Think of a company as a living creature, not a legal device ...And now, try changing the way it does business! The 'biology of business' is the subject of this startlingly original book, Shifting the Patterns. 'Management Studies' at the deepest level, it draws together Chaos and Complexity theories to show how companies evolve and organise in very similar ways to living organisms, and how this knowledge can enable managers to transform their performance. Resistance to change, argue the authors, is buried deep in the company's genes, or 'memes': the basic building blocks of behaviour. These set the pattern, not only for the way the company itself develops, but for the hidden 'rules' which managers and employees break at their peril - and for the ways individuals think and react. However, no living organism can resist the forces of evolution. Outside the factory gates, the patterns are ominously shifting ...