Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits

In the knowledge-based economy, the speed of innovation, the shortening of product cycles, and the complexity of offerings required by an increasingly demanding consumer all require organizations that are all brains and no body. But most of all, they require a degree of zero-mindedness that is alien to most managers today. Yet it is that very zero-mindedness that is the key to success. What, for example, would happen if you could achieve business success without owning any assets, but simply enjoying the benefits of them? What if companies were able to react instantly to changing circumstances by operating in negative time? What if you didn't need management to run your business? Understanding these and other new organizational principles can help provide the flexibility to operate incisively in a world where the windows of opportunity are not only few and far between, but remain open for just the blink of an eye. Zero Space examines the concept of zero-mindedness and provides a blueprint for organizational success in the knowledge-based economy.

Deprez and Tissen (both with KPMG Knowledge Advisory Services) present a volume of management literature that suggests that the solution to management problems lies in their eight "key" ideas. They argue that organizations rely more on intangible rather than tangible assets, fast delivery times, understanding what the customer wants, encouraging organizational learning, the elimination of organization resistance, the sharing of information, and the ubiquity of computing and technology. Each of the ideas is rhetorically linked to the concept of "zero."
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"Zero Space" defines a business model in which an organization achieves success without owning assets or needing management. Through eight new organizational principles the authors illustrate how "zero-mindedness" is essential for the new economy.