Twenty years ago the corporation was about command and control, clear lines of reporting and firmly defined functions. All the elements were discrete. Nonetheless it was a "complicated" affair. Authors Michael Lissack and Johan Roos contrast that relatively simple state with the contemporary world where companies are faced with endless multifaceted relationships, strategic alliances, cross functional initiatives and customer networks. These interrelationships and interdependencies mean that the new business landscape is not merely complicated, it is "complex", an intricate interweaving of people, organisations, systems and technologies. This complexity needs a new paradigm to understand and deal with it. And that tool, as the title implies, is "a new commons sense". "The old common sense was an understanding of cause and effect in the complicated world of discrete events. The next common sense is a description of cause and effect in a world of interweavings," they write.

This book aims to provide middle and senior mangers with a tool with which to cut through the Gordian knot of modern business complexity. And in theory at least Lissack and Roos succeed. Coherence, they say, is the key. They describe it as a "unified perspective" or the glue that holds the company together. The authors offer a five-point plan for achieving coherence and list 10 simple principles for management interested in applying the new common sense. And they are indeed very common sensical. The first is "Use simple guiding principles", another "Tell stories", a third "Send out scouting parties".

Lissack is an expert in complexity management who teaches business ethics at the Amsterdam School of Management while Roos is Professor of Strategy and General Management at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. They are a pair of very heavy hitters indeed and this well-written and carefully constructed book reflects their depth of knowledge and intellectual rigour. It's a challenging and rewarding read for any one seriously interested in dealing effectively in a rapidly changing world.

"The old common sense was about dealing with the discrete elements of a 'complicated' world. The next common sense is about mastering the 'complex' swirl of events and situations around us through coherence. The old world was a complicated agglomeration of many discrete items. The new world is a complex one of interdependencies and interrelationships...Our purpose in writing this book is to help you to be like Alexander the Great. When confronted with the legendary knot of tangle rope tied by King Gordius, Alexander knew what to do. Faced with the traditional challenge, he accepted without hesitation: the complexity of the knot did not phase him. He drew his sword and cut the Gordian knot with a single, dramatic stroke, thereby ensuring that he would rule all of Asia. Many before Alexander had tried and failed, thinking that the knot was complicated and needed to be untied. Only Alexander saw that a simple action would move through the complexity to a higher plane. Untying your own Gordian knots requires nothing more than common sense - the next common sense...In this book we present 10 scenic vistas on the corporate landscape. All have elements that derive from complexity science but, more importantly, all relate to management. From each vista, you the reader are encouraged to extract simple guiding principles that make sense to you. Creating your own coherent point of view will be the takeaway from reading this book. We hope you enjoy the view!" (pp.1-16).

In this context, throuhout the book Michael Lissack and Johan Roos discuss these 10 scenic vistas as follows:

1- Use simple guiding principles. They write, "where the old common sense was about dealing with local situations and trying to 'sort things out,' the next common sense is about adopting a global viewpoint, allowing interactions to happen, which in turn will drive coherent actions", and list traditional six bad rules that lead to failure:

(1). Treat business as if it were a war fought on a battlefield.

(2). View the corporation as a machine.

(3). Practice management as control.

(4). Treat your employee as children.

(5). To motivate, use fear.

(6). Remember, change is nothing but pain.(more detailed discussion see Chapter 2).

2- Respect mental models, yours and others'. They write, "the next common sense is about creating an organizational context for coherent actions. To create such a context yuo must help the necessary others, i.e. everyone you interact with, in the process of finding meaning and of creating a coherent point of view. Another label for this process is making sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 3).

3- Use landscape metaphors to describe both the environment and processes taking place within it. They write, "landscape images align with today's world - just look at the ascendancy of the landscape motif in numerous book titles, articles, conferences, and media events. Landscapes are part of the next common sense because they provide context we all can relate to. They work much more easily than jargon, and are better descriptors than the game and race metaphors of the old common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 4).

