Browsing » June 2012

Royal Bank of Scotland fiasco shows the power of networks

By Paul Ormerod The last week or so has seen complete mayhem in the Royal Bank of Scotland and its subsidiaries.  A computer glitch has caused their payments systems to collapse.  Monies have not been processed, 17 million customers have been unable to access their accounts and pay their bills. The impact for RBS has […]

Healthy Cities

By Claudius Van Wyk Recently I went to the launch of a report by the UCL–Lancet Commission of Healthy Cities. The report affirmed that the requisite knowledge was in place for transforming a ‘city’ into a ‘healthy city’, however it also acknowledged that how to deliver potential health benefits and how to ensure that they […]

Power versus Authority

By Greg Fisher I have recently been involved in conversations about the difference between power and formal authority in organisations.  It is an important distinction which I’d like to explore in this article. The parts of the management science literature that refer to and borrow from Complexity theory tend to define formal authority in line […]

Kahneman and schizophrenia in economics

By Paul Ormerod I was at a fascinating session last Thursday, with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman in conversation with a leading thinker from the advertising world, Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy and Mather.  Kahneman was talking about his book Thinking Fast and Slow, a summary of his life’s work. I am a great admirer of Kahneman.  […]