Governing Continuous Transformation

This book transposes the `free-energy principle , as espoused by the neuroscientist Karl Friston, to strategic governance, and forming the new concept of
Free-Energy Governance
(FEG). This concept lays the foundation for a new logic of governing continuous transformation. In addition to guiding the structure, cognition, and capabilities of success in strategic renewal, FEG provides a systematic and practice-relevant approach to predicting a firm s potential for entropy.


Using this new concept, the author shows that the success of continuous strategic renewal and business innovation, elements crucial for firm survival, are determined by the triplet of a firm s structure, cognition, and dynamic board capabilities.

How to govern large organizations in times of high uncertainty and permanent change? To answer this pressing question, Bijan Khezri has been the first to apply [the free energy] principle to management science This book is an eyeopener for every reflective leader.

Professor Oliver Gassmann, Director of the Institute of Management and Technology, University of St. Gallen

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was both exciting and reassuring to see how the same fundamental ideas can be found in fields as disparate as nonequilibrium steady-state physics and theories of governance.

Professor Karl. J. Friston; Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging

Using a term often applied to best-selling novels, `it is a page turner in which I learned something new in every chapter! Every board member, all executives and scholars interested in strategic leadership and governance must read this book if they wish to remain relevant in the coming transformational decades.

Michael A. Hitt

University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Mays Business School, Texas A& M University

Former President, Academy of Management, and former Editor, Academy of Management Journal

" We could not ask for a better author to initiate this new conversation in the board research community and convey its merits to the world of board practice. "

Martin Hilb

Professor Emeritus, University of St. Gallen

Founder and Managing Partne
r, I
nternational Board Foundation
and
President
of
Swiss Institute of Directors

Set against a wide swath of literature, the book impressively makes the case for a new logic of strategic renewal in which the board of directors plays a central role.

Professor Constance E. Helfat, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

Part I: Re-framing the Strategy-Governance Conversation. - 1. `Thinking Born of Curiosity, Revolt, and Change . - 2. Sensing, Sensemaking, and Strategic Renewal. - 3. Microfoundations of Strategic Governance. - 4. Free Energy Principle (FEP). - 5. Conclusion. - Part II: Free Energy Governance (FEG). - 6. Structure: Synergizing Governance and Operational Channels. - 7. Cognition: From Superposition to Reality. - 8. Capabilities: Duality Management. - 9. Laying the Foundation for a Self-Organizing (Autopoietic) Governance Logic. - Part III: Conclusion. - 10. Free Energy Governance vs. Traditional Corporate Governance. - 11. Implications for Management Practice. - 12. Future Research Agenda. - 13. Outperformance and Survival as a Matter of Self-Organization. - Part IV: Engaged Scholarship Interviews. - 14. Steve Case. - 15. Jan Ståhlberg.