The Neurology of Business: Implementing the Viable System Model

This book describes the neurology of a business as a new dimension of organization and as a basis for success in a complex world. Comparing organizations with living organisms, it places an organization’s neurology (control and communication) as a third dimension beside its anatomy (structure) and physiology (process). Overlooked by classical organizational theory, this third dimension offsets its typical drawbacks.

The Neurology of Business introduces Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) and shows how this helps managers to diagnose, discover, and unleash the potential and performance lying dormant in today’s enterprises.

The book is based on numerous consulting projects and management seminars conducted in Europe, America, and Asia. It guides the reader through the diagnosis and design process and illustrates application issues with practical examples. In this way, the book provides managers with the language needed to have meaningful conversations about how their organizations are functioning. As such, it will benefit managers in business and nonbusiness organizations, as well as readers interested in general management.

Martin Pfiffner lives in Switzerland with his wife and daughter. After studying economics, he earned his PhD in systems-oriented management at the University of St. Gallen (HSG). He went on to study management cybernetics with Stafford Beer. He has worked as a top-management consultant and speaker for almost thirty years, was a member of the executive board in the Malik Management Group and headed their Management Cybernetics & Bionics division. As a consultant, he has applied Stafford Beer’s Syntegration method and Viable System Model in business and nonbusiness organizations across the world. In 2017, he cofounded the Fondation Oroborus in order to disseminate management cybernetics. He is a widely recognized expert in the field of organization and structure and has published several books and articles on management. He has always practiced martial arts and played the guitar in an alternative rock band.