Organizational Obstacles to Innovation: A Formulation of the Problem

A large corporation is a complex social system that seems to take on a life of its own quite apart from the purpose for which it is intended. When one of the purposes of the organization is innovation, the social system can produce obstacles that are not easy to overcome. In this article, Professor Volney Stefflre provides a refreshing look at the problems of keeping an organization innovative enough so that it can survive and thrive in a changing environment. Professor Stefflre's view is an unusual and creative one. It comes partly from his many years of working with a variety of manufacturers as they attempted to adapt to their changing environments through innovation. It also comes from his background in psycho-linguistics—the area, he says, where psychology and anthropology meet. It may not be surprising then that his article includes a brief look at empires and civilizations as part of the support for his thesis. This article is adapted from one of the chapters of Professor Stefflre's new book: Developing and Implementing Marketing Strategies . New York: Praeger Publishers Inc., 1985.     

Long-term forecasting and the problem of large-scale wars

This article considers the relation between the world population in successive 30-year periods from 1815 and the number and proportion of that population killed in large-scale wars during that time. Estimates for the period 1966–1995, and 1996–2025 are considered which suggest rather a more pessimistic future for our planet than is found in the typical surprise-free extrapolations which dominate long-term forecasting literature.