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The Chandler Problem: Why Strategy Without Structure Really Does Fail
Alfred Chandler's thesis — 'structure follows strategy' — is one of the most cited and least implemented ideas in management. Chandler developed it from his study of how large American corporations in the early 20th century adapted their organizational structures to accommodate new strategic directions. DuPont, General Motors, Standard Oil, Sears: in each case, he found that when strategy changed, the organizational structure that had worked before became a constraint rather
MG
Mar 43 min read
Is a machine intelligent?
The question of whether a machine can be considered intelligent is a subject that has intrigued philosophers and scientists for decades,...
Ithron
Oct 30, 20232 min read
Eight Billion
The world population has just reached an estimated eight billion people. The relationship between economic growth and population growth is a
MG
Nov 16, 20221 min read
Ithron Newsletter: Volume 1
Vol 1, 30 August 2020 Welcome to the Ithron Newsletter. We're playing with the format, but the goal is to share what we're reading...
MG
Sep 5, 20202 min read
The 2021 Peak: A Case Study in Speculative Excess
The peak of the 2020 to 2021 speculative cycle will be studied in future editions of Kindleberger the way the South Sea Bubble and the dot-com peak are studied in current ones: as a unusually well-documented case of euphoria, where the evidence of excess is preserved in SPAC prospectuses, venture term sheets, crypto white papers, and the social media commentary of the participants in real time. What made 2021 unusual, even by the standards of speculative manias, was the simul
Mar 63 min read
Kindleberger's Anatomy of a Bubble: A Field Guide for the Present Moment
Charles Kindleberger's Manias, Panics, and Crashes, first published in 1978 and updated through five editions, is the most useful book ever written about financial bubbles — not because it provides a predictive model but because it provides a diagnostic one. Kindleberger, drawing on Minsky's theoretical framework and his own deep knowledge of financial history, described the anatomy of a speculative mania with enough precision that subsequent bubbles can be mapped onto his sc
Mar 63 min read
Minsky Was Right: The Financial Instability Hypothesis and Why Stability Is Destabilizing
Hyman Minsky spent most of his career at Washington University in St. Louis largely ignored by mainstream economics, which had concluded — with the confidence that precedes most large intellectual mistakes — that financial markets were self-stabilizing and that the business cycle had been tamed. Minsky argued the opposite: that financial stability is itself destabilizing, that the longer a period of economic calm persists the more fragile the financial system becomes, and tha
Mar 63 min read
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