4- Combine and recombine and avoid trying to impress yourself or others with holism. They write, "the beauty of pieces, of building blocks, is that they can be combined and recombined to create new things, new ideas, and new ways of relating and interacting. In a world where wholes are not simply the sum of their parts, it is critical to train ourselves to think about deconstructing and recombining. The philosophers may call this postmodernism-we call it the next common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 5).

5- Recognize your multiple roles, don't hide from them. They write, "we question whether it was ever common sense to insist that the company always comes first, but clearly that has been a norm in big corporations for years. In the next common sense it is critical to allow people to be themselves. Only by acknowledging the many sides of each person can a company hope to obtain maximum benefits from that person over the long run. Most firms recognize this for their CEO - it is time they reconized it for the troops in the trenches" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 6).

6- Create canyons, not canals. They write, "canyons are not about the command-and-control culture of the old common sense - they are about the guiding values of the next common sense. Canyons are an analogy for the guiding viewpoints that managers of interactions need to be effective. Canals are the comparable analogy for the manager of entities who issued commands in an effort to manage outcomes" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 7).

7- Tell stories to allow others the benefit of shared experiences. They write, "stories are about context. The old common sense may have encouraged the use of bullets as a means of avoiding context. The next common sense is about telling stories that are open enough to allow listeners to draw relevant conclusions and authentic enough to convey their context in metaphors" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 8).

8- Send out scouting parties to probe the environment. They write, "the old common sense, which may have justified a closed mind, not-invented-here syndrome, just just does not work in a world of interactions. The next common sense asks what we can learn from the environment. Preparation is the key to attaining advantage" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 9).

9- Post and attend to road signs. They write, "using the next common sense is a matter of recognizing individual contributions and allowing others to leverage them, while combating the tendency of individuals to stake out territory and post 'no trespassing' signs. In a world of interactions, knowledge of opportunities is key to realizing them, and awareness of fences is an awareness of opportunities missed" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 10).

10- Fuel coherence with aligned words. They write, "it was never true that words had only one meaning, but many managers operating from the old common sense sure acted as if they did - the boss's meaning. Reflection on the next common sense reveals an essential truth: the words we use can help to enact the context for our actions. Words that are aligned with values and purpose can assist intended acts; words that are not aligned can act instead to obstruct. Word choice matters" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 11).

On the other hand, Chapter 12 is about creating coherence.As they write, "Chapters 2-11 have given you building blocks for both making sense of things and developing a coherent point of view. Now these building blocks need to be used to construct an action plan. This chapter is about using what you have learned. Five steps are key to realizing the next common sense in any organization".And they describe these steps as follows:

(1). Identify yourself and your goals.

(2). Use the right language.

(3). Create the right context.

(4). Turn people loose and then get out of the way.

(5). Use communication that works.

As argued by them, these five steps are not guarantee of success, but a tool for attaining the skill of a master.

Strongly recommended.

Because of my deep personal interest in using visual thinking tools for opportunity discovery and strategic exploration, I find this book very useful and practical. I particularly like the authors' use of powerful visual metaphors to understand & to master the complexity all around us, and to chart out new strategic directions, whether in business or in life. If you are planning what you want to do with the rest of your life in our constantly changing & uncertain world - or planning the next strategic moves for your company- read this book and use the ideas. The authors' website is also worth exploring.

This is one of the best books to read among all the 'tell-all' novels about airlines and their managers. Unfortunately, Petzinger zig zags around characters and events that become confusing and annoying. Many of the significant facts are lost as a result and the reader must go back to truly understand particular concepts and processes of airline management.

Another problem is that the author does a tremendous job explaining the history and ramifications of what the airlines and their managers did, but only takes one small chapter at the end to explain the future of the airline industry and its new leaders.

For the size and comprehensiveness of the book, a few more pages devoted to his best estimates for the future would have only made it perfect.

