Anthony Stafford Beer Quotes

Policy-making, decision-taking, and control: These are the three functions of management that have intellectual content.

The purpose of a system is what it does. There is after all, no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do.

Too close a view may interfere with one's grasp of an overall problem or concept.

The system of transportation is not coherent; it is not treated as integral. Roads compete with with railroads and airlines in chaotic fashion, and at immense cost to the nation.

According to the science of cybernetics, which deals with the topic of control in every kind of system (mechanical, electronic, biological, human, economic, and so on), there is a natural law that governs the capacity of a control system to work. It says that the control must be capable of generating as much "variety" as the situation to be controlled.

If cybernetics is the science of control, management is the profession of control.

Certain management policies-stretching of credit resources, for example-may lead to great progress in good conditions; but, like the Grand Prix car in comparison with the Land Rover, they may not be robust enough to survive when the going gets tough.

The strategies that managers employ are at least as important as the facilities at their disposal.

A slowly moving queue does not move uniformly. Rather, waves of motion pass down the queue. The frequency and amplitude of these waves is inversely related to the speed at which the queue is served.

There is, then, a logical priority about the arrangements, and logic has nothing to do with time.

A stochastic process is about the results of convolving probabilities-which is just what management is about, as well.

Management problems are not respecters of the company organization, nor of the talents of the people appointed to solve them.

It is the concept of likelihood that a real understanding of probability resides, and we must learn how to measure it.

Instead of trying to specify a system in full detail, specify it only somewhat. You can then ride on the dynamics of the system in the direction you want to go.

It is terribly important to appreciate that some things remain obscure to the bitter end.