Elephants and Cheetahs: The Beauty of Operations

Do systems have souls? This book, based on a popular elective at IIM Ahmedabad, examines the hard trade-offs inherent in the design of operating systems and business models to look for answers. It encourages business leaders to ask two different sets of existential questions: does the organization that I am managing have a soul, and if so, what are the strategic choices that enable its synthesis (external orientation) and, do I have a soul and if so who am I (internal orientation)? In the process, it uncovers a beauty inherent in patterns of strategic choices that enables an organizational soul to emerge and an appreciation of the diversity of such souls.