The Cellular Business Model

Hi,
I've just published my first white paper which might be seen as a bit "left-field" but sometimes its nice to read something different.

It's free to download via Linked In Slide Share at http://www.cellularbusinessmodel.com/
or via Google Docs at http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7WeMa-zlDRuNzRiNDRmNzctMjhkZi00MWMzLTg1NmEtNmVlMzhjZWY3ZDI4&hl=en_GB

Here's an abstract to whet your appetite!

In my opinion, last year, the two biggest news items were the banking collapse and its impact on the economy and businesses, and the terror threat and terrorist organisations. I remember thinking at the time that some of the businesses making cuts were taking preventative action and trimming their fat. This led me to think that this should be a continuous activity not just initiated when major threats appear.

Additionally, I recognised that although the terrorist actions are despicable and cowardly, they are successful, and the terrorist organisations are winning the battle. They have global coverage and continue to disrupt normal life, whilst working against the considerable resources of western governments.

In concert with thinking about these news items, I found myself focussing on the abundance of waste within large corporations and comparing that with the efficiency of some of the agile software teams and military teams I’ve worked with in the past.

From considering the combination of these thoughts and concerns, the Cellular Business Model has evolved. The paper sets out the tenets of the Cellular Business Model which takes lessons from the structure of terrorist cells and small teams, and aims to achieve the same level of effectiveness at the enterprise level.

Following an introduction to the Cellular Business Model, the paper goes on to introduce lean thinking, scrum, pattern theory, open book management and cloud computing as a means to establish the Cellular Business Model.

Through publishing this paper I hope to spark ideas, energy and thought around corporate agility.

Comments

Steve Garnett said…
Mary Poppendieck, author of Lean Software Development, found the paper "Very interesting" and stated that the model is in use in many companies for example Svenska Handelsbanken and it works.
Anonymous said…
I highly recommend you read Chet Richards' "Certain To Win" which is a wonderful discussion of Colonel Boyd's OODA loop and how as it applies to business. The cellular structure you describe in your paper is successful primarily because it allows its members to cycle through the OODA loop faster than more bloated, centralized organizations.

- Gregg

ps: Ironically enough, the captcha phrase is "warman". Heh...

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