, first to a justification as to why former (and I dare say current as well) modes of management are completely unsuitable to cope with the complexity of modern times; next it will turn into Cybernetics proper and human neurophysiology to show us a model of control that, in principle, we could take as an example for implementing better management practices in enterprises.
Underpinning the ample theory that Beer borrows from is the paradigm of a viable system. That is a system that can self-regulate and adapt to changes in its external environment in order to survive. So if we were going to think of the enterprise as a system, how could this system be structured to achieve long-term survival?
Beer points out at one of the false dichotomies still present in modern management schools, that is centralization versus decentralization. Our nervous system does a remarkable job at balancing volitional behaviour (for which the cerebral cortex y responsible) and autonomous behaviour at the tissue and organs level. For the most part, our body runs itself without our conscious intervention. It is in the very details of how our bodies achieve such balance that we can find the theoretical grounds upon which his Viable System Model is built.
Alas, no amount of reading did prepare me for the excruciating physiological details that Beer included in the text in an attempt to endow his model of theoretical rigour. I, having studied the nervous system over 20 years ago, was completely unable to read the first two parts with a critical mind as, quite honestly, the intricacies of it escaped my comprehension.
In the third part, a more straight-forward and practical explanation of the Viable System Model is presented. Basically, this is a model that attempts to provide the enterprise with the tools required to obtain inner and external balance. This is achieved by a careful design that mimics our nervous system, with a deliberate attempt to disseminate information along the different constituents parts of the firm (be it divisions, departments, teams, etc.).
Beer somehow made himself a reputation for being a messianic personality. This book is no stranger to his tirades against bureaucracy and ineffective governments and organizations. However, credit must be given to him for keeping an honest view of his own VSM. Beer does not sell a silver bullet. He is aware that Cybernetics is only giving us the language with which we can discuss what is wrong with our enterprises and societies. It helps us to see things "as they work". Ultimately, any collective human endeavour will be fraught with politics; in that context, no model, regardless of how coherent we think it may be, may be able to offer a solution to our problems because the participants themselves will play for their self-interest and not that of the enterprise.
Furthermore, in the quest for bringing down bureaucracy, this whole Cybernetic approach seems a rather silly mumbo-jumbo. As any autocratic leader can attest, a rather simplistic model, where decisions are taken at the top are supported by a cadre of sycophants, can achieve a fast decisions-making process. Just ask the Pinochets and Elon Musks of the world.
Brain of the firm is the book that set me on the path of studying Cybernetics. Before I tackled it, I read Norbert Wiener and Ross Ashby's seminal books on the subject, and also two other earlier books by Beer, so that I would be equipped to understand Brain of the firm.
As is the case with other Beer's books, Brain of the firm is divided into four main parts. Namely, "Conceptual Components", "The Form of the Model", "The Use of the Model" and "The course of history". The first three deal with what is the main theme of the book: The Viable System Model; while the last part is Beer's own account of his remarkable (or infamous, depending on who you ask) attempt to implement a working model to help the management of Chile's industry during Allende's presidency in 1972.
The first two parts will introduce the reader, first to a justification as to why former (and I dare say current as well) modes of management are completely unsuitable to cope with the complexity of modern times; next it will turn into Cybernetics proper and human neurophysiology to show us a model of control that, in principle, we could take as an example for implementing better management practices in enterprises.
Underpinning the ample theory that Beer borrows from is the paradigm of a viable system. That is a system that can self-regulate and adapt to changes in its external environment in order to survive. So if we were going to think of the enterprise as a system, how could this system be structured to achieve long-term survival?
Beer points out at one of the false dichotomies still present in modern management schools, that is centralization versus decentralization. Our nervous system does a remarkable job at balancing volitional behaviour (for which the cerebral cortex y responsible) and autonomous behaviour at the tissue and organs level. For the most part, our body runs itself without our conscious intervention. It is in the very details of how our bodies achieve such balance that we can find the theoretical grounds upon which his Viable System Model is built.
Alas, no amount of reading did prepare me for the excruciating physiological details that Beer included in the text in an attempt to endow his model of theoretical rigour. I, having studied the nervous system over 20 years ago, was completely unable to read the first two parts with a critical mind as, quite honestly, the intricacies of it escaped my comprehension.
In the third part, a more straight-forward and practical explanation of the Viable System Model is presented. Basically, this is a model that attempts to provide the enterprise with the tools required to obtain inner and external balance. This is achieved by a careful design that mimics our nervous system, with a deliberate attempt to disseminate information along the different constituents parts of the firm (be it divisions, departments, teams, etc.).
Beer somehow made himself a reputation for being a messianic personality. This book is no stranger to his tirades against bureaucracy and ineffective governments and organizations. However, credit must be given to him for keeping an honest view of his own VSM. Beer does not sell a silver bullet. He is aware that Cybernetics is only giving us the language with which we can discuss what is wrong with our enterprises and societies. It helps us to see things "as they work". Ultimately, any collective human endeavour will be fraught with politics; in that context, no model, regardless of how coherent we think it may be, may be able to offer a solution to our problems because the participants themselves will play for their self-interest and not that of the enterprise.
