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Every day human organisations fail. Building Anti-Fragile Organisations explores a powerful alternative framework for risk in design and management of human systems. Anti-Fragile organisations, like biological systems, being more than robust actually improve their resilience through being stressed. In the book, Professor Bendell explains how its application in development and management of organisations, services and products, allows us to identify the characteristics that will not only mitigate against the realisation of hazards, but enable growth in protection, strength and anti-fragility ov.

AbstractThis article concerns the effect of stochastic time delays in the operation of components upon system reliability for isolated impulse systems, for which component delays have hitherto been treated as deterministic. These are systems, such as automatic protective devices, which remain idle for most of their lives but which are required to respond with the utmost speed to input signals arising at arbitrary isolated time instants. System failure can arise from components failing to operate, or from being too slow to operate so that the systems operation is too slow to meet requirements. During operation components are usually subjected to greater stresses than during idling, so that it is assumed that components are subjected to increased failure tendencies during the time it takes them to perform their functions. The effect of stochastic time delays on the evaluation of systems reliability is considered, and a hierarchy of complexity associated with the physical nature of the delays in series and redundant configurations is exposed. Some simple exponential illustrations are presented.

The climate emergency calls on us to explore what we can do, individually and collectively, to adapt to climate-induced disruption. Such adaptation must go beyond mere adjustments to our existing economic system and infrastructure, in order to prepare us for the breakdown or collapse of normal societal functions. A framework for exploring this issue, called Deep Adaptation, is summarised. Technologies will be important for helping us develop not only resilience but also collapse-readiness. Five areas of technology are outlined in order to illustrate the kinds of ideas that can emerge from applying a Deep Adaptation approach to our predicament. In outlining technological possibilities, it is emphasised that any technology should be assessed on a case-by-case basis, rather than from a general perspective on whether technology is helpful or not. In addition, the focus on technology in this paper and its associated discussions is not intended to distract from the political and psychological challenge of our climate emergency. Therefore, a transformative economic agenda is retained as a context for how we imagine policies to harness technologies for Deep Adaptation. Brief recommendations are offered for the European Commission.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the topic of complementary currencies to the academy engaged in research on corporate responsibility and responsible finance, as well as the broader field of progressive management studies. It responds to the growing awareness that both managers and researchers need to address a systemic challenge of our time, concerning stagnating economies and growing inequality. An underlying cause of that problem is identified as mainstream monetary systems and the implications for inadequate financing of SMEs and microenterprises. The potential of currency innovation, from cryptographic currencies like Bitcoin, to local currencies and then to commercial barter and countertrade are discussed. Given the novelty of these phenomena for management studies in general and corporate responsibility in particular, an interdisciplinary literature review is presented. Then a case study of a complementary currency in an informal settlement in Kenya is presented and implications for the wider adoption of useful new currencies discussed. It concludes therefore that SMEs need certain types of complementary currency more than others and proposes that companies can engage in currencies as part of their corporate responsibility programmes as well as for direct business benefit.

In September, member states of the United Nations adopted 17 new Global Goals for sustainable development. These goals include recognition that industrialisation and international trade need to be brought into line with sustainable development outcomes. Social and environmental concerns need to be part of mainstream investment policy rather than being treated as an add-on after economic concerns are addressed. Given the mixed record of business performance on labour and environmental issues, it will be a huge challenge to shift commerce into a more sustainable path. But we have to start somewhere. "Starting somewhere" is the idea behind the rise of enterprise zones around the world. The idea is that in specific locations, a government and private sector can invest in creating the infrastructure and services needed for efficient business. There are now thousands of such zones around the world, some of which are called Export Processing Zones (EPZs) due to their emphasis on business development for international trade. Some countries, including India, have recently made the promotion of special zones a cornerstone of their economic strategy. In 2015, enthusiasm for special zones spread everywhere, with announcements of new zones even in Cuba and Myanmar.