Anthony Stafford Beer Quotes

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.

We have, over the centuries, devised a management structure for running things, whether firms or whole countries. This structure depends absolutely on the limitations of the human hand, eye, and brain. The discoveries of management cybernetics, coupled with the techniques of operational research and with the new technology of automation, make possible a new way of running things which is not so limited. Yet we insist on retaining the original structures and automating them. In so doing, we enshrine in steel, glass, and semiconductors those very limitations of hand, eye, and brain that the computer was invented precisely to transcend.

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

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.

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

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

Hence we may recognize the subject of management cybernetics — which is seen as a rich provider of models for doing OR.

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

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

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

The aim of management science is to display the best course of action in a given set of circumstances, and this must include all the circumstances.

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

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.

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

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