Anthony Stafford Beer Quote

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.


p. 177. - Management Science (1968) - Chapter 7, Automation and Such


We have, over the centuries, devised a management structure for running things, whether firms or whole countries. This structure depends absolutely...

We have, over the centuries, devised a management structure for running things, whether firms or whole countries. This structure depends absolutely...

We have, over the centuries, devised a management structure for running things, whether firms or whole countries. This structure depends absolutely...

We have, over the centuries, devised a management structure for running things, whether firms or whole countries. This structure depends absolutely...