cover image Toppling the Pyramids:: Redefining the Way Companies Are Run

Toppling the Pyramids:: Redefining the Way Companies Are Run

Gerald Ross. Crown Publishers, $25 (228pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-2341-4

Ross and Kay, consultants at Change Lab International, here address the issue of organizational change. The authors develop a ``Molecular Organization'' managerial matrix redefining the role of leaders in setting priorities that establish the company's vision and guard its culture. Using case studies (IBM, Aetna), they present ``five levels of understanding the customers'': the product-focused organization, the market-centered organization, etc. While their approach is stimulating, Ross and Kay's theories are underdeveloped, the cases are pedestrian, including the not so ``new technological paradigms'' they highlight in their discussion of Adult Foods' mass customization of dairy products. This study adds little to our understanding of organizational theory. (Sept.)