Library Book
Brain of the Firm
Stafford Beer's 1972 book introducing the Viable System Model, mapping organizational structure onto the human nervous system.
Published by Herder and Herder in 1972, Stafford Beer’s Brain of the Firm introduced the Viable System Model, an account of organizational structure built by analogy to the human nervous system’s own layered, self-regulating control of a body. Written for a managerial audience, it effectively founded management cybernetics as an applied discipline and underpinned Beer’s own subsequent work, including Project Cybersyn.