Anthony Stafford Beer

A slowly moving queue does not move uniformly. Rather, waves of motion pass down the queue. The frequency and amplitude of these waves is inversely related to the speed at which the queue is served.

Anthony Stafford Beer (September 25, 1926 – August 23, 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics.

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Management Science (1968)

• Policy-making, decision-taking, and control: These are the three functions of management that have intellectual content.
  • Chapter 1, Processes and Policies, p. 10

• Too close a view may interfere with one's grasp of an overall problem or concept
  • Chapter 1, Processes and Policies, p. 21

• The strategies that managers employ are at least as important as the facilities at their disposal.
  • Chapter 1, Processes and Policies, p. 27

• According to the science of cybernetics, which deals with the topic of control in every kind of system (mechanical, electronic,biological, human, economic, and so on), there is a natural law that governs the capacity of a control system to work. It says that the control must be capable of generating as much "variety" as the situation to be controlled.
  • Chapter 2, Chance, Risk and Malice, p. 37

• It is the concept of likelihood that a real understanding of probability resides, and we must learn how to measure it.
  • Chapter 2, Chance, Risk and Malice, p. 41

• A stochastic process is about the results of convolving probabilities-which is just what management is about, as well.
  • Chapter 2, Chance, Risk and Malice, p. 58

• The aim of management science is to display the best course of action in a given set of circumstances, and this must include all the circumstances.
  • Chapter 3, Quantified Insight, p. 61

• There is, then, a logical priority about the arrangements, and logic has nothing to do with time.
  • Chapter 3, Quantified Insight, p. 74

The development of the Watt governor for steam engines, which adapted the power output of the engine automatically to the load by means of feedback, consolidated the first Industrial Revolution.

• Certain management policies-stretching of credit resources, for example-may lead to great progress in good conditions; but, like the Grand Prix car in comparison with the Land Rover, they may not be robust enough to survive when the going gets tough.
  • Chapter 3, Quantified Insight, p. 88

• The whole picture is complicated by the stockists and merchants who will try to exploit any shortages that may appear.
  The result is this. The feedback information from the industry's environment consists, first and foremost, of a forward order load. Much of this "demand for steel" will be bogus.
  • Chapter 4, An Alphabet of Models, p. 96

• A slowly moving queue does not move uniformly. Rather, waves of motion pass down the queue. The frequency and amplitude of these waves is inversely related to the speed at which the queue is served.
  • Chapter 4, An Alphabet of Models, p. 108

• It is terribly important to appreciate that some things remain obscure to the bitter end.
  • Chapter 4, An Alphabet of Models, p. 115

• Management problems are not respecters of the company organization, nor of the talents of the people appointed to solve them.
  • Chapter 5, It Works, p. 117

• The development of the Watt governor for steam engines, which adapted the power output of the engine automatically to the load by means of feedback, consolidated the first Industrial Revolution.
  • Chapter 6, The Viable Governor, p. 142

• The problem with managing either a business or a prison by periodic rather than continuous inspection is that the "variables" are likely to be seriously out of control before the discrepancy is noted.
  • Chapter 6, The Viable Governor, p. 146

• Clearly, if it possible to have a self-regulating system that implicitly arranges its own stability, then this is of the keenest management interest.
  • Chapter 6, The Viable Governor, p. 154

A stochastic process is about the results of convolving probabilities-which is just what management is about, as well.

• We have, over the centuries, devised a management structure for running things, whether firms or whole countries.This structure depends absolutely on the limitations of the human hand, eye, and brain. The discoveries of management cybernetics, coupled with the techniques of operational research and with the new technology of automation, make possible a new way of running things which is not so limited. Yet we insist on retaining the original structures and automating them. In so doing, we enshrine in steel, glass, and semiconductors those very limitations of hand, eye, and brain that the computer was invented precisely to transcend.
  • Chapter 7, Automation and Such, p. 177

• The system of transportation is not coherent; it is not treated as integral. Roads compete with with railroads and airlines in chaotic fashion, and at immense cost to the nation.
  • Chapter 7, Automation and Such, p. 186