Supertrends

10.BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN A MORE DYNAMIC WORLD

In 2014, the economist and former McKinsey consultant Frederic Laloux published the bestseller Reinventing Organizations, which I, and several hundred thousand other people, then bought. In this book, Laloux explains how over the years, people have changed their dominant forms of organisation. He divides them into five groups: (1) impulsive, (2) conformist, (3) achievement, (4) pluralist, and (5) evolutionary.

Impulsive organisations

‘Impulsive’ is how Laloux describes the oldest form of organisation that has existed since the groups of hunters and gatherers of the Stone Age, governed by an alpha male. This (almost always male) figure makes most, if not all, important decisions, often leads through fear, and usually lacks long-term planning. He often thinks that the organisation's revenue – the fruits of everyone's labour – mainly belongs to him, after which he selectively distributes some of it to buy loyalty.

This form of organisation has prevailed for approximately 10 000 years, if not longer. What now differentiates it from Stone Age organisations is the fact that it often has a somewhat more advanced division of labour and lines of authority, which means it can be scaled up to more than the 20–40 people that typically belonged to a Stone Age clan.

We see elements of this form of organisation in the political leadership of many dictatorships outside the Western world, where it generally functions really poorly. We can also ...