Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie
The book Orbiting the Giant Hairball was written by Gordon MacKenzie in 1996. Originally self-published the book became a business "cult classic". Gordon was an employee of Hallmark Cards for 30 years, where he inspired his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to “orbit” - to a mode of dreaming, daring, and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. As a testament to his career and the level of creativity he maintained while at Hallmark, his final position title was “Creative Paradox” for Hallmark Cards.
Through short stories and personal observations and experiences, MacKenzie provides insight into maintaining a creative, entrepreneurial culture within the structured and potentially constricting environment of an organization, and society as a whole. He defines “the giant hairball” as a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules and systems that are based on what worked in the past and which can lead to mediocrity in the present. He points out that this “hairball” is built over time without members of the firm understanding that it is even there or its potential to negatively effecting the firm’s ability to remain flexible and creative.
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MacKenzie 1996 Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Viking Pg. 145
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MacKenzie 1996 Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Viking Pg. 104
MacKenzie 1996 Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Viking Pg. 139
MacKenzie 1996 Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Viking Pg. 87
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron
Robert E Hoskisson, Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, Jeffrey S. Harrison, 2008 Competing on Advantage, second edition. Thomson, South-Western. Chapter 12
http://www.amazon.com/Orbiting-Giant-Hairball-Corporate-Surviving/dp/0670879835
Brian Doyle’s, “The Meteorites” was a short essay about a camp counselor and his unforgettable summer. Doyle uses very poignant arguments to explain his love for his campers. Each camper is introduced with a short synopsis, allowing the reader to get a feeling for what the children are like. The counselor was in charge of a flock of 5-6 year olds. The second paragraph introduces the main argument: how this summer camp made him love the boys as if they were his own. The paragraph goes continues the counselor is pulled aside by one of the shyest and quietest that was speaking up for the most outspoken of the group. He was asking for help because one David (outspoken on) had an accident in his pants and needed to be clean. This puzzled the
Thompson, Arthur, John Gamble, John Gamble, A. III, and Alonzo Strickland. Strategy. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005. 299. Print.
Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
A solitary woman sits in conversation with a benign tumour that had just recently been removed from her ovary. As the woman speaks, the inanimate tumour, which she has named Hairball, looks on from its glass encased perch atop the fireplace. The scene is macabre and certainly unusual, but such is the life of Kat, the main character in Margaret Atwood’s short story, Hairball. Kat’s life is filled with the unusual and the shocking, a lifestyle that has been self-imposed. Throughout the years, Kat, an "avant garde" fashion photographer, has altered her image, even her name, to suit the circumstances and the era. Over time Kat has fashioned a seemingly strong and impenetrable exterior, but as Kat’s life begins to disintegrate we discover that the strong exterior is just a facade devised to protect a weak and fragile interior. Kat’s facade begins to unravel and she undergoes significant personal losses; in fact, the losses go so far as to include her identity or lack there of. As Kat begins to lose control, her mental and physical disintegration is hastened by three major conflicts: The conflict with the society in which she lives, the conflict with her romantic interests (specifically Ger), and finally the physical conflict she faces with her own body. In the end, these conflicts will threaten to strip Kat of her lifestyle as well as her name.
P, Micheal 1998, Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance: with a new introduction, The Free Press, America.
This cell-like structure was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Graham Turner, the founder and CEO of Flight Centre (Dunford et al, 2002). His ideas of rewarding initiative, empowering employees and fostering the spirit of a large tribe throughout the company were developed into the organizational culture. Flight Centre’s culture was formed first and it is comprised of their values, such as their people, their customer, the brightness of future, taking responsibility and egalitarianism and unity (Flight Centre, 2017). Its culture influenced the creation of their unique structure. They had to consider major factors, such as whether the organization would be mechanistic or organic, whether it would stress differentiation or integration, and how its strategy would affect its structure. The culture dictated that the structure would be organic because it promotes cooperation and flexibility. Similarly, the structure is differentiated because the culture values smaller teams. Lastly, Flight Centre had to determine the link between its strategy and its structure. The strategy is the organization’s plans to achieve its goals, which is facilitated by both the culture and structure. Although an organization’s culture influences its structure, together the culture and structure help provide the necessary framework for the organization to achieve its
Conflict and a bureaucratic corporate culture are largely to blame for the lack of creativity and ...
In the first stage of growth, the founders of an organization develop skills and create new products. Learning is a huge component of this phase of organizational growth. Entrepreneurs learn what works and what doesn’t. People’s behaviors are governed by organizational culture rather than by hierarchy (Jones, 2010).
In the spectrum of entrepreneurs, an artist is someone who thinks about opportunities abstractly and uses “big ideas” to form deep, emotional connections with various groups of people. Furthermore, an artist is someone who is prepared to explore opportunities without becoming deterred by uncertainty and enjoys seeing where an ambiguous idea or opportunity can lead. One entrepreneur that exemplifies these qualities is Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and throughout this paper we will discover who he is, why he typifies an artist, and what others can learn from him.
In the documentary “Call of the Entrepreneur,” three successful entrepreneurs, Brad Morgan, Frank Hanna, and Jimmy Lai, are presented to explain their views on entrepreneurship and in turn leadership. Brad Morgan is the owner of a million dollar dairy and compost company, Frank Hanna is a merchant banker in New York City, and Jimmy Lai is the founder of Giordano department stores and Next Media. A central theme of the documentary is how each of these businessmen displays the characteristics of persistence, patience, and perseverance to overcome frustrating obstacles and become successful. The film defines entrepreneurship and explains how the entrepreneur responds positively to consumer demands and is able to organize and direct others toward a goal only the entrepreneur can see. The film shows that though some entrepreneurs are driven by greed and some are not, the ones that are successful are answering the needs of consumers.
Author , Craig S.Fleisher ,Babette E. Benhoussen (2007).Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of new and classic methods pg 87 -100
Innovation has become a critical element for a business to be successful. More emphasis is placed on creativity as it is the core that drives innovation within a company. Businesses must provide a conducive work environment to produce and grow a creativity amongst its employees. We will discuss the five critical component to a creative work environment which include challenging work, organization encouragement, supervisor encouragement, work group encouragement, lack of organization impediments and freedom.
...M. E. (2008). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Hendersern and Stern 2000, ‘Untangling the origins of competitive advantage’,Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 21, pp. 1123-1145.
Organization operates in a strongly competitive environment manning creativity a vital component in business growth. Creativity is what sparks big ideas, challenges workers way of thinking and make way for new business opportunities,