I can’t take credit for first publishing this, but you’ll have to take my word that I came to a similar conclusion as this fellow on my own.
He said it very nicely though.
An organization that maximizes return on investment, builds up the world’s most
recognizable brand name overnight, creates synergy between PR message and HR
recruiting, attracts motivated loyal employees who make the ultimate sacrifice to extend
the mission into new markets and keeps expanding despite the world’s most hostile
environment is every manager’s dream. One manager turned this dream into a reality:
Osama bin Laden.
– Hans van der WeijdenFrom: 1 Hans Van Der Weijden, “Al-Qaida, The Business Model.” Interface, February 2005, p. 14, 15.
<http://www.sviib.nl/interface/magazine/pdf/21_3_alquada.pdf>.
The same policy paper I found this made reference to the fct that when many terrorists are in custody and asked if tehy belong to Al_Qaeda, they are not sure (!). This seems like a good data point for how it is much more of a social movement or even Caastellsian network organization as opposed to a normal, bounded organization than common perception would suggest.
orgtheory.net
