Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British
theorist
A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...
, consultant and professor at the
Manchester Business School
Alliance Manchester Business School (Alliance MBS) is the business school of the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. One of the most prestigious business schools in the United Kingdom, it is also the second oldest in the UK, and pro ...
.
He is best known for his work in the fields of
operational research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...
and
management cybernetics
Management cybernetics is concerned with the application of cybernetics to management and organizations. "Management cybernetics" was first introduced by Stafford Beer in the late 1950s and introduces the various mechanisms of self-regulation appl ...
.
Biography
Early life
Beer was born in
Putney
Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ancient paris ...
, London in 1926. At age 17 he was expelled from
Whitgift School
("He who perseveres, conquers")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Independent school
, religious_affiliation = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head Master
, head = Christopher Ramsey
, c ...
and enrolled for a degree in philosophy at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
. But in 1944 he left to join the army, first as Gunner in the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
, but he soon received a commission first in the
Royal Fusiliers
The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881.
The regiment served in many wars ...
, and then as a
company commander
A company commander is the commanding officer of a company, a military unit which typically consists of 100 to 250 soldiers, often organized into three or four smaller units called platoons. The exact organization of a company varies by country, ...
in the
9th Gurkha Rifles
The 9th Gorkha Rifles is a Gorkha regiments (India), Gorkha infantry regiment of the Indian Army and, previously, the British Army. The regiment was initially formed by the British in 1817, and was one of the Gurkha regiments transferred to the In ...
. He saw service in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and stayed there until 1947. Upon returning to England he was assigned to the Human factors Branch of
Operations research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...
at the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
. In 1949, he was demobilised, having reached the rank of captain.
He dropped the use of his first name "Anthony" when he was about twenty-one and persuaded his brother, Ian Beer, to sign a statement that he would not use the name Stafford which he also was given.
United Steel
In 1956 he joined
United Steel
The United Steel Companies was a steelmaking, engineering, coal mining and coal by-product group based in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England.
History
The company was registered in 1918 and the following year saw a joining together of ste ...
and persuaded the management to fund an operational research group, the Department of Operations Research and Cybernetics, which he headed. This was based in Cybor House, and they installed a
Ferranti Pegasus
Pegasus was an early British vacuum-tube (valve) computer built by Ferranti, Ltd that pioneered design features to make life easier for both engineers and programmers. Originally it was named the Ferranti Package Computer as its hardware design ...
computer, the first in the world dedicated to management cybernetics.
SIGMA
In 1961 he left United Steel to start an operational research consultancy in partnership with
Roger Eddison
Roger Tatham Eddison (16 September 1916, Yokohama – 2000) was an English practitioner of Operations Research. He was Joint Editor of ''Operational Research Quarterly'' from 1950 to 1958. He was President of the Operational Research Society 1966- ...
called SIGMA (Science in General Management). Beer left SIGMA in 1966 to work for a SIGMA client, the
International Publishing Corporation
TI Media (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its tit ...
(IPC). He left IPC in 1970 to work as an independent consultant, focusing on his growing interest in social systems.
Cybersyn
In mid-1971, Beer was approached by
Fernando Flores
Carlos Fernando Flores Labra (born January 9, 1943) is a Chilean engineer, entrepreneur and politician. He is a former cabinet minister of president Salvador Allende and was senator for the Arica and Parinacota and Tarapacá regions between 200 ...
, then a high-ranking member of the Chilean Production Development Corporation (
CORFO
The Production Development Corporation (CORFO, from es, Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile) is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939 by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda to promote economic growth in Chile.
...
) in the newly elected
socialist government of
Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
, for advice on applying his cybernetic theories to the management of the state-run sector of the
Chilean economy
The Economy of Chile is a market economy and high-income economy as ranked by the World Bank. The country is considered one of South America's most prosperous nations, leading the region in competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, eco ...
.
This led to Beer's involvement in the never-completed
Cybersyn
Project Cybersyn was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of Salvador Allende aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to aid in the management of the national economy. The project consisted of four modu ...
project, which aimed to use computers and a
telex
The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...
