ipl-logo

The Starfish And The Spider Analysis

447 Words2 Pages
Register to read the introduction…

I’ll give you an example. Take a spider and a starfish. Spiders have a central nervous system. Starfishes have a decentralized nervous system. Next thing you have to think up is the analogy with business organizations. The spider depicts the classic centralized organization. Chop off the head of a spider and it dies. The starfish is a metaphor for the popular decentralized organization. However, if you cut off a leg of a starfish it does not die. What is more, the starfish will grow a new one. Voilà, the perfect business organization metaphor. The idea is simple and brilliant. The book is The Starfish and the spider. The writers Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. Does it work? At first glance, yes. Take a dictatorship. It is a highly centralized organization. Take out the dictator (let us say Gaddafi) and the system will collapse. Terrorist groups are often highly decentralized. The capture (and death) of Osama Bin Laden had seemingly no effect on Al Qaeda. Is it really that simple? Unfortunately not. Just look what is happening in Libya. Or Iraq. Eliminating Hussein gave rise to ISIS. Libya is a mess. Al Qaeda has been weakened after the killing of Bin …show more content…

Of course the brilliant Jobs is missed, but at the same time Apple is making more money than ever. In reality things are always more complex than in a simple metaphor. Yes decentralized -starfishlike- organizations are extremely beneficial for creativity. And they are very able to adapt to changing conditions. At the same time costs are usually higher. They are less profitable. And yes, because we are humans, there’s always the threat of power struggles. Because of these factors, there only a few examples given in the book of companies that have a starfish organization model. Listen. I don’t want to spoil the fun of this book. As I said the idea is brilliant. It is a good read. Reading such books make you think about how to choose an effective business model. For example how to get the best of both worlds (creativity and profitability). While thinking how to end this blog, I thought do starfishes have enemies? I had to look it up. You know what? Sharks. Starfishes get eaten by sharks. And to finish and conclude: all companies have

Show More
Related

Petco Inc. Argumentative Essay

2106 Words | 9 Pages

What does it take to open a small town business and convert it to be nationwide? Is every human being capable of dealing with all the complications, stress, and failures that occur in the process? How much time, money, and effort is exhorted into building the best corporation it can be? These are a few questions that may come to mind when examining a corporation that has conquered it all. From the inspiration of one man, and his “sixth sense”, Petco Inc. has made a name for themselves in the pet care industry.

Read More

Collective Fear Of Terrorism In The Islamic States

1333 Words | 6 Pages

The Islamic State. ISIS. ISIL. They go by many names. Their ever-changing definition is what creates the illusion that they are an elusive, enigmatic, unstoppable embodiment of terror (if you can’t define it, you can’t beat it, right?).

Read More

How Did Osama Bin Laden Influence Communication

1096 Words | 5 Pages

bin Laden became one of the most influential terror leaders ever, but first he was influenced by Muhammad Azzam (Ross, 2015). The terror organization Al Qaeda which was built by Osama himself influenced followers to commit acts of jihad Gunaratna, 2011). Bin Laden continued to rise in the number of followers to his belief system well after the 9/11 attacks (Ross, 2015). Osama showed that he could follow through on a target effectively so far away, and his influence even though in hiding was ever so famous amongst followers (Lawrence, 2011). Prior to 9/11, Osama proved that he could effectively communicate with his aides and followers on a regular basis (Lawrence, 2011).

Read More

Osama Bin Laden Accomplishments

998 Words | 4 Pages

Terrorist organizations all start from an individual or group of people sharing a vision of something they wish to see done within their country or in the world. The terrorist organization al-Qaeda started when a man name Osama bin Laden wanted to start something to better the lives of the Muslim community in the middle east. Osama bin Laden was a freedom fighter and helped the fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. After the Afghans fought off the attack bin Laden went on to start-up his Jihad organization al-Qaeda. This helped fuel the radical Islamic followers to continue their violent crusade in the middle east and to help push their agendas.

Read More

Blackfish Analysis

727 Words | 3 Pages

Blackfish The documentary Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite released in July 2013, explores the mistreatment of killer whales and the relationship between the killer whales and trainers as well as the significant problems of the sea-park industry, with a focus upon SeaWorld. Cowperthwaite positions the audience to feel sympathy towards the killer whales by making deliberate choices in sound, visual, language, and structure through the representation of trainers as unprofessional, and whales as mistreated, also experts as reliable information source. Firstly, Cowperthwaite uses effective language techniques to position the audience to view the trainers as undertrained and unprofessional.

Read More

Osama Bin Laden Impact

886 Words | 4 Pages

Al Qaeda had many goals which they desired to achieve which included getting Americans and Western influence out of Muslim countries(38).

Read More

Federalism In Katrina

328 Words | 2 Pages

Federalism works, in theory, because it allows city, county, state and our federal government to be closer to the problems

Read More

9/11 Essay Questions

459 Words | 2 Pages

In 2011 after multiple failed attempts to kill the leader of Al-Qaeda US special forces kill Osama Bin Laden. The previous question leads me to one more question that I was curious about which was if Al-Qaeda is still a terrorist organization or if it was stopped after its leader was killed. I have found that it is still a group and while you don’t hear about it very often any more with the rise of Isis many people still believe that Al-Qaeda could come back larger and stronger than ever.

Read More

9/11 Terrorism Essay

587 Words | 3 Pages

Al Qaeda is one of the biggest and most violent hate or terrorist groups in the world today. Human trafficking became an industry of terrorism for the Al Qaeda (Ward, par.6). Al Qaeda stretches its location from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Osama started the A l Qaeda in Afghanistan then was killed in Pakistan. Until 9/11 kidnapping terrorism wasn’t a big part of terrorism (Ward, par.5).

Read More

Qaeda And Isis Comparison

1065 Words | 5 Pages

Al Qaeda Central and the Islamic State demonstrate their differences in a multitude of ways, ranging from the caliphate to the organizations decline. Both organizations are different from each other in their rise, al Qaeda Central rose under the tutelage of traditionalist leaders after the USSR invasion of Afghanistan later to fall to ISIS who, rose as al Qaeda’s traditional message falls out of the two extreme ideologies that will not fall anytime soon. The organizational difference occurs with the system that both al Qaeda and ISIS use; bureaucracy, where the organization is managed by officials. Under the AQC structural bureaucracy you can find explicit and clear leadership, allowing for a more centralized core for expanding membership through

Read More

Frankenstein Monster Metaphors

1246 Words | 5 Pages

1) According to the film, the standard metaphor for a corporation is that of an apple within a barrel where most apples are good and just a few bad. Several CEO’s offered alternative metaphors, such as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a sports team, family unity, a telephone system, or an eagle. Less flattering metaphors are that of a devouring monster, a whale, or the Frankenstein monster. Are any of these metaphors more appropriate than others?

Read More

Osama Bin Laden Influence

1605 Words | 7 Pages

Osama bin Laden, who once was a United States ally, now turned, because of

Read More

Oligopoly Case Study

1870 Words | 8 Pages

This brings them to either compete with each other or to engage in collusions, which is to club together to maximise own profits, like a win-win

Read More

Cosmo Plastics Case Study

754 Words | 4 Pages

Managers will eliminate the autonomy in the departments and will introduce the hierarchical system. Employees don’t feel trusted and don’t feel creative anymore, thus the need of managers to assure them a better environment by giving them constant feedbacks, sharing thoughts and ideas, and giving them straight forward commands. Managers should give back the permission to designers to get out during the work hours to go look for inspiration at the dime store like they used to do when they go down guy a five dollars’ worth of plastic toys. The research and design department cannot be limited by punching a time clock and stopping it from getting out of the organization because this department needs to look for inspirations, and creativeness doesn’t come out from four

Read More

Organizational Structure Of Apple Inc

920 Words | 4 Pages

4. Influence of traditional hierarchy gets reduced. 5. Tim Cook has the ultimate decision making power on all the department functions. Disadvantages of the current functional organizational structure are as follows: 1.

Read More

More about The Starfish And The Spider Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document