Blockchain, Leadership And Management: Business AS Usual Or Radical Disruption?

The Internet provided the world with interconnection. However, it did not provide it with trust. Trust is lacking everywhere in our society and is the reason for the existence of powerful intermediaries aggregating power. Trust is what prevents the digital world to take over. This has consequences for organisations: they are inefficient because time, energy, money and passion are wasted on verifying everything happens as decided. Managers play the role of intermediaries in such case: they connect experts with each others and instruct them of what to do. As a result, in our expert society, people's engagement is low because no one is there to inspire and empower them. In other words, our society faces an unprecedented lack of leadership. Provided all those shortcomings, the study imagines the potential repercussions, especially in the context of management, of implementing a blockchain infrastructure in any type of organisation. Indeed, the blockchain technology seems to be able to remedy to those issues, for this distributed and immutable ledger provides security, decentralisation and transparency. In the context of a blockchain economy, the findings show that value creation will be rearranged, with experts directly collaborating with each others, and hierarchy being eliminated. This could, in turn, render managers obsolete, as a blockchain infrastructure will automate most of the tasks. As a result, only a strong, action-oriented, leadership would maintain the organisation together. This leadership-in-action would consist in igniting people to take action; coach members of the organisations so that their contribution makes sense in the greater context of life

Division of Labour and Social Coordination Modes : A simple simulation model

This paper presents a preliminary investigation of the relationship between the process of functional division of labour and the modes in which activities and plans are coordinated. We consider a very simple production process: a given heap of bank-notes has to be counted by a group of accountants. Because of limited individual capabilities and/or the possibilities of mistakes and external disturbances, the task has to be divided among several accountants and a hierarchical coordination problem arises. We can imagine several different ways of socially implementing coordination of devided tasks. 1) a central planner can compute the optimal architecture of the system; 2) a central planner can promote quantity adjustments by moving accountants from hierarchical levels where there exist idle resources to levels where resources are insufficient; 3) quasi-market mechanisms can use quantity or price signals for promoting decentralized adjustments. By means of a simple simulation model, based on Genetic Algorithms and Classifiers Systems, we can study the dynamic efficiency properties of each coordination mode and in particular their capability, speed and cost of adaptation to changing environmental situations (i.e. variations of the size of the task and/or variations of agents' capabilities). Such interesting issues as returns to scale, specialization and workers exploitation can be easily studied in the same model

WCA Framework

This article describes subject-matter and components of WCA Framework. Authors describe individual elements of WCA. Article is being coupled with explaining of WCA Framework. Authors furthermore introduce differences between WCA Framework and additional analytical methods. Authors pay attention to relation between information technology, information system, work system, firm and business environment.WCA Framework, customer, product, business process, information, participant, information technology, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

NEEDS SEEDED STRATEGIES

This paper addresses the issue of developing strategies starting from the identification and comprehension of true consumer needs. Needs and opportunities are linked to markets, benefits and strategies through a specific 3D model based on Maslow�s pyramid. A further model, denoted the PIE (Persons, Institutions and Enterprises), also contextualises needs seeded strategies also for institutions. Furthermore the paper builds on declared and latent needs and the author shows how both can live together, or separately, irrespective whether or not one sees them from the demand or supply side. The argument is that demand strategies are essentially based on declared needs and are �red ocean� in nature while supply strategies pace consumers by hitting latent needs and produce �blue ocean� favoured strategies. It is argued that current strategy frameworks e.g. Porter�s competitive advantage, Wernerfelt�s resourcebased strategy and Hax and Wilde�s integrated competitive advantage models, need to pace rather than chase the consumer. Strategies are considered as being the outcome of strategic choices that enterprises need to answer in order to stay or become (more) competitive. If an enterprise is to build its strategy on satisfying consumer needs then it is necessary to view resources from two perspectives, namely customers and assets. For each one of these two resources three possible scenarios are discussed namely that the resources are Insufficient, Limited or AbundantStrategy, Blue-ocean, Red-ocean, Declared, Latent, Needs

Analysis and evaluation of multi-agent systems for digital production planning and control

Industrial manufacturing companies have different IT control functions that can be represented with a so-called hierarchical automation pyramid. While these conventional software systems especially support the mass production with consistent demand, the future project “Industry 4.0” focuses on customer-oriented and adaptable production processes. In order to move from conventional production systems to a factory of the future, the control levels must be redistributed. With the help of cyber-physical production systems, an interoperable architecture must be, implemented which removes the hierarchical connection of the former control levels. The accompanied digitalisation of industrial companies makes the transition to modular production possible. At the same time, the requirements for production planning and control are increasing, which can be solved with approaches such as multi-agent systems (MASs). These software solutions are autonomous and intelligent objects with a distinct collaborative ability. There are different modelling methods, communication and interaction structures, as well as different development frameworks for these new systems. Since multi-agent systems have not yet been established as an industrial standard due to their high complexity, they are usually only tested in simulations. In this bachelor thesis, a detailed literature review on the topic of MASs in the field of production planning and control is presented. In addition, selected multi-agent approaches are evaluated and compared using specific classification criteria. In addition, the applicability of using these systems in digital and modular production is assessed

Supply Chain Performance Measurement Model: A Literature Review

Supply chain is being envisaged as an extended enterprise connecting business in different places and facilitating allies to propel competitive advantage in the era of globalization. Substantial research has been undertaken along with literatures on supply chain performance management from cost and non-cost standpoint, strategic, tactical or emphasis on operational aspects; perspectives from commercial as well as financial arenas. In order to gratify customer orders rapidly and efficiently than competitors, supply chain needs to warrant continuous upgradation of its processes and competitive strategies and to apprehend how supply chain contests? it is indispensable to realize the overall performance of the supply chain. However, still many companies miscarry to acquire effective performance measurement tools and techniques to attain integrated Supply Chain Management (SCM). The rationale of this paper is to evaluate the literature on performance measurement for supply chain to apprehend current practices, recognize gaps and advocate future research itineraries. The paper also offers a synopsis and appraisal of the performance measurement used through different supply chain models

Major Features, Benefits, and Prerequisites for Intelligent Enterprise Managing System

The modern conditions of high-tech and highly competitive markets require the evolution of the enterprise automation systems. Such new, the post-ERP systems should meet the conditions for the provision of customer self-service and other counterparts, the dramatic decrease of the manual labour through automation, robotic application, integration with other systems and external contracting systems, multi-channel marketing and distribution, reduction of supply chains and other current trends. These systems should be built on the new IEM Automation Paradigm (Intelligent Enterprise Managing) and therefore belong to the IEM system class. As stated in the IEM paradigm article, a modern approach to solving the task of automation is based on the application of "best" solutions for each separate entity or business unit. In practice, however, this approach has resulted in a series of significant problems. The scale of the problems is increasing with the growth in transactional load, competitive pressures on the market, requirements for accelerate optimization, and business processes changes