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Complexity is a good thing! It provides the interconnectedness and diversity which are essential to innovation, agility and success in a fast-changing and dynamic world.
At Claremont, embracing complexity underpins everything we do. Established in 1994 by Dr Jean Boulton, Claremont Management Consultants has gained a reputation for tackling the impossible and doing it well. Clients tell us we are innovative, integrative, inspiring, authentic and challenging.
Our work spans the areas of strategy, people development and change; we combine these themes as needed to get to the heart of the problem and make a difference. We tend to get involved with projects when they are still a twinkle in the client's eye. We can then help to create an approach which really fits the issue and the context.
No project is too big or too small! Projects range from large-scale change programmes through to one-off strategy or coaching sessions.
Our client base is as diverse as we are and includes banks, charities, construction, telecommunications and publishing. Speaking of complexity, we're even prepared to dally with the health sector!
The recent conference, 'Complexity Applied', held in Cambridge on September 23rd and sponsored by the Institute of Physics, was a great success. Attended by 50 people spanning physics, engineering, social sciences and focusing on climate change, economics, as well as theory and concepts. The focus of the conference was:
Complexity theory developed, in the early part of the 20th century, out of early systems thinking, non-equilibrium thermodynamics and evolutionary theory. It has been embraced by a wide range of disciplines - physics, biology, earth sciences and economics, strategy development, urban planning and climate modelling to name but a view. But is there one theory or many? Are some of these applications more metaphorical than scientific? Is complexity primarily a worldview/ontology or a methodology? Can we deepen our knowledge by sharing views across disciplines?
A short paper, 'Complexity and the Social Sciences', pertinent to the conference, can be downloaded here. Slides of the presentation by Professor Peter Allen can be found here and slides by the economist Eric Beinhocker can also be found here.
Jean and Professor Peter Allen are currently writing 'Embracing Complexity', a book designed to make complexity understandable and relevant to businesses, policy-makers and those concerned about how to engage with the big questions of today’s world. For more information click on the Complexity section.
Jean regularly lectures on strategy, organisation development and how to save the world in the context of complexity, crisis, fast and radical change. Slides from a recent workshop at the LSE, entitled Complexity, Policy and Climate Change, can be downloaded here.
Slides from one of the sessions given to students on the MSc in Responsible Business Practice at the University of Bath in 2007 can be downloaded by clicking here.
Jean became Chair of Sustain (www.sustain.co.uk) in September 2009. Sustain works to help organisations to manage carbon and become more energy efficient.
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