"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know." Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA. "If anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer everyone in management should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and even elegant diagrams." The Economist This is the second edition of a book which has already become a management 'standard' both in universities and on the bookshelves of managers and their advisers. Brain of the Firm develops an account of the firm based upon insights derived from the study of the human nervous system, and is a basic text from the author's theory of viable systems. Despite the neurophysiology, the book is written for managers to understand. The companion volume to this book is The Heart of Enterprise, which is intended to support and complement this text. "Stafford Beer's works represent required reading for everyone who believes that a capacity for rigorous thinking is an essential attribute of today's successful managers and administrators. Brain of the Firm shows a first-rate intellect at work and provides concepts, models and inspiration for both practitioners and teachers." Sir Douglas Hague, CBE

CONCEPTUAL COMPONENTS. Let's Think Again. Concepts and Terms. The Dimensions of the Problem. The Organization of Unthinkable Systems. Hierarchies of Control. THE FORMS OF THE MODEL. The Anatomy of Management. Control Physiology. Autonomy. Autonomic Management. The Biggest Switch. THE USE OF THE MODEL. Corporate Structure and its Quantification. Autonomics--Systems One, Two, Three. Environments of Decision--System Four. The Multinode--System Five. The Higher Management. THE COURSE OF HISTORY. A Flying Start. Into its Stride. The October Watershed. The End of the Beginning. Prospectus. References explicit to these five chapters. Appendix. Glossary of Cybernatic Terms Used in this Book. Select Bibliography. Index.