Centralised Or Decentralised

Exploring the capacity and impact of decentralization within European health care systems, this book examines both the theoretical underpinnings as well as practical experience with decentralization.

"After five years of groundbreaking research, Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom share some gripping stories. The Starfish and the Spider argues that organizations fall into two categories: traditional "spiders," which have a rigid hierarchy and top-down leadership, and revolutionary "starfish," which rely on the power of peer relationships. This book explores what happens when starfish take on spiders (such as the music industry vs. Napster, Kazaa, and the P2P services that followed). It reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the U.S. government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success."--BOOK JACKET.

Design has become the key link between users and today’s complex and rapidly evolving digital experiences, and designers are starting to be included in strategic conversations about the products and services that enterprises ultimately deliver. This has led to companies building in-house digital/experience design teams at unprecedented rates, but many of them don’t understand how to get the most out of their investment. This practical guide provides guidelines for creating and leading design teams within your organization, and explores ways to use design as part of broader strategic planning. You’ll discover: Why design’s role has evolved in the digital age How to infuse design into every product and service experience The 12 qualities of effective design organizations How to structure your design team through a Centralized Partnership Design team roles and evolution The process of recruiting and hiring designers How to manage your design team and promote professional growth

This study considers a decentralized economic policy and to what extent a centralization of economic policy would seem justified on a national and international level.

The authors of this book, who represent a broad range of scientific disciplines, discuss the issue of centralized versus decentralized control and regulation in the context of sustainable development. The stability and resilience of complex technical, economic, societal and political systems are commonly assumed to be highly dependent on the effectiveness of sophisticated, mainly centralized regulation and control systems and governance structures, respectively. In nature, however, life is mainly self-regulated by widespread, mainly DNA-encoded control mechanisms. The fact that life has endured for more than 2.4 billion years suggests that, for man-made systems, decentralized control concepts are superior to centralized ones. The authors discuss benefits and drawbacks of both approaches to achieving sustainability, providing valuable information for students and professional decision makers alike.

The First Conference on the History of Nordic Computing (HiNC1) was organized in Trondheim, in June 2003. The HiNC1 event focused on the early years of computing, that is the years from the 1940s through the 1960s, although it formally extended to year 1985. In the preface of the proceedings of HiNC1, Janis Bubenko, Jr. , John Impagliazzo, and Arne Sølvberg describe well the peculiarities of early Nordic c- puting [1]. While developing hardware was a necessity for the first professionals, quite soon the computer became an industrial product. Computer scientists, among others, grew increasingly interested in programming and application software. P- gress in these areas from the 1960s to the 1980s was experienced as astonishing. The developments during these decades were taken as the focus of HiNC2. During those decades computers arrived to every branch of large and medium-sized businesses and the users of the computer systems were no longer only computer s- cialists but also people with other main duties. Compared to the early years of comp- ing before 1960, where the number of computer projects and applications was small, capturing a holistic view of the history between the 1960s and the 1980s is conside- bly more difficult. The HiNC2 conference attempted to help in this endeavor.

The Air Force's master tenet of centralized control, decentralized execution is in danger of becoming dogma. Airmen have difficulty communicating the meaning of this phrase in a joint setting. This is partially due to our limited understanding of its history and the imprecise meaning of the words involved. Furthermore, the irregular conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (and the ongoing service debates in the Pacific) have demonstrated the need for a deeper understanding of this master tenet to advocate effectively for airpower solutions. We must get this right, as it is critical to maximizing airpower's potential. Getting it right, however, requires moving beyond sound bites and bumper stickers.

The energy system is undergoing a fundamental transformation – from fossil to renewable energy, from central power plants to distributed, decentralised generation facilities such as rooftop solar panels or wind parks, from utilities to private residents as producers of energy, and from analogue to digital. This book looks at the energy transformation from two complementary angles: governance and business model innovation. On the one side, governance is a decisive factor for the success of the transformation because it can act as an accelerator, or it can delay the process. On the other side, entrepreneurs and corporate decision-makers provide new business models for a decentralised energy world. Based on best practices, country studies and interviews with CEOs and founders of startups from all over the world, the “Global Game Changer” suggests eight key principles for political decision-makers to successfully implement the transformation, and six core competencies for corporate decision-makers to thrive in the new marketplace.