I heard this story in a podcast last summer and was moved. It’s a 3-minute sound clip and needs some context …
Here, Dee Hock (91 years old this year) speaks about a moment in 1970, Dee was a 41-year-old bank manager at The National Bank of Commerce and had experimented with self-organisation and was now trying to form a new form of collaborative organisation between banks for a credit card – one that would become VISA, the largest commercial enterprise on earth at some point.
When the story begins, Dee has just asked his boss, the bank’s President Max Carlson, to be allowed to work for the experimental project on the bank’s expense, as it had no legal entity or budget of its own – to which Carlson agreed. Dee needed, however, additional aid …
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The whole story is found in a fascinating 7-part interview on the podcast “The Innovation Show” with Aidan McCullen: – “Dee Hock, VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organisation”