Megatrend 4: New Forms of Organization

Megatrend 1 (Big Problems) may involve, as we have seen, complex endeavors coupled with complex enterprises. Complex, dynamic, uncertain environments cannot always be sufficiently understood and controlled using rigid, Industrial Age hierarchical approaches. Big Problems can force alternative organizational forms to emerge, and those alternatives are often more decentralized and net enabled. As we see below, such alternative organizations and approaches are not necessarily new ideas; the business literature has discussed them for decades, and military concepts of mission command date back to the 19th century. However, Megatrend 2 (Robustly Networked Environment) makes many such approaches increasingly feasible, in an ever-growing number of situations.