John Farango suggested a definition of companies as:
>"Companies are groups of individuals who harness (their own and others')
resources - people, finance, materials, equipment, skills, knowledge, etc.
- in order to produce and deliver goods and services to customers willing
and able to purchase them."
John I like the definition as a statement of what a company should be. or
perhaps 'starts out as' but I suspect companies become vehicles for the
perpetuation of a particular mental model/ strategic recipe [streme see
Tom LLoyd 1990]/ set of values/ paradigm/ 'club' or other shared
*pattern*. That is companies, once started, take on a life of their own.
To survive, as you say, the organisations needs to focus its learning
outside as much as inside but the actuality is that this threatens much of
whatever pattern first enables a particular organisation.
If Price
The Harrow Partnership
Pewley Fort Guildford UK
101701.3454@compuserve.com
--Dr Ilfryn Price <101701.3454@compuserve.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>