Issue № 48. February 2015

Business as a System

Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: purlik@post.ru

The article gives the interpretation of ideas about system as a concept and a business as a system. The systemically important factor is highlighted. It is shown that the stability of replicating instability is the law of the system evolution. The crisis is seen as a loss of sustainability of the system, i. e., its ability to retain the parameters that reflect the health of the business, within the normal range, in violation of the conditions of the system functioning. The basic causes leading to the loss of company stability are identified. Both negative and positive impacts of the crisis on the subsequent functioning of a system are explored. The key factors that determine the capabilities of a company as a system (resources, processes, priorities) are identified and examined. The evidence of practical importance of the «theory of opportunities» proposed by K. Kristensen in determining the appropriateness of outsourcing performers for company is provided.

Keywords

System, system approach, system sustainability, structure, differentiation, business unit, entropy, fluctuation bifurcation point, chaos, diagnosis, crisis, resources, processes, priorities, outsourcing.