REINVENTING ORGANIZATIONS

How organisations are changing.

The next “next” generation

Incorruptible

Instant New York Times Bestseller "Incorruptible by Eric Ries is the best and most important business book of the year." —Dan Heath, NYT Bestselling Author & Podcast Host of "What It's Like To Be..." A Thinkers50 Best New Management Book | A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read From Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup, comes a bold and urgently needed rethink of how organizations are built—and why success itself so often turns companies against the people and principles that made them worth building in the first place. For decades, we've explained corporate corruption as a problem of bad actors, moral weakness, or isolated scandals. But that story doesn't match reality. Again and again, companies founded with strong ideals drift toward short-term thinking, extractive behavior, and mission abandonment—often despite the best intentions of the people inside them. Incorruptible argues that this failure is not primarily ethical. It is structural. As organizations grow, the systems that govern them—ownership, incentives, charters, accountability, and decision-making—quietly reshape behavior. When those systems are poorly designed, even principled leaders are pushed toward outcomes they never wanted. Success itself becomes a form of financial gravity, bending companies away from their original purpose. Drawing on two decades of work with founders, CEOs, investors, and institution builders, Ries shows how these failures arise predictably—and how they can be prevented. He reframes corporate governance not as bureaucracy or compliance, but as a creative and strategic act at the heart of building enduring, mission-controlled companies. At a moment when trust in business is eroding, Incorruptible offers a clear-eyed diagnosis and a practical blueprint for change. Success alone will not protect what matters most. Only incorruptible design can. Get more information and bonus materials at incorruptible.co.

Introduction

Reintroducing our company, mission, and current state of affairs

The Fractal Organization

The world of management is in crisis - the old remedies no longer work and organizations are failing at an increasing rate. Although many talk of 'joined up thinking', few offer practical guidance on how to achieve this in organizations. <b><i>The Fractal Organization</i></b> sets down the practical implications of a well tested systemic approach to building organizations that are capable of surviving and flourishing in these turbulent times. <p>"An excellent read…Many organizations fail at the mercy of their own ignorance. The author has done an excellent job in making ‘the science of effective organization’ accessible to management, providing them with a new knowledge to deal with the uncertainties that the markets place upon them."<br /><b>Stephen J. Brewis, Business Architect, British Telecom</b></p> <p>"...one of the most interesting, thorough and rigorous guides to management that I have ever read, … introduces new insights in every chapter… carries a credibility which acts as a counterbalance to the sometimes difficult message which he conveys which is that a lot of mainstream management practice is at best ineffective and at worst downright destructive. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in management or systems thinking."<br /><b>Penny Marrington</b>, <b>Course Chair, Systems Group, Open University</b></p> <p>"In my opinion this book manages to present sound academic theory that is relevant and helpful to the practitioner in the business. I experienced several A-HA moments."<br /><b>Pauline Marsh, Strategy Director, CS&S International, BAE SYSTEMS</b></p> <p>"The insights of the Viable System Model have been open only to a select few for much too long. Hoverstadt has gone furthest in bringing these ideas to a wider audience…Management books have too often been serious but not practical, or practical but not serious. This book is both brilliantly serious and practical, and often entertaining too."<br /><b>Professor Peter Kawalak, Manchester Business School</b></p> <p>"Integrates mainstream management ideas with the systems ideas underpinning the VSM, and flows and reads well. As a starting point for developing understanding of the VSM in today's world this book improves greatly on all books that have gone before, I would certainly recommend it to colleagues, clients, and students."<br /><b>Dr. Robin Asby, Course Chair, Communication and Systems, Open University</b></p>

The Four Factors for Organizations - Future Mending Radio

When I pick an organization for the podcast or the map at Futuremending.com, I’m not just picking businesses out of a hat – I have a system for evaluating orgs which I call the Four Factors for Organizations. The Four Factors are Multi-solving, Sharing, Sufficiency and Transparency.This episode is in two parts. The opening minutes are a bit of an emotional check-in to see how people are processing the unprecedented political turmoil in the United States. The second part of the podcast discusses the Four Factors for Organizations and why seeking out certain vectors of change makes more sense than trying to lay out a detailed plan for a better future. Read about the Four Factors: https://www.futuremending.com/whatMatt’s Blue Sky account: https://bsky.app/profile/mattliepaehlke.bsky.socialWired Magazine coverage of the crisis in the U.S. : https://www.wired.com/tag/elon-musk/Rebecca Solnit’s newsletter: https://meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io/welcome-to-meditations-in-an-emergency/ Google's AI Policy: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/05/google-owner-drops-promise-not-to-use-ai-for-weapons Future Mending Map: https://www.futuremending.com/toronto    Music Credits:'Epilogue' by The Slow Motions.  Used with permission of the artist.‘Fashion’ by Alex Productions. Creative Commons.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV1miCgT7J4‘Miss you’ by Middle Child. Creative Commons.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dayIKHEIYqY‘Opening’ by Phillip Glass.  Arr. by Karl Michelson.  Performed by The Union Guitar Trio.  Used with permission of the artists.Union Guitar Trio on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/2E0NidLjIzBAO7t0BBPFUDUnion Guitar Trio on Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-union-guitar-trio/1592543833Sound Effects:BBC News November 9th, 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjNz1lvXgzUwood hit low glass bowl 3.mp3 by ascap -- https://freesound.org/s/242388/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0Brightness by sonically_sound -- https://freesound.org/s/632762/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Field Notes on Moving Focused Research Organizations Forward

Lessons from four years of building a new kind of focused scientific organization to create fundamental technologies and accelerate discovery.

Here Comes Everybody (book)

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations is a book by Clay Shirky published by Penguin Press in 2008 on the effect of the Internet on modern group dynamics and organization. The author considers examples such as Wikipedia, MySpace, and other social media in his analysis. According to Shirky, the book is about "what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures". The title of the work alludes to HCE, a recurring and central figure in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and considers the impacts of self-organizing movements on culture, politics, and business.

Business Model Innovation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

The Fractal Organisation Manual: How to diagnose & design organisations using the Viable System Model | SCiO - Systems and Complexity in Organisation

RRP: £12.99; Paperback: ‎ 192 pp; Publisher: ‎ SCiO; ISBN 979-8250847018

Demystifying Revenue Leadership: The Role of a CRO in Differing Stages of a Startup - Eric Janssen

Exploring the changing role of a CRO in different stages of a startup's growth. - Sales by Eric Janssen

W3C re-launched as a public-interest non-profit organization

Dawn of a new era in Search: Balancing innovation, competition, and public good | Kagi Blog

Google search is in the news.

Conversations for Action | and Collected Essays

Conversations For Action and Collected Essays is a compilation of the seminal works by Dr. Fernando Flores during his tenure as CEO and President of Logonet Inc., an educational and coaching organization, and Business Design Associates, the pioneer management consulting firm in implementing large scale innovation processes and programs.  The book is a response to the requests from many former students and clients over the years for the “papers” with Flores’ distinct framework for building teams, leaders, and organizations.

Climbing the Ivory Tower: How Socio-Economic Background Shapes Academia

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.