Just as “location, location, location” became the mantra for decisions about investing in facilities, “change, change, change” resonates well with the task of ensuring an organization’s survival.

Such a task is one of leadership and management. Hence, we can ask, how have those disciplines evolved to cope with change?

Very usefully, business acquaintance Prof. Vlatka Hlupic has written up in her book “The Management Shift” a comprehensive summary of how management thinking has evolved since the time of Peter Drucker, the true inventor of the discipline of management.

One of the many gems from the book is a reference to Steve Denning’s idea that an economy consists of three identifiably different ones, each “going at its own speed, with its own dynamic, very different trajectories and different leadership challenges,” thus:

• The Traditional Economy

• Financial Capitalism

• The Creative Economy

It is the last, Creative Economy that is the core focus of Meggitt Bird. When the Traditional Economy focused on the efficient production of goods and services with well-honed hierarchical control systems, the Creative Economy is focused on delighting customers by mobilizing whole business ecosystems delivering continuous innovation and mass customization.

The Creative Economy “thrives on the ethos of imagination, exploration, experimentation, discovery and collaboration.” It is here that Meggitt Bird’s VES approach paves the way for people, whatever their role, to tailor and negotiate the most effective way they can contribute to change, growth and success in the organizations they serve.

The first handbook on VES (a holonic approach) authored by Meggitt Bird partners David Meggitt and Christie Sarri is currently been planned to be available from the Meggitt Bird web site during 2018, and a copy can be pre-ordered here.