Book Titles

Modules are smaller pieces of a larger system that can be combined in different ways.

Modularity drives down costs, allows for flexibility, and encourages innovation by making it easier to combine components, services, and ideas.

…hierarchy isn’t as valuable where few interdependencies exist among people, resources, and tasks, uncertainty is low, and there is plenty of time to make decisions.

A key function of hierarchy is having procedures that describe how interdependencies are to be handled.

Like everything else associated with doing business, a company’s structure needs to change with the times as well as in response to unanticipated shocks.

…[hierarchy] has always been present, in one form or another, for as long as there have been humans.

Evolutionary anthropology provides evidence that hierarchy is highly useful and has basic survival value.

…the evidence from so-called primitive cultures seems to point to consent as an important basis of de facto leadership.

The idea that hierarchy requires top-down, authoritative decision-making by a single boss is largely a fiction.

Managers should seek to balance… finding the blend between centralization and decentralization that works best in their situation.