The Role of Information and Regulation in Complex Commercial Businesses

Mr. Steve Brewis

British Telecom

Abstract

I remember a story of a family who had grown up in a mixed race society. The house of the family stood on the street that divided the multi-racial community. The father of the family had lived in the neighborhood all his life and had listened intently to what all his neighbors had thought and said and learned of their fundamentally different views. One day his recently graduated son asked him a question concerning their wide-ranging viewpoints. "Who is right?" His son asked, "They all are" replied his father. "But this cannot be" his son argued from a Aristotelian viewpoint, "Only one of them can have the truth!" he insisted. "The problem is not the truth" his father insightfully answered, "The problem is trust". The problem is understanding; the problem is making decisions based upon in principle undecidable questions.

In an infinite world and a finite time to decide, how do we answer the most rudimentary of questions 'that faced with this predicament what do we do next' in a business environment with diverse viewpoints.

This presentation looks at how large complex enterprises can decide upon and steer a common course of action through commercial space by seeking wide and diverse views from its managers.

Bio

Steve Brewis is an Enterprise Embryologist for BT, specialising in the design and development of business structure. Steve is a chartered engineer with a degree in engineering and an MSc in management and is currently studying for his PhD in Managerial Cybernetics. Steve's current role involves him in the design of a fractal based business model for BT group.