Belbin sees Bioteams as the next step. Dr R Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of "team-role" theory and one of the worlds foremost experts on teams predicts that we will evolve into bioteam forms. In his book "The Coming Shape of Organisation" Belbin picks out five observations human teams need to learn from "a diminutive masterclass" of social insects such as bees, ants and termites.

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They sound neat in theory but do self-managed teams (SMTs) actually work. In, Trust People and They'll Surprise You, Jeremy Zawodny describes a couple of real examples including a jet engine plant and SouthWest Airlines. Another good example of an SMT is Capital One Bank.

An Environmental Technology VEN

This article links to a detailed case study of a Virtual Enterprise Network (VEN) operating on a cross-border basis between small-to-medium businesses in Ireland with the specific objective to strengthen their ability to compete on a global commercial stage.

In the US there has been a movement within large contractors in the defence and advanced engineering sectors (e.g. automobile and aerospace) to develop more agile supply chains by working differently with their suppliers. One of the leading proponents of this approach is Ted Goransen (and author of the book “The Agile Virtual Enterprise”)