It has been said that Stafford Beer was 50 years ahead of his time. In this webinar Steve Morlidge will reflect on the relevance of the VSM from the perspective of someone dedicated to helping finance practitioners half a century distant after the first edition of Brain of The Firm was published.
VSM in 2020 – more relevant than ever
November 4, 2020
Content
Dr. Steve Morlidge

Steve Morlidge has 30 years of practical experience in designing and running performance management systems in Unilever, including three years as the lead of a global change project. He is a former chairman of the European Beyond Budgeting Round Table and now works as a management thinker, writer and speaker, drawing on his years of experience at the leading edge of performance management thought and practice. Steve Morlidge published Future Ready: How to Master Business Forecasting, John Wiley, 2010, ‘The Little Book of Beyond Budgeting’ and ‘The Little Book of Operational Forecasting’ through Matador in 2017 and 2018 respectively. His latest book ‘Present Sense: A practical guide to the science of measuring performance and the art of communicating it, with the brain in mind’ was published in November 2019.
He is on the editorial board of Foresight, a forecasting practitioner’s journal published by the International Institute of Forecasting to which he regularly contributes. He is also a cofounder of CatchBull, a supplier of forecasting performance management software and sits on the non-executive Board of the Beyond Budgeting Institute. Steve Morlidge is a visiting fellow at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, UK and has a PhD from Hull Business School in Yorkshire, UK focusing on the application of systems concepts to the design of complex organisations. He completed his BA with honours, and he is a qualified management accountant (CIMA).
He can be reached at steve.morlidge@satoripartners.co.uk or steve.morlidge@catchbull.com
Recent Webinars
02.04.2025
Wicked problem related to climate change adaptation in Venice and its Lagoon and bio-cybernetic principles to address it.
Dr. Christiane Gebhardt
The critical literature review provides a framework for understanding the nature of the wicked problem of the threat of Sea Level Rise arising at the nexus of society and nature. It shows the scope of action for climate change adaptation employing a tentative governance model derived from synthesising literature.
05.03.2025
Exploring a critical organisational praxis – invoking cybernetic thinking, indigenous knowledge and decolonisation
Sujay Dinnalli & Ushma Desai
As India is poised to become the third largest economy, there is a pressing need to look at the state of organisations and people within them. That this constitutes a critical enquiry is evidenced from the low percentage of organised sector workers in the country’s workforce, the dearth of industrial innovation, and other alarming socio-economic indicators. Social research in organisations has looked at the cultural intricacies within organisations, and the challenges hence produced.
05.02.2025
Cybernetics and education: architecture for freedom
Prof. José dos Santos Cabral Filho
This talk will explore the intersection of cybernetics and education, with a specific focus on architectural education.