TEXT C Though not the ideal shape
for a Christmas stocking, this slim little volume could nevertheless make a
welcome seasonal gift. Launched in Britain at the end of October, and covering
just under 100 pages (with paragraphs inset almost to the middle of the page),
it is not much more than an extended essay. But it presents an interesting idea
eloquently and clearly, offering digestible brain food amid a surfeit of turkey
and television. The author, Gerard Fairtlough, was a senior
executive with Shell for many years before he left in 1980 to found a new
biotechnology company called Celltech--recently bought by UCB, a Belgian group,
for over $2 billion. He knows how businesses are run both well-established
organisations, such as Shell, in which it can be hard to see an alternative to
"the way things are done around here", and new start-ups, where the founders’
enthusiasm can evaporate if it has to be corralled into an organogram.
The author’s thesis is that we are all addicted to hierarchy--partly
because that is how we are hardwired, as are our simian cousins, but also
because we do not realise there are other ways to run organisations. "The
hegemony of hierarchy," writes Mr. Fairtlough, "makes us think the only
alternative is disorganisation. we only compare hierarchy with anarchy or
chaos." There are, he says, two alternatives to hierarchy (hence
the title of the book). One is heterarchy; the other, "responsible autonomy".
Heterarchy is the form of structure commonly found in professional service
firms, the partnerships of accountants or lawyers in which key decisions are
taken by all the partners jointly. With responsible autonomy "an individual or a
group has autonomy to decide what to do, but is accountable for the outcome of
the decision." "Accountability," says Mr. Fairtlough, "is what makes responsible
autonomy different from anarchy." The author says that hierarchy
is so entrenched it will take years before there is any significant change. But
he perhaps gives too little credit to the many companies that have moved (and
are still moving) along the spectrum from hierarchy to responsible autonomy. BP,
for example, a huge multinational, has managed to devolve authority to much
smaller units in recent years and has decimated the staff in its headquarters.
Toyota, likewise, evolved towards greater autonomy as it discovered that the
only effective way to carry out its famous "just-in-time" system of stock
control was by delegating responsibility for ordering stock to the person
closest to the coal face. The fact that these are among the most successful
companies in the world today strengthens Mr. Fairtlough’s case.
The author has not just written a book, he has also set up a publishing
firm to produce it. But Triarchy Press is not a vanity publisher, It exists
because Mr. Fairtlough believes that traditional business-book publishers are
too focused on engineering bestsellers. He wants Triarchy Press to provide a
sort of transition, a way books can test the water, at low cost, to see how the
public responds. If they get a warm reception they can subsequently be given the
full publishing treatment. The danger is that the public will not notice. For
first they have to find their way to a website: www. TriarchyPress. co.
uk. Which category of writing does. the review Belong to