The human condition can almost be summed up in the observation that, whereas all experiences are of the past, all decisions are about the future. It … - Kenneth E. Boulding

In every field there is a need for writing where the main objective is to extend the reader's field of acquaintance with the complex cases of the real world. Such writing does not have to be very exact or quantitative; it does not even have to formulate or to demonstrate hypotheses. It constitutes, as it were, travel over the field of study. Travel is certainly not enough, even for a geographer, but we would feel, I imagine, that a geographer who had never travelled would be under a serious handicap. Similarly the student of organizations who has never, even vicariously through reading, been in a hospital, a bank, a research laboratory, a large corporation, a Soviet factory, a revolution, an Egyptian civil service department, and so on, has missed something. His generalizations are apt to be based on too narrow a selection of the field.

The world moves into the future as a result of decisions, not as a result of plans. Plans are significant only insofar as they affect decisions.

In modern industry, research Has come to be a kind of Church
Where rubber-aproned acolytes
Perform their Scientific Rites
And firms spend funds they do not hafter
In hope of benefits Hereafter.