A Key Text on Our Approach
Building Anti-Fragile
Organisations
Prof. Tony Bendell
Anti-Fragility is a powerful alternative framework for the study of risk in the design and management of human systems. It is a new way of thinking about mitigating a risk that builds on earlier work focusing on the characteristics of biological systems that, being more than just robust, actually improve their resilience through being stressed. The concept was developed primarily in the context of the financial crises, but it clearly has the potential to be applied more broadly than to financial systems.
Professor Bendell explains how applying this concept to the development and management of organisations, services, and products, allows us to identify the characteristics of these that will not only mitigate against the realisation of hazards but will enable growth in protection, strength, and Anti-Fragility over time. In this context, Anti-Fragility also encompasses flexibility, agility and the exploitation of opportunities. At the organisational level, Anti-Fragility (or its absence) is determined by the organisational strategy, structure and systems, its people, relationships and its culture.
This book focuses on establishing the Anti-Fragile concept of the Firm and explores its application in private and public sector organisations of all types. Commencing from an exploration of Anti-Fragility in biological and ecological systems, it identifies characteristics relevant to survival in a turbulent world, and how our approaches to Risk and Governance need to change in order to create and manage Anti-Fragile Organisations.
The author deals with development of the appropriate cultural template at all levels of the organisation, and for all its stakeholder groups. Then, the construction and management of Anti-Fragile processes, systems and use of information and technology, and the relationship with existing approaches such as Six Sigma, Lean and Quality Management. Anti-Fragility is examined in the context of developing and maintaining supply chains, markets, and product and service portfolios. Management, governance, and financial planning and control are all dealt with.
This book Links theory and practice through the study of specific private and public sector cases. It will be of value to practising managers and particularly to organisational change, quality management, organisational excellence, risk and finance specialists, as well as to business students.
About The Author
Professor Tony Bendell is a leading figure in the emerging field of Anti-Fragility. He is Chairman of the Anti-Fragility Academy, established to develop & teach a new approach to Management, that takes full account of the needs for survival in our turbulent times.
Tony is an international expert speaker, consultant, and trainer with extensive experience in the fields of Quality Management, Organizational Excellence, Lean Operations and Six Sigma, and a well known invited keynote speaker at Conferences and Events worldwide. Formerly the Rolls-Royce funded Professor of Quality & Reliability Management, at the University of Leicester UK, and previously the East Midlands Electricity Professor of Quality, Tony has had both an outstanding academic career and an extensive professional consultancy role at the highest level within both manufacturing and service organizations and the public sector. He is a leading figure in the UK and international quality and productivity improvement and excellence and public sector transformation movements. He has published extensively and is the principal author of the best selling Financial Times book on Benchmarking, which is available in 6 languages and 2 editions.
Tony also runs a consultancy called Services Limited. To learn more about the company, please click here.
Tony has always been at the forefront of business and public sector innovation and practice. He was a major contributor to the UK National Quality Campaign and the Managing in the 90`s programmes. He currently chairs the MS6 Technical Committee of BSI, which did most of the development work on the creation of the new ISO13053 international Six Sigma standard, and chairs the Quality Improvement Section of the Royal Statistical Society. He has experience advising and mentoring senior managers and Board members, to the highest level.
