Entropy Vector: Connecting Science and Business

by Handscombe, Robert D.; Patterson, Eann A.

• ISBN13: 9789812385710
• ISBN10: 9812385711
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-16
• Publisher: Textstream

Summary

How do managers and entrepreneurs evaluate risk, encourage creativity or manage change? Might a better grasp of science help? The authors of this book suggest that there is real value in trying to connect science to business and that science is far too important just to be left to the scientists. All of science is too large a prospect, so the authors limit themselves to looking at disorder. We must all learn to manage and control change, and there is plenty of social, technical and business change going on. The authors suggest that a clearer understanding of entropy and the choices it presents will assist in that management of change -- or, as they put it, to manage disorder one needs to control the entropy vector. This book is for scientists and engineers aspiring to business success and for business people interested in new approaches.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	x
Disorderly Signposts	1	(7)
business success
socially responsible capitalism
leadership and change
excitement of entropy
signposts to chapters
Planck's Inspiration: Nature, Philosophy and Business	8	(10)
Ockham's razor
Mother Nature
an engineering excuse for inefficiency
free energy?
the way you like it and for nothing
Life, the Universe and Entropy	18	(16)
vectors, pool tables and Isaac Newton
forces for change
inflation and pollution
physics and information
Isobel's message
Maxwell's demon
The Entropy Vector	34	(16)
uniting entropy and vectors
sailing boats
Boltzmann index
lost in Bilbao and queuing in Detroit
taking control by letting go
Energy and Entropy	50	(15)
scattering the seed
organic companies
exergy conservation
energy management
Time and Entropy	65	(18)
who created God?
entropy as the arrow of time
time management
bored in transit
information flows
optimised production
Managing Disorder	83	(19)
good management techniques
teams and training
flat-lining
control freaks
pantomimes and orchestras
change and risk
Creativity and Innovation	102	(22)
what is creativity?
what is innovation?
harnessing them in business
technology trajectories
woolliness, bananas and knots
entropy and technopy
Risk and Entropy	124	(15)
ontRe-pRenur
winning the risk game
boundaries and vision
sins of omission/commission
elephants, rabbits, barbecues and the cost of grass
Mental Entropy	139	(15)
education and training
memory and analysis
efficiency, effectiveness and distinctiveness
diversity of skill and attitude
employee and team skills
science and measurement
Entropy Trade-offs	154	(19)
power packs and technology vectors
labour market, incentives and equilibrium
improbable happenings
The Entropy Tool Kit	173	(5)
summary
pulling it all together
ideas and tools
Index	178