The Virtual Neural Business System: a vision for IT support for the network form organization

One of the consequences of trends in business worldwide has been the emergence of the “network form” organization ‐ alliances of independent operating units bound together by a mutuality of interests and shared visions of the future for their industry rather than as subsidiaries of a single hierarchical firm. These operating units are seen as offering the flexibility and responsiveness necessary in today’s turbulent and fast‐changing industrial situations. This article reviews the particular demands of these new organizational structures, including the reconciling of latest thinking on control and co‐ordination needs with the advantages of unit autonomy. It then offers a vision and structure for an information technology‐based integrating framework. The system is styled a virtual neural business system (V‐NBS) to suggest that it would not only manage and and fuel the operations of the network partners by linking their sensory and motor components, but also act as a whole‐system knowledge, experience and “thinking function accessible and available to support all managers in their individual decision making”.