The genesis of the effort was found in a unique point in our history.  Sweeping political, economic, social and especially technological transformations have created a fundamentally new era of business characterized by unprecedented complexity and rapid change during the 1990s. These sweeping changes have produced startling setbacks for what have been some of the world's most successful companies, and at the same time brought great opportunity for new types of organizations. 

The Initiative ended with a summary conference in December 1999, on the eve of the 21st Century. At this conference, the findings of the six-year effort were presented along with a manifesto for what we propose as an important way of thinking about the organizations of the next century. The research begun in this initiative is now continuing in a variety of other places at MIT, including the Center for eBusiness and the Center for Coordination Science.

In 2003, the major results of the Initiative were published in a book with the same name: Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century. 

This web site provides an overview of the Initiative, its faculty, and its research.  

Professor Thomas Malone and Professor Michael Scott Morton

1999 Summary Conference:  Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century was held in November 1999.

21C Paper

What do we really want?  A manifesto for the organizations of the 21st Century

Centers Involved

• Center for Coordination Science
• Center for Information Systems Research
• Center for eBusiness@MIT

Sponsors:

• AMP, Inc.
• British Telecommunications (BT)
• EDS/A.T. Kearney
• Eli Lilly and Co.
• LG Electronics, Inc.
• McKinsey & Co.
• National Westminster Bank
• Siemens Private Communication Systems
• Siemens-Nixdorf
• Union Bank of Switzerland

Norwegian Business Consortium


Members include: 

Norsk Hydro ASA
Norwegian Confederation of Business and Industry
Telenor
Norwegian School of Management

The mailing address is: Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, NE20-336, Cambridge, MA 02139.