The idea of the corporation as an idea system: Commerce in the systems age

The changes that are required of organizations in order to compete in the new global economy are more extensive, and hence pose a greater challenge, than at any other time in our nation’s history. They are particularly challenging because they not only involve changing nearly every aspect of the internal physical design and operation of organizations, but they also involve substantial changes with respect to a wide variety of external factors that operate on all organizations. As a result, the traditional design and operation of organizations is more suspect than ever before. Organizations can no longer be viewed strictly as ‘physical entities’ whose principal function is to transform incoming physical resources into outgoing physical products. Instead, the modern organization must be viewed principally as an ‘idea system’ whose main function is to transform incoming ideas and resources into outgoing ‘idea products.’