As an airline professional with one of the carriers covered extensively in the book, I was skeptical as to whether any author could present a clear picture of the industry's inner workings. "Complex" is somehow an inadequate word when applied to the airline industry, especially since Deregulation. Mr. Petzinger, however, has succeeded not only in telling the story; he has done so in an entertaining style which makes for a fascinating and highly informative trip through all of the turmoil wrought by deregulation. The reader comes away with an understanding of the cause and effect of every relevant force affecting the airline business over the last few decades. This, combined with a comprehensive overview of the industry's formative years, makes this book a treasure. The book would be a 10 except for a couple of minor research errors. The content, however, is outstanding and compels me to use an overused cliche: this really is a must-read for everyone in the industry and anyone with even a passing interest in the airline business.

Mr. Petzinger makes a very confusing, controversial, and always timely subject very accessible. As the son of a long-time manager in the airline industry, I was able to track events from my childhood by different labor strikes, airline births and deaths. The attention to the founding of the industry and the always unique position held by the airlines in making America what she currently is is exceptional.

Oil and honor is an exhaustive and fascinating history, although it falls short of spectacularly engaging. Petzinger does an excellent job of recounting the facts and context of this chapter of financial history. Ultimately, the book is constrained by the subject -- the minutiae of merger document negotiation and court room hagling pale in comparison to the book's earlier section on the forces and personalities behind the disputed transaction. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent addition to one's financial history library.

Thomas Petzinger's first book, Oil and Honor (1987), relates the same story that won him a Pulitzer Prize nomiation in 1985 as he covered the story of the buy out Getty Oil by Texaco for the Wall Street Journal.

Reading this book one can see why he received the nomination. Petzinger's writing style draws the reader in just like a good novel. It is a cliche to say that the reader will not want to put the book down. However, in this case, that cliche entirely fits. It is a great high drama.

Reading The New Pioneers is a pleasant occupation. On theother hand, reviewing this book for people who have not yet read it isa challenging task. This is primarily because the book is written to be read and understood at many different levels.

The simplest and most obvious level is as a series of charming stories in the best humanistic tradition that demonstrate that there is good business in being a good human.

At a deeper level, Mr. Petzinger is also telling us that the economy is changing in a fundamental way because of the experiences of small and middle sized business leaders, such as those cited in the book.

Beyond that, he is suggesting something fundamental about human civilization and its potential to create astonishingly positive results.

At whatever level you consider the book, you will be well rewarded for reading it.

I must admit that it is tempting to ignore the book's shortcomings, but that would shortchange the principles that Mr. Petzinger is exploring...

As heart-warming as this book is, it is a scrapbook rather than a vision for individual entrepreneurs. Its value for entrepreneurs is, nonetheless, quite substantial. The benefit comes from stimulating ideas among readers by showing new business examples that have not been widely published and discussed before. I hope all entrepreneurs will read this book for that important benefit.

A fine effort from a talented journalist! END

Petzinger does an excellent job of describing what real success -- financial, production, morale and moral -- will look like in the marketplace of the future, by citing companies that have created such successes today. I rarely read beyond the first 25 pages of business books, because they tend to be long on sloppy theory and bad prose, and short on intelligent application. By contrast, Petzinger's theses are concise and informative, his writing is clean, and his examples both demonstrate what works and warn of what can go wrong when the best intentions meet real-life complications. I've given copies of this book to my boss, to our company's strategic planning department, and to every person who reports to me. It's that good.

My only regret is that this work is 250 pages, not 500. Petzinger draws from years of face-to-face interviews with successful small business owners (and managers of plants within larger enterprises) to convincingly describe an evolved business model. The model is, ultimately, one where each employee of the organization is virtually an individual cell in the organizational brain: and through no-walls communication, the organization thrives not only for the good of the business, but for the good of all involved, both inside and outside: employees, owners, customers, shareholders.

Some could see this an an update of In Search of Excellance, which also championed the unemcumbered employee. However, Pioneers goes further by exploring the organization in a biological sense and even touches on Chaos Theory (i.e., James Gleick).

Petzinger is obviously an adriot observer and passionate about his subject. He also has an abiding interest in science as well as a deep respect for words, all of which come out in this tome.

Hey, I had never heard of this guy before this book. But I'll never miss anything he writes from now on.