The Economist Managing Complexity: How Businesses Can Adapt and Prosper in the Connected Economy

by Robin Wood

Some 99 percent of all species, languages, cultures, technologies and companies that have ever existed are now extinct, and in today's complex and fast-moving world the principles of biological evolution can be a useful guide to what organisations must do to survive and flourish. At the core of biological evolution has always been the perpetuation of a wide diversity of species, capable of adapting to the widest set of environmental niches. So companies need to see the business world as a collection of evolving ecosystems in which they must either co-evolve or join the ranks of the extinct. They need to connect and create not command and control, to become less hierarchical, to decentralise decision making, to harness individual creativity more collectively and effectively, and above all to be much more adaptable and fleet of foot. In Managing Complexity Robin Wood draws on the principles of complexity science to provide a wealth of insight and detailed practical guidance on how companies can adapt, survive and prosper int he complex and turbulent business environment that globalisation and the connected economy has brought about.

Author Biography: Robin Wood has degrees in Law and Commerce, a Harvard Diploma in International Financial Management, and a Doctorate in Business Administration from London Business School. He worked as a layer, banker, IT strategist and strategic planner for Citicorp, TrustBank, PA Consulting and then the BIS Group before setting up his own business in 1990. he later co-founded three other businesses, Idon Associates, Telesure and Genesys. Since he began writing this book he has joined Ernst and Young's Connected Solutions Group, where hespecialises in e-business.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Robert Paul Wood, known as Robin Wood, was an English film critic and educator who lived in Canada for much of his life. He wrote books on the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Arthur Penn. Wood was a longtime member - and co-founder, along with other colleagues at Toronto's York University - of the editorial collective which publishes CineACTION!, a film theory magazine. Wood was also York professor emeritus of film.[2]

Robin Wood was a founding editor of CineAction! and author of numerous influential works, including new editions published by Wayne State University Press of Personal Views: Explorations in Film (2006), Howard Hawks (2006), Ingmar Bergman (2013), Arthur Penn (2014) and The Apu Trilogy (2016). He was professor emeritus at York University, Toronto, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.