Brain of the Firm

Beer's exposition of the Viable System Model, his framework for describing the structures an organisation requires in order to remain viable in a changing environment. The model is set out by analogy with the human nervous system, in five recursive subsystems.

The second edition adds material on Project Cybersyn, in which Beer applied the model to the Chilean economy, making the book a participant account of that project as well as a statement of the theory.

Later commentators, including Raul Espejo, have argued that Beer's presentation conveyed a degree of oversight the system's instrumentation did not support.

Primary source for Project Cybersyn.