Furthermore, in the quest for bringing down bureaucracy, this whole Cybernetic approach seems a rather silly mumbo-jumbo. As any autocratic leader can attest, a rather simplistic model, where decisions are taken at the top are supported by a cadre of sycophants, can achieve a fast decisions-making process. Just ask the Pinochets and Elon Musks of the world.
June 25, 2024
Stafford Beer is today best remembered as the architect of CyberSyn -- Chile's revolutionary foray into democratic economic planning. The first four parts of this book were written before Beer's association with Chile, when he was developing cybernetic theory with corporate firms in mind. The final part of the book is a reflection and revision of his theory based on his experiences working with the Allende government in Chile.
Reading the pre-Chilean parts of the book is a fun experience for a reader with the privilege of hindsight. Reading about "managers" at "firms" and "companies", knowing that in practice these theories will actually be used to implement a socialist planned economy, is quite interesting. It was fun to imagine myself as a Chilean economic planner cracking open the first edition in the early 70's, visualizing how Beer's ideas could manifest socialism. These parts of the book are visionary, insightful, well-explained, and rather novel. It is easy to get tripped up by the cybernetic jargon that Beer so emphatically insists upon using -- if you have a background in control systems, several of the ideas will be familiar, but Beer's terminology is somewhat dated and makes you wonder what we were thinking in the days when universities had "cybernetics" faculties. But looking past that, I felt that Beer's ideas are strikingly relevant to economic planning problems we face today, and it is easy to share the feelings of those ill-fated Chileans who saw in "Brain of the Firm" an organizational blueprint for a more just economic system. These parts are excellent and I would rate them 5/5 stars on their own.
The post-Chilean part of the book is interesting, but comparatively poorly written. It feels rushed; there are typos, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments; the organization is difficult to follow; the text becomes extremely jargon-heavy and inaccessible to anyone without a deep expertise in cybernetics. I enjoyed getting to read Beer's suggestions for how to improve upon the Chilean project. However, in general, the post-Chilean part of the book was a tremendous drag to read and took me several weeks to slog through. In contrast, the first several parts of the book (pre-Chilean) captivated me and I blew through them in less than a week.
Overall, I rate the second edition 3/5. I recommend diving deep into the first several parts, which are slightly revised from the first edition; and skimming the post-Chilean bits at the end, which are severely under-developed and disorganized.
Reading the pre-Chilean parts of the book is a fun experience for a reader with the privilege of hindsight. Reading about "managers" at "firms" and "companies", knowing that in practice these theories will actually be used to implement a socialist planned economy, is quite interesting. It was fun to imagine myself as a Chilean economic planner cracking open the first edition in the early 70's, visualizing how Beer's ideas could manifest socialism. These parts of the book are visionary, insightful, well-explained, and rather novel. It is easy to get tripped up by the cybernetic jargon that Beer so emphatically insists upon using -- if you have a background in control systems, several of the ideas will be familiar, but Beer's terminology is somewhat dated and makes you wonder what we were thinking in the days when universities had "cybernetics" faculties. But looking past that, I felt that Beer's ideas are strikingly relevant to economic planning problems we face today, and it is easy to share the feelings of those ill-fated Chileans who saw in "Brain of the Firm" an organizational blueprint for a more just economic system. These parts are excellent and I would rate them 5/5 stars on their own.
The post-Chilean part of the book is interesting, but comparatively poorly written. It feels rushed; there are typos, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments; the organization is difficult to follow; the text becomes extremely jargon-heavy and inaccessible to anyone without a deep expertise in cybernetics. I enjoyed getting to read Beer's suggestions for how to improve upon the Chilean project. However, in general, the post-Chilean part of the book was a tremendous drag to read and took me several weeks to slog through. In contrast, the first several parts of the book (pre-Chilean) captivated me and I blew through them in less than a week.
Overall, I rate the second edition 3/5. I recommend diving deep into the first several parts, which are slightly revised from the first edition; and skimming the post-Chilean bits at the end, which are severely under-developed and disorganized.
October 31, 2022
Rarely have I found a book with too little margin on the pages for my annotations. I'll have to spend another few weeks summarising my notes and marked text; revisiting the topics at hand will be worth it.
A background in human anatomy is recommended because the book relies heavily on the human neural system for analogies. Stafford Beer took Darwin's view on the human body and transported that model to organisations. Even though the book stems from the 70's, it is still very much applicable today
A background in human anatomy is recommended because the book relies heavily on the human neural system for analogies. Stafford Beer took Darwin's view on the human body and transported that model to organisations. Even though the book stems from the 70's, it is still very much applicable today
May 21, 2022
Very interesting things but super hard to read.
June 8, 2022
The most enjoyably written technical work I've encountered, Absolutely essential in my view for getting away from 19th/20th century conceptions of organization.
September 27, 2025
Extremely dense, but instrumental in shaping how I navigate large organizations.
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