New organisational strategies for complexity : a necessity for sustainable innovation? A case study of Kessels & Smith - The Learning Company

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Now more than ever, organisations need to be resilient and sustainable. The world of business haschanged irrevocably since the industrial age and organisational strategies have not adapted much inresponse to this environmental change. Are there new organisational strategies suited to thischanged environment, with characteristics contributing to sustainable futures?The purpose of the paper is to highlight those principles and characteristics that could be linked tothe creation of sustainable and resilient organisations. A brief review of the literature available onemergent organisational strategies and complex systems provides context to the paper. A number ofspecific organisational strategies are identified, while characteristics pointing to the sustainability oftheses strategies in a complex environment are investigated.With the literature study a starting point, the paper then offers a detailed case study of anorganisation which consciously uses a number of principles to support sustainable innovation. Theprinciples and practices used by Kessels & Smit – The Learning Company, emerge as patterns fromthe data analysis. With these findings and the literature study as a foundation, a number ofprinciples are proposed as recommendations for designing organisational strategies aimed atsustainable futures within organisations.