From: ant.mcwatt@ntlworld.com
Date: Sat Jul 03 2004 - 02:27:49 BST
Platt requested July 1st 2004:
Other than the reference above, I couldn't find anything on the web (using
Google search) about Paradigm Research or Dr. Robert Harris other than
Harris has a PhD in physics. Do you have, or can you lead me to, further
information about Harris and his organization?
Ant McWatt comments:
I’ve just found this 1998 e-mail from Dr Harris which should throw some further light on his thinking and his company, Paradigm Research. As far as I know (I was last in contact with Harris last November) he is still engaged in the same business area (and still likes to play golf!):
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January 16, 1998
Hi Anthony,
Pasted in below is a letter I just sent to you by snail mail along with a
packet of material I have been meaning to send to you. It is on its way as a
late MOQ Christmas Pudding. Let me know if it doesn't arrive for some reason.
Hope you had a happy holiday season, and are optimistic about the new year.
Robert.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 16, 1998
Dear Anthony,
I am sending you eight items of information related to my MOQ adventure.
The first two items are two recent papers--one on British Petroleum's Business
Strategy which I talked about earlier (press proof copy enclosed) and the
second is a related paper on the Living Company and its evolution. I am
integrating the Value-Based business model with the Living Company concept in
a book I am writing. Although not said explicitly in the BP article, the
"Value" in the business model is rooted in Dynamic Value--the creator of All.
The next two papers are the first ones I wrote and presented upon reading
"Lila" back in 1991. The first paper--"Zen and the Art of Employee
Ownership"--was written and submitted before I read Lila and the
second,--"Patterns of Employee Ownership"-- which refers to the first, was
what was actually presented, including the slides I used given at the end of
the paper. I sent these two articles to Pirsig at the urging of my love,
Nancy, (who later became my wife) and he sent back the enclosed letter which
commented on the content of my MOQ paper and stated it was the first
application of the MOQ he had seen. I was so pumped that I proceeded to
change my company's name to Paradigm Research because I thought that the MOQ
represented a real paradigm shift of Copernican Dimensions. These two
articles and Pirsig's letter make five items.
I am preparing an article for the Atlantic Monthly that has to do with
changing global values in response to some of George Soros' writings and
speeches on how the world is destabilizing because of the lack of value-based
forces in the world-wide adoption of capitalism. Sound familiar? What is
interesting about Soros is that he is a billionaire financier and
philanthropist who founded the Open Society Foundation to help (read, "invest
in") emerging economies around the world, most notably Russia. He is one of
the very few world business leaders who is well read in philosophy, science
and literature. His two articles which were published in the Atlantic Monthly
in February 1997 and January 1998, are included as items six and seven. Note
the references to philosophers and other thinkers to help shape his arguments.
Finally, I just returned from a very successful speech which I gave at the
year-end meeting for one of my clients, Science Applications International
Corporation in La Jolla, California--a $4 billion employee-owned private
company. I have enclosed the briefing material with the understanding that
you will hold it in the strictest confidence because it is both client
confidential regarding my conclusions and personally confidential because it
contains my intellectual product that I make my living at and am writing
about. This is item eight. I send it so you can see how I am weaving the
idea of "value" into major issues of business.
To me, growing importance of "value" in our society seems almost inevitable. I
am mainly using this material now to promote my idea of a Sustainable Growth
Business Model, which is sketched out in the briefing. The heart of this model
is that it is Value Driven. The only way I know for a business to enjoy
sustainable growth is to put more value in than it takes out. But to be a
business it must also take out more money than it puts in. This situation
sets up a natural conflict that must be constantly addressed. Soros writings
and speeches are part of addressing this conflict, in my opinion, as is your
thesis.
I appreciate any comments or feedback you might have on all this material.
You should get it in about a week to ten days.
-----------------------------------------
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