Reservation of Authority

There must be a kind of 「supremacy clause」 reserving to central management the decisions that affect the business as a whole and its long-range future welfare.

Top management in a decentralized company must think through care- fully what decisions it reserves for itself. For there are decisions that have to do with the entire company, its integrity, and its future. These decisions can be made only by somebody who sees the whole and is responsible for the whole. Specifically, there must be three reserved areas if the business is to remain a whole rather than splinter into fragments. Top management, and top management alone, can make the decision on what technologies, markets, and products to go into, what businesses to start and what businesses to abandon, and also what the basic values, beliefs, and principles of the company are. Second, top management must reserve to itself the control of the allocation of the key resource of capital. Both the supply of capital and its investment are top-management responsibilities that cannot be turned over to the autonomous units of a federal organization.

Third, the other key resource is people. The people in a federally organized company, and especially managers and key professionals, are a re- source of the entire company rather than of any one unit. The company』s policies with respect to people and decisions on key appointments in the decentralized autonomous businesses are top-management decisions— though of course, autonomous business managers need to take an active part in them.

Action point: Reserve certain key decisions for top management, especially those having to do with the mission, values, and direction of the organization; the allocation of capital; and the selection of key people.

Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

保留的權威

核心管理層一定要有一些「至高的保留」決策，這些決策影響整個企業的生意和它長期的境遇。

在一個分權的公司中，高管一定要想清楚哪些決策是要保留給自己的，因為有些決策是與整個公司、公司的本質、公司的未來相關的，這些決策只能由看到整體並對整體負責的人來制定。具體來看，有三個「保留區域」要保持整體觀，而非拆成不同的部分。高管可以決定公司的技術、市場和產品進入領域，可以決定哪些業務要開始做，哪些要放棄，以及公司的基本價值觀、信念和原則。第二，高管必須要自己控制關鍵資本資源的分配。提供資金和投資都是不能下方到業務單元的職責，它們屬於高管。

第三，另一項關鍵的資源是人。在實施聯邦制的公司，人，尤其是經理們和核心職業人員，他們是整個公司的資源，而非某一個業務單元的資源。公司的人力政策以及在分權化的自主業務中的人事任命都是高管要制定的決策，當然，底下的自主業務單元的經理也需要積極地參與。

動起來：將核心決策留給高管，尤其是涉及到組織的使命、價值觀和方向的決策，也包括資本的分配和核心人員的選擇。

——《管理：任務，職責，實踐》

評論：

三個決策保留領域合起來就一個詞：戰略。

戰略最核心的內容就要考慮這三個維度。

【Mathematics】

The discover of Pi is a marvelous event in mathematics.

It has very close relation with a circle.

What is a circle, then?

Is the shape in the center a circle? (if we zoom in, we can see many pixels. Its not a circle.)

But we see it or imagine it as a representation of the ideal circle.

Does true perfect ideal circle exist in nature even though we can write an equation of a circle?

This concept of ideal circle and ideal shapes is the foundation of platonic mathematics.

(picture from a lecture presented by MIT professor Jeremy Kepner)

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