Synopses & Reviews
The worldwide success of VISA International, Dee Hock asserts, is due to its chaordic structure: it is owned by 22,000 member banks, which both compete with each other for 750 million customers and must cooperate by honoring one another's $125 trillion in transactions annually across borders and currencies. ""One From Many takes the never-before-told story of how that structure came into being, and updates it for today. The book also highlights Dee Hock's evolution from humble beginnings to an iconoclast who challenged the nature of traditional organizations and management. It is the story of an entrepreneur who created a new concept of organization, brought it into being, and led it to amazing success in less than a decade. Hock is a corporate statesman who continues to carry these ideas around the world. Lyrical, humorous, powerfully thoughtful, ""One From Many tells how one man blended chaos and order in the unexpected realm of business.
Synopsis
Far more than a riveting inside story of the creation of VISA--now the largest commercial enterprise on earth--One from Many is an absorbing story of personal and institutional transformation. Lyrical, profound, often humorous, it explores the ever-increasing change, complex societal problems, and failing institutions that confront us all. Dee Hock chronicles the emergence of a new form of organization that blends chaos and order, which may be critical to a livable future, and shows how it is emerging in such effective organizations as VISA, the Internet, World Weather Watch, and Alcoholics Anonymous. A beautiful blend of history, biography, and philosophy, One from Many not only challenges the way we think about organizations, management, and our relationship to the natural world, it's a rollicking fine story as well.