-based communication network to allow the government to maximise production while preserving the autonomy of workers and lower management. Although Cybersyn was abandoned after Allende's death during the
Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean Captain general#Chile, general who ruled Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990), Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Gover ...
coup in 1973, Beer continued to work in the Americas, consulting for the governments of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
.
Later activity
In the mid-1970s, Beer moved to mid-
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
where he lived in an almost austere style, developing strong interests in poetry and art. In the 1980s he established a second home on the west side of downtown
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and lived part of the year in both residences. He was a visiting professor at almost 30 universities and received an earned higher doctorate (DSc) from the
University of Sunderland
, mottoeng = Sweetly absorbing knowledge
, established = 1901 - Sunderland Technical College1969 - Sunderland Polytechnic1992 - University of Sunderland (gained university status)
, staff =
, chancellor = Emeli ...
and honorary doctorates from the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
, the
University of St. Gallen
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, and the
University of Valladolid
The University of Valladolid is a public university located in the city of Valladolid, Valladolid province, autonomous region of Castile and Leon, Spain. Established in the 13th century, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. The un ...
. He was president of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics.
Falcondale Collection
![Falcondale Mansion Hotel - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Falcondale_Mansion_Hotel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_714659.jpg)
In July 1994 Beer ran a residential course at the
Falcondale Hotel in
Lampeter
Lampeter (; cy, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, ...
. Nine sessions were recorded as a video learning resource, and are collectively known as the Falcondale collection. They are availabl
onlineat the Data Repository of
Liverpool John Moores University
, mottoeng = Fortune favours the bold
, established = 1823 – Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts1992 – Liverpool John Moores University
, type = Public
, endowment =
, coor ...
.
The sessions covered art, science and philosophy as well as the practical application of cybernetics in society, government, community, management and business. Transcripts were made of the discussions and are also available from the same repository.
Family life
He was married twice, in 1947 to Cynthia Hannaway, and in 1968 to Sallie Steadman. His partner for the last twenty years of his life was
Allenna Leonard
Allenna Leonard is an American cyberneticist, consultant and director of Team Syntegrity International, specializing in the application of Stafford Beer's Viable System Model and Syntegration. She was president of the International Society for ...
, a fellow cybernetician. Beer had five sons and two daughters, one of whom is
Vanilla Beer
Vanilla Beer (born 1950, Sheffield) is an English artist. She trained at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College, West Surrey School of Art and Design and Walthamstow College of Art, London. Her first major One man show, solo ...
, an artist and essayist. She exhibited with
Roger Kohn
Roger Kohn is a designer and author. He studied with Rowan Gillespie at York School of Art and is the Irish sculptor's biographer.
Education and career
Kohn was educated at Marton Hall Preparatory School and Pocklington School. After a year at ...
.
Work
Management cybernetics
According to Jackson (2000) "Beer was the first to apply cybernetics to management, defining cybernetics as the ''science of effective organization''". In the 1960s and early 1970s "Beer was a prolific writer and an influential practitioner" in
management cybernetics
Management cybernetics is concerned with the application of cybernetics to management and organizations. "Management cybernetics" was first introduced by Stafford Beer in the late 1950s and introduces the various mechanisms of self-regulation appl ...
. It was during that period that he developed the
viable system model
The viable system model (VSM) is a model of the organizational structure of any autonomous system capable of producing itself. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. On ...
, to diagnose the faults in any existing organizational system. In that time
Forrester invented
systems dynamics
System dynamics (SD) is an approach to understanding the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems over time using stocks, flows, internal feedback loops, table functions and time delays.
Overview
System dynamics is a methodology and mathematical ...
, which "held out the promise that the behavior of whole systems could be represented and understood through modeling the dynamical feedback process going on within them".
[Michael C. Jackson (2000), ''Systems Approaches to Management'']
Cybersyn
During the
administration of Salvador Allende in Chile, in the early 1970s, Beer was closely involved with a visionary project,
Cybersyn
Project Cybersyn was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of Salvador Allende aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to aid in the management of the national economy. The project consisted of four modu ...
, to apply his cybernetic theories in government. The project's ultimate goal was to create a network of computers and communications equipment that would support the management of the state-run sector of Chile's economy; at its core would be an operations room where government managers could view important information about economic processes in real time, formulate plans of action, and transmit advice and directives to managers at plants and enterprises in the field.
[Raul Espejo]
Cybersyn
, metaphorum.org; retrieved October 2007. However, consistent with cybernetic principles and the ideals of the Allende government, its designers aimed to preserve worker and lower-management autonomy instead of implementing a top-down system of centralised control. The system used a network of about 500
telex
The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...
machines located at enterprises throughout the country and in government offices in
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
, some of which were connected to a government-operated
mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
that would receive information on production operations, feed that information into economic modelling software, and report on variables (such as raw material supplies) that were outside normal parameters and might require attention. The project, implemented by a multidisciplinary group of both Chileans and foreigners, reached an advanced prototype stage, but was interrupted by
the 1973 coup d'état.
Viable System Model
The Viable System Model (VSM) is a
model
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...
of the organisational structure of any viable or
autonomous
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...
system
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...
. A viable system is any system organised in such a way as to meet the demands of surviving in the changing environment. One of the prime features of systems that survive is that they are adaptable. The VSM expresses a model for a viable system, which is an abstracted cybernetic description that is applicable to any organisation that is a viable system and capable of autonomy.
Syntegration and Team Syntegrity
Syntegrity is a formal model presented by Beer in the 1990s and now is a registered trademark. It is a form of non-hierarchical problem solving that can be used in a small team of 10 to 42 people. It is a business consultation product that is licensed out to consulting firms. The term comes from the words "
synergistic
Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' from ', , meaning "working together".
History
In Christi ...
" and "
tensegrity
Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usually ...
".
POSIWID
Stafford Beer coined and frequently used the term POSIWID (the purpose of a system is what it does) to refer to the commonly observed phenomenon that the de facto purpose of a system is often at odds with its official purpose. In an address to the
University of Valladolid
The University of Valladolid is a public university located in the city of Valladolid, Valladolid province, autonomous region of Castile and Leon, Spain. Established in the 13th century, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. The un ...
, Spain in October 2001, he said "According to the
cybernetician
A cyberneticist or a cybernetician is a person who practices cybernetics.
Heinz von Foerster once told Stuart Umpleby that Norbert Wiener preferred the term "cybernetician" rather than "cyberneticist", perhaps because Wiener was a mathematician ...
the purpose of a system is what it does. This is a basic dictum. It stands for bald fact, which makes a better starting point in seeking understanding than the familiar attributions of good intention, prejudices about expectations, moral judgment or sheer ignorance of circumstances."
Awards
Beer received awards from the
Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promo ...
in 1958, from the United Kingdom Systems Society, the
Cybernetics Society The Cybernetics Society is a UK-based learned society that exists to promote the understanding of Cybernetics. The core activity of the Cybernetics Society is the organization and facilitation of scientific meetings, conferences, and social events. ...
, the
American Society for Cybernetics
The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) is an American non-profit scholastic organization for the advancement of cybernetics as a science , a discipline, a meta-discipline and the promotion of cybernetics as basis for an interdisciplinary disc ...
, and the
Operations Research Society of America
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger o ...
.
Literature
Stafford Beer wrote several books and articles:
Bibliography Stafford Beer
Cwarel Isaf Institute, Juli 2000.
* 1959, ''Cybernetics and Management'', English Universities Press.
* 1966, ''Decision and Control'', Wiley, London.
* 1968, ''Management Science: The business use of operations research'', Aldus Books, London, Doubleday, New York.
* 1972, ''Brain Of The Firm'', Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, London, Herder and Herder, USA.Translated into German, Italian, Swedish, French and Russian.
* 1974, ''Designing Freedom'', CBC Learning Systems, Toronto, 1974; and John Wiley, London and New York, 1975. Translated into Spanish and Japanese.
* 1975, ''Platform for Change'', John Wiley, London and New York. Reprinted with corrections 1978.
* 1977, ''Transit''; Poems, CWRW Press, Wales. Limited Edition, Private Circulation.
* 1979, ''The Heart of Enterprise'', John Wiley, London and New York. Reprinted with corrections 1988.
* 1981, ''Brain of the Firm''; Second Edition (much extended), John Wiley, London and New York. Reprinted 1986, 1988. Translated into Russian.
* 1983, ''Transit''; Poems, Second edition (much extended). With audio cassettes: Transit – Selected Readings, and one Person Metagame; Mitchell Communications, Publisher, 2693 Route 845, Carters Point, NB, Canada, E5S 1S2.
* 1985, ''Diagnosing the System for Organizations''; John Wiley, London and New York. Translated into Italian and Japanese. Reprinted 1988, 1990, 1991.
* 1986, ''Pebbles to Computer'': The Thread; (with Hans Blohm
Hans-Ludwig Blohm (November 12, 1927 – December 4, 2021) was a German-born Canadian photographer and author. Over three decades, he criss-crossed the Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska, capturing images and stories of the Inuit. He drove 16 t ...
), Oxford University Press, Toronto.
* 1994, ''Beyond Dispute: The Invention of Team Syntegrity''; John Wiley, Chichester.
;Audio
* 1973, Stafford Beer
"Designing Freedom"
The 1973 Massey Lectures RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL TRANSCRIPTION: E1121 "The Real Threat to all We Most Dear",E1122 "The Disregarded Tools of Modern Man",E1123, "A Liberty Machine in Prototype" E1124, "Science in The Service of Man" 1h 53:30.
* 1990, Stafford Beer
"Forty Years of Cybernetics"
Gordon Hyde Memorial Lecture at the Cybernetics Society The Cybernetics Society is a UK-based learned society that exists to promote the understanding of Cybernetics. The core activity of the Cybernetics Society is the organization and facilitation of scientific meetings, conferences, and social events. ...
in London, January 1990 (audio file: 1hr 27mins).
;Video
* 1990, Stafford Beer, Stafford Beer at Monterrey Tec, March 1990 illustrated by Javier Livas
;About Stafford Beer
* 1994, Harnden, R and Leonard, A. (Eds.), ''How Many Grapes Went into the Wine: Stafford Beer on the Art and Science of Holisitic Management''; John Wiley, Chichester.
* 2002, Rosemary Bechler and Rob Passmore, ''"Stafford Beer: the man who could have run the world"'', openDemocracy
openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage de ...
, 7 November 2002
* 2003, Whittaker, David, ''Stafford Beer: A Personal Memoir''; (Includes an interview with Brian Eno) Wavestone Press, Charlbury
* 2004, "Ten pints of Beer: The rationale of Stafford Beer's cybernetic books (1959‐94)",
Kybernetes
', Vol. 33 No. 3/4, pp. 828–842.
https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920410523724
* 2006, Jonathan Rosenhead, "IFORS' Operational Research Hall of Fame Stafford Beer", in '' International Transactions in Operational Research'' Vol 13, nr.6, pp. 577–581.
* 2009, Whittaker, David, (Ed.) ''Think Before you Think: Social Complexity and Knowledge of Knowing''; (Selected writings of Stafford Beer with life chronology), Foreword by Brian Eno, Wavestone Press, Charlbury
References
Further reading
*
External links
Stafford Beer papers held at Liverpool John Moores University
Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende’s Chile
*
Biography of Anthony Stafford Beer
from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
;Organizations
The Metaphorum Group – Developing Stafford Beer's Legacy in Management Cybernetics
Systems & Cybernetics in Organisations (SCiO) – "focus on practice and members support activities." accessed 3 July 2009
Introduction to the Viable Systems Model and use in Cooperatives
Web site of the cybersyn project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beer, Stafford
1926 births
2002 deaths
Alumni of University College London
Cyberneticists
Management & Organization scholars
People educated at Whitgift School
British operations researchers
Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester
British consultants
British Army personnel of World War II
Royal Artillery soldiers
Royal Fusiliers officers
Indian Army personnel of World War II
Royal Gurkha Rifles officers
Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences