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Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go

Starting with the so-called Arab Spring which kicked off some 10 months ago in Tunisia before spreading across the North of Africa, through to the present Occupy Wall Street, which morphed into an Occupy the World trend (because it is not quite as formal as a movement), some of the most momentous events at the start of the second decade of the 21^st century have had a surprising feel of spontaneity about them. What the heck is happening?

In his book Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go, Martin Thomas does not set out to answer this question in the context we have posed it here. But much of the answer can be found in the pages of this book and some guidance on how to respond to this new world in which the ordinary man in the street, individual customers, voters and citizens have more immediate power than ever before in the history of man.

Arguing for a less regimented and more intuitive way in going about business, whatever that business might be, Martin writes: “There will always be a place for sound analysis, the application of sophisticated data and clever software, but not at the expense of judgement, intuition and creativity.”

We live in a complex, non-linear world - and the challenge is how to “embrace the chaos and ambiguity of modern life”.

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The author is keen to stress that this is not a web phenomenon. “Something interesting is happening beyond the world of social media: public meetings are suddenly all the rage.”

It's a social phenomenon - and an understanding of behavioural economics is more useful than mastery of technology, Thomas argues. 'The simplistic view of man as a rational economic animal doesn't appear to fit the mood of the times.'

He quotes Google's Shona Brown discussing loose management: “The way to succeed in fast-paced, ambiguous situations is to avoid creating too much structure, but not to add too little either.”

Business schools that have inculcated a rational approach to business, are among those that he criticises: “We are witnessing the unravelling of the most fundamental building blocks of the commercial world and a collapse of faith in tight, empirical rational models and ways of thinking.'

Though it's a business book and not an academic text, there is enough substance to ensure the integrity of the text.

The central argument in Loose is that the only way institutions can respond to new patterns of consumer behaviour, rapidly changing expectations and new technology is to loosen up.

Agility, flexibility and the ability to improvise will become the defining characteristics of successful businesses, while those institutions that rely on tight thinking – the imposition of rules, fixed processes, hierarchical structures – will struggle.

The way we do business has to change. One of the greatest weaknesses of many organisations is the delusion of being in control. The future is loose - loose organisations, loose management styles and loose ways of working. Author Martin Thomas describes how more-open ways of thinking and operating are beginning to pervade even the largest and most complex institutions, from global corporations to government departments. There are limits to being loose, but freedom can exist within a framework: by building on cutting-edge case studies and conversations with the smartest business people from around the globe. The book challenges received wisdom and explains new ways of managing companies, building brands, engaging with customer and marketing products and services.

Published earlier this year by Headline Publishing Group of the UK, Loose is available in South Africa from Kalahari.com at R162.95

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