"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world s most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know." Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA. "If anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer everyone in management should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and even elegant diagrams." The Economist Based on the Massey Lectures, this book examines the reasons why the institutions of our society may well be failing, and opens a discussion as to what could be done. Drawing on the science of effective organization, which is his definition of cybernetics, Stafford Beer explains key cybernetic principles in words and pictures that all can understand.

“斯塔福德·比尔无疑是世界上最具挑衅性、创造性和深刻的管理思想家之一，他以无与伦比的才华记录了自己的思想。他的写作既是科学也是艺术。他是我所知道的最可行的系统。”宾夕法尼亚州互动管理研究所的Russell L Ackoff博士，美国。“如果有人能让[运筹学]变得易懂、有趣，那就是斯塔福德啤酒。管理层的每个人都应该感谢他使用清晰、有时优雅的英语，甚至优雅的图表。”经济学家根据梅西讲座，这本书探讨了为什么我们社会的制度可能会失败，并就可以做些什么展开了讨论。利用有效组织的科学，这是他对控制论的定义，斯塔福德·比尔用所有人都能理解的文字和图片解释了关键的控制论原理。