New economy – new business models – new approaches

Towards the end of the twentieth century a number of changes occurred that suggest that organisational structures and management attitudes and behaviour in the foreseeable future will differ markedly from the traditional model. Not only had business become global in every respect, but in almost all markets end‐user expectations were undergoing significant change which were forcing business to come to terms with demands for increased choice and quality, flexible ordering and servicing systems, on‐line accessibility to suppliers and competitive prices. The response by business has been equally dramatic. Large organisations have reduced their activities down to core processes and capabilities, adopting the view that astute asset management and risk management are more about managing assets than about ownership. Consequently the largest international corporations can be seen divesting their non‐core businesses and adopting holonic structures. The holonic approach has been adopted by entire industries giving rise to renewed interest in the development of mutually supporting clusters of interdependent interorganisational